WNW: Hopefully Unthawing

Today's WNW is one of those fun ones where we look at commonly misused words submitted by my trusty readers.

Hopefully
This one is so chronically misused that it's pretty much taken on the wrong definition in casual conversation. That said, I'd be hesitant to use it that way in professional writing.

Hopefully is an adverb, similar to slowly, happily, and randomly.

In other words, it's the manner in which something is done. Correct usage would be something like this:

Sarah looked up at her father hopefully as she handed him her birthday wish list.

But of course, we usually see things like:

Hopefully, we won't be late.

From a grammatical standpoint, that doesn't make much sense. No one is doing anything in a hopeful manner; the person speaking is merely wishing, hoping. But we aren't told how or in what manner they are hoping. So an adverb doesn't work there, but we use it that way in speech all the time.

(Picture another adverb there instead: Tenderly, we won't be late. Sure . . . that makes sense . . .)

To be honest, I'm sure I've used it "wrong" a lot in conversation myself. But you won't find hopefully used in any way but as an adverb in my novels or articles.

Because I'm a control freak like that.

Concord/Concur
This submission confused me at first. Why would anyone mix them up? But when I thought about them a little longer, I realized that I have heard the two words mixed up myself, someone using concord when they mean concur:

Since we all concord, let's make the new rule official.

Not quite. I'm guessing the confusion is made by accidentally smooshing concur and accord into a single word.

Try concur: all acting or agreeing together.

Since we all concur, let's make the new rule official.

Champing/chomping at the bit
I learned a lesson on this one. I was so sure that champing at the bit was wrong and that chomping on the bit was correct.

To make my point, I looked up champing in my favorite online dictionary (m-w.com), and lo and behold, both words are used interchangeably with that very same phrase.

They're even linked together in the dictionary as alternatives.

So here's the interesting part: the OED doesn't list champing as a modern term. It was used with the same kind of definition ("chewing with vigorous action") until about 1880. But it doesn't even include chomping at all. Chomp is there as a modern term and "a widespread variant of champ."

Even though chomping on the bit sounds more natural to my ear (and, I'm guessing, to most modern ears), apparently it's a much more recent development in the language than champing on the bit, by a couple of hundred years.

Who knew? I sure didn't.

Thaw/Unthaw

I must admit, I do giggle a bit when I hear unthaw.

The prefix UN- reverses something or states that an item or condition is NOT something, right?

Like UNdo (reverse the doing), UNwind (reverse the winding), UNsteady (something is NOT steady), or UNstirred (the batter or whatever is NOT stirred).

So what are you saying when you plan to UNTHAW something? Make it NOT thawed? So . . . you plan to FREEZE it? That would be reversing the thawing process, right? (Hence, my giggles.)

Prior to my digging this time, I'd thought that unthaw was a recent invention. Turns out that the first use of it was around 1598. (That's when Shakespeare was alive!).

But here's the clincher: it hasn't been considered standard usage since 1895 (more than a century ago!).

So I was right in that it's not considered correct, but I was wrong as to when it was first introduced into the language.

Considering that old Bill's family didn't even have freezers and refrigeration, I'm having a hard time figuring out why they'd use the word in the first place except in spring when the ponds would unthaw . . .

(Giggle. They'd technically "unthaw" around, oh Christmas, right?)