Word Confusion: Pellet versus Pelt

Posted December 21, 2021 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Oh lordy, I couldn’t help but crack up when I read a review about a blanket: “if you’ve ever dreamed of sleeping in the pellets of 50 rabbits”.

Nope. No. Definitely not. The pelts maybe . . . but not rabbit poop.

So, a pellet is a small object — an apple, a shotgun pellet, a raindrop, a baseball, a ball of excrement, a compressed bit of food, etc., as a noun or formed or hit something as a verb.

A pelt is also a noun and a verb, but is defined as the hair of an animal or person or someone/something moving (or throwing something) quickly.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.

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Pellet	Pelt
Wood Pellets by я and uploaded by Yuliya plehanova is under the CC0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.	Greyhound Pelts Across the Dirt is under the CC0 license, via PxHere.
Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, transitive Plural for the noun and third person present verb: pellets Past tense or past participle: pelleted Gerund or present participle: pelleting	Noun ¹, ²; Verb ¹, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun and third person present verb: pelts Past tense or past participle: pelted Gerund or present participle: pelting
Noun: A small, rounded, compressed mass of a substance A piece of small shot or other lightweight bullet A small mass of bones and feathers regurgitated by a bird of prey or other bird A small round piece of animal feces, especially from a rabbit or rodent Verb, transitive: Form or shape (a substance, especially animal food) into a small, rounded, compressed mass of a substance Hit with or as though with the small, rounded, compressed mass of a substance	Noun: [Archaic] An act of hurling something at someone ¹ The skin of an animal with the fur, wool, or hair still on it ² An animal’s coat of fur or hair The raw skin of a sheep or goat, stripped and ready for tanning [Informal] A person’s hair Verb, intransitive: [Of rain, hail, or snow; pelt down] Fall quickly and very heavily [Informal] Run somewhere very quickly Verb, transitive: Attack (someone) by repeatedly hurling things at them Repeatedly hurl (something) at someone or something
Examples:
Noun: I can feed them fish food pellets. He had also been struck by a number of shotgun pellets. She had a baggie full of owl pellets. The droppings are rabbit pellets. Verb, transitive: The business made its name pelleting sugar beet seed. They were pelleted forms of fertilizer. The last drops of rain were pelleting the windshield.	Noun: I ran downstairs at full pelt. People don’t realize what it sounds like when you’re singing full pelt. Traders brought reindeer pelts. The alsatians, their thick pelts soaked, sniffed around the trees. Barely up to my shoulder, pale tan pelt, strips of white leather hanging in loops from her hips, rust-red curlicues dyed in the fur of her chest. I kissed Gillie briefly on the cheek, and ruffled the pelt of Stuart. Verb, intransitive: The rain was pelting down. I pelted across the road. Then the rain came pelting down sending everyone running for the nearest bus shelter or shop doorway. Verb, transitive: Two little boys pelted him with rotten apples. He spotted four boys aged about ten pelting stones at ducks. The officers were being pelted with missiles and were in serious danger. “There have been a few occasions now when buses have been pelted with missiles and windows have been smashed,” he said.
Derivatives:
Adjective: pellet-like, pelleted Verb: pelletise [British], pelletize
History of the Word:
Late Middle English from the Old French pelote meaning metal ball, from a diminutive of the Latin pila meaning ball.	Late 15th century is of unknown origin. Middle English either from the obsolete pellet meaning skin, from an Old French diminutive of pel meaning skin, from the Latin pellis meaning skin, or a back-formation from peltry.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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