Word Confusion: Disillusion versus Dissolution

Posted December 30, 2021 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

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A perfect end to the year with disillusion versus dissolution.

The disillusion comes when you realize this past year was not as good as you thought.

The dissolution fits right in with the year’s end, and you can make a fresh start in the New Year.

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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Disillusion	Dissolution
The Disillusioned Medea, ca. 1640, oil on canvas, by Paulus Boris is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons and courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.	Dissolution of Gold in Aqua Regia is Daniel Grohmann‘s work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
Part of Grammar:
Noun; Verb, transitive Plural for the noun and third person present verb: disillusions Past tense or past participle: disillusioned Gerund or present participle: disillusioning	Noun Plural: dissolutions
Noun: Disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be Verb, transitive: Cause (someone) to realize that a belief or an ideal is false	The closing down or dismissal of an assembly, partnership, or official body [Government] An order issued by the head of a state terminating a parliament and necessitating a new election Legal termination, especially of business activity, with the final distribution of assets, the fixing of liabilities, etc. Disintegration Decomposition [Chemistry] The process by which a solid, gas, or liquid is dispersed homogeneously in a gas, solid, or especially, a liquid [Archaic] Death Debauched living Dissipation
Examples:
Noun: Her enthusiasm soon turned into disillusion. In fact, we found it was all disillusion and discontent. If the participation mode is adopted, the farmers will be kept away from the disappointment or disillusion. Verb, transitive: If they think we have a magic formula to solve the problem, don’t disillusion them. We ordered our tickets, paid an early visit, and had a fairly disillusioning evening. And, after all, instead of disillusioning me it deeply attracted me.	The dissolution of their marriage made them friends. Henry VIII declared the abbey’s dissolution in 1540. These minerals are susceptible to dissolution. It was the dissolution of the flesh that was so disgusting. A psychoanalytic reading suggests that horror movies play on our individual nightmares, and specifically our fear of death and dissolution, which Freud called unheimlich or uncanny. Luxury and lavish living were seen as the causes, moral decay and dissolution as the consequences.
Derivatives:
Adjective: disillusioned, disillusive, undisillusioned Noun: disillusionment	Adjective: dissolutive, dissolve Noun: dissolve
History of the Word:
First recorded in 1590–1600, dis + illusion.	Late Middle English from the io(n-), from the verb dissolvere, from dis- (apart) + solvere (loosen or solve).

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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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