Pedants' corner: discreet and discrete are not interchangeable

[FuzzyPuffling]

Several times today on MN I have seen "discrete" being used instead of "discreet".

Different words, different meanings. Very irritating.

Yes.

I’ll be honest, I consider myself quite good with words - I write a lot in my job and have an English Literature degree. I had NO idea that these two meanings were spelt differently. You learn something new every day! Thank you for educating me.

Why?

@grumpygrape , because it fell out of use and because the American gotten doesn't quite mean the same as the British got.

Fairy nuff 😊

'Thanks' would have been sufficient, @grumpygrape .

Apologies, I thought it was in keeping with the thread.

Having done some research I think your point is fair enough, so thanks.

Does it? I thought it meant standalone or separate.

@UnintentionalArcher , I think that was another joke that didn't quite work.

The separation with the t is how I remember the spellings.

To lie (down) and to lay.

‘Discrete’ is probably used mostly by STEM types I’d have thought - e.g. discrete functions in maths, discrete energy levels in physics/chemistry.

Yes, this.

I don’t have an issue with us reclaiming “gotten” where the context justifies it - i.e. to emphasise the process of acquiring or becoming, rather than the more static sense of “has now acquired“ or “has now become”.

So “he’s gotten a lot taller over the last few years” feels like reasonable usage to me, it supports vs the sense of change over time. It also helps that the sound of the word itself has a certain flow to it that is lacking in “got” (which is presumably why it still gets used for “ill gotten gains”, as “ill got gains” sounds harsh and rather ugly).

Hmm, it wasn’t only in America that ‘gotten’ was retained. I’m Irish and it didn’t fall out of use in speech here. I’ve heard posters on other threads say it continued to be used in parts of Scotland and Northern England too.

I agree it’s used slightly differently to ‘got’. That’s the beauty of it — it allows more flexibility and nuance in speech.

I like the word "begotten" and am all in favour of bringing that back.

It strikes me as weird that people don't know the word but I'm from a STEM background. I think I would have been aware from the term from A-levels.

I think this is a tricky one because in US English “practice” is both the verb and the noun. We all read a lot of American stuff. English spelling is difficult, even for well-educated people.

Well, I did wonder for a moment or two.😌

That's the one for which I'm in trouble, having pointed out over there that there's a difference between the two.

It's not tricky and I do not read a lot of American stuff or find English spelling difficult. Not sure if I'm well-educated. I studied English at school to the age of 16. Education beyond that age was in STEM subjects. I read a lot and I often look up the meaning of words.

Practice is a noun, practise is a verb.
Advice is a noun, advise is a verb.
The meaning should tell you which one to use, e.g. vets practise in a vet's practice.

There’s a thread just now about someone telling someone they’d had a period leak and someone is complaining that she didn’t tell them discretely.
Discretely isn't totally wrong because she could have told her discretely and discreetly.
Telling her in front of everyone was insensitive.

Licence and license follow that 'rule'.

Is it a 'rule' ?

Thank you for this! I'm a fully paid up pedant but I can never get this fixed in my head

I can’t imagine anyone really using ‘discretely’ in that context though.
Whereas I’m sure I remember one of the commonest places to see the word ‘discreet’ would be on packs of period products.