but wikipedia is my only source

eclectic is a word that does not mean what i thought it meant. i had heard of eclectic music, eclectic houses, eclectic clothing style, and based on what i had seen the synonyms for eclectic i made in my head were whimsical, random, bohemian (if i am using that right?) and maybe a hint of snobby.

eclectic really means "of varied sources" and comes from ancient philosophers who picked and chose tidbits from several different systems of philosophy. eclectic music may have jazz, rock, and pop influences (now i can understand cities97); eclectic houses may have victorian and tudor styles blended together.

i find my taste in food to be very eclectic. golden corral fits my eclectic needs :)

harbringer

this seems to be a rarer eggcorn, but one that i was guilty of.

a harbinger is someone or something that foreshadows someone or something that is to come (synonymous with an "omen"). i mistakenly thought there was another 'r' (i.e. "harbRinger"), assuming this object or person was literally "bringing har," and har was something ominous, to be sure :)

can't dampening cause damping?

this may only interest engineers, but a smart guy i work with pointed out to a crowd of technical folk a mistake many of them were likely making: damping is the process of dissipating kinetic energy while dampENing is the process of making something moist.

looks like star trek may have had it wrong.

but i did not shoot the superscript

www.therejectionist.com

a serif is a little tail added to the limbs of letters (example). knowing this explains why many fonts are referred to as "sans-serif" meaning, in latin, "without serifs."

font types with serifs are also commonly referred to as 'roman' fonts (e.g. times new roman) while sans-serif fonts are sometimes referred to as 'gothic' or 'grotesque' (e.g. century gothic or arial)

interesting tidbits - sans-serif fonts are typically used for headlines while serif fonts are used for body text because the serifs help guide eyes consistently across one line. however, the internet has made sans-serif body text much more common because serifs often rendered weirdly on low resolution or slow refresh rate screens.

for *most* intensive purposes

an important linguistic concept is the eggcorn. an eggcorn is a word or phrase that is incorrect but is rooted in plausible sounds or reasoning. "eggcorn" itself is a reference to the common mispronunciation of the word acorn - with no official name for this phenomenon, this example became eponymous.

causes of eggcorns can vary but commonly include folk etymology ("preying" mantis), hypercorrection ("languistics"), and accounting for obscure or archaic words ("baited breath" to replace "bated breath").

eggcorns are subtly different from malapropisms, which are seen as erroneous uses of words or phrases, usually with nonsensical or comical results, e.g. mishearing song lyrics (electric boobs), confusing idioms ("moo point"), misusing big words)

for a great collection of eggcorns check out the eggcorn database. dont look too closely though, as this is a good spot for post ideas ;-)