Thursday, July 29, 2004

Hoard vs. horde

A word I've seen used incorrectly a couple of times lately:

A horde is a teeming crowd or thong, a swarm, a horde of people. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English says the term is pejorative: "A horde of this sort is probably dangerous."

A hoard is a supply or fund stored up and often hidden away, a stash, a hoard of Halloween candy. It can also be a verb, to keep (as one's thoughts) to oneself, he liked to hoard his money.

Whored just doesn't come up too often in my work.



2 Comments:

At 6:25 PM, July 29, 2004, Blogger Bill said...

A hoard is sort of like a cache. As opposed to cachet ...

 
At 12:57 PM, May 13, 2010, Blogger R. Garrett Wilson said...

I have occasionally had slips with "hoard" and "horde" - not so much with the other homonym.

 

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