To have misunderstood the meaning of this word my whole life?

[Lemonsaretheonlyfruit]

Salubrious.

I always thought it meant luxurious. Turns out it means healthy or health giving. (My 10 year old DS asked me this morning so I looked it up just to double check I was giving him the correct definition!)

Who knew? (Probably everyone apart from me). Any more of these to share?

bā-ˈnal; ˈbā-nᵊl - BAY-nul (like anal)
bə-ˈnal - buh-NAL (like canal)
ba-, -ˈnäl - buh-NAHL (like snarl)

Though you do need to make slight allowances to people's accents might pronounce the words in brackets differently.

I think the last one and the middle one are similar - just different in the length of the a (like is heard in bath, grass etc)

Naturally, there is bound to be people who simply won't accept anything other than there way and correct

It's a phonetic rendering of a long a sound in a non-rhotic accent.

It's not phonic in a rhotic accent though.

And according to the Oxford English Dictionary, flammable and inflammable are synonyms

@CheesyWeez

Like KiposWonderbeasts I would also like to know how "mortified" can be misused. I have only ever heard it meaning horribly embarrassed...

People use it to mean very upset, or even afraid.

@BlueBirdGreenFence

I only discovered last year banal doesn't ryhme with canal .

This is why I stopped listening to audio books. Couldn't cope with the embarrassment of how many words I've been pronouncing wrong for years.

This made me lol! Thanks

Fulsome is one which just has less used meanings. Here is the first offering from the OED for fulsome:
A. adj.
1.a. Characterized by being full of some commodity or material; abundant, plentiful; providing a copious supply, rich; (in later use also) complete, comprehensive.
In quot. 1633: growing abundantly.
Revived in the 19th century.

Oh, Candleabra (which I definitely did not read as "Candle bra" at first) got there before me

@XingMing

steppemum, forgive me for pointing out that naval gazing is something an admiral might do when considering warships, but contemplating your inner thought processes is navel-gazing.

My internal pedant cannot resist correcting your error.

Oh my goodness! Didn't even notice my error.

I am mortified.

(oh no, wait, I'm not) doesn't mortified literally mean turned to stone? (or is that petrified?)

I would use it to mean embarrassed, but absolutely never to mean upset. In fatc that is interesting isn't it, if I was mortified by my father's death to me it means I was embarrassed by it, which is quite quite different. I think that is definitely regional though

@CountFosco

It's a phonetic rendering of a long a sound in a non-rhotic accent.

It's not phonic in a rhotic accent though.

no you are right, which is why on these threads I would not use ar to mean a long a, because it causes confusion, but for many people they write it that way as it is phonetic for them, and may never have considered that it is not true for all.

Like the person up thread who couldn't see that drawers and draws are the same in some accent

here is my google result for fulsome praise.

Even though full is usually a positive word, fulsome has pejorative connotations in phrases like fulsome praise, where it is usually taken to mean “effusive, excessive, or insincere praise.” A phrase like a fulsome apology is likely to be ambiguous if what is intended is “a complete apology.”

One of my friends always says when describing someone laughing uncontrollably "They were in cahoots! " Seems a bit mean to tell her that phrase isn't right, so she still says it......

It took me a frighteningly long time to remember how banal is actually said ... I have definitely got it wrong during my life!

Who knows what 'solipsistic' means? Not I...

Surely it's petrified that means turned to stone; not mortified?

We have a Salubrious Passage locally. Always brings a smile.

Vanguard, meaning at the front of, got me for a long time. As in '[This company] are in the vanguard of software development'.

I mean, on a train, the guard's van is at the back - innit??!!

But it comes from military terminology and is the first/front part of the advance. I know that now, but when I hear the word for that first split second I still get it wrong.

Salubrious is often used sarcastically. Which helps to confuse. See also sartorial.

As in someone who is badly/scruffily dressed is sarcastically described as "the height of sartorial elegance"

@tobee

Salubrious is often used sarcastically. Which helps to confuse. See also sartorial.

Ah yes good one. She was at the cutting edge of sartorial elegance..... I always imagine one of the Mitford sisters talking bitchily like that.

@stovetopespresso

Who knows what 'solipsistic' means? Not I...

Solipsism comes from philosophy, and is the idea that the only thing you can be absolutely certain of is your own existence. Everything else around you may be an illusion whose existence you cannot verify.

However...because of its focus on the self as the centre of being, solipsistic is now used to mean self centred, selfish, egotistic etc.

Regarding spendthrift and thrifty, it can be helpful to think of a spendthrift as someone who spends their thrift or their savings, whereas a thrifty person um, thrifts it, iyswim. That sounded a lot better in my head .

I think 'condone' sounds like it should have the opposite meaning. 'Eschew' sounds and looks wrong, and mercurial and sartorial don't sound like what they mean in my opinion.

I thought @stovetopespresso was being witty

Akimbo. It doesn't mean in a state of disarray, as many people seem to think. It means standing with elbows out and hands on hips.

@NutsaboutFruit

Akimbo. It doesn't mean in a state of disarray, as many people seem to think. It means standing with elbows out and hands on hips.

I can only think of the legs akimbo theatre company

My bad