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esoteric, exoteric endogen, exogen vertebrate, invertebrate catalectic, acatalectic <Words Often Confused> Pairs of the second type are made up of words which are often confused by careless writers and speakers, and which should be accurately discriminated. Sometimes the words are actually akin to each other. _Continuous- continual_ and _enormity-enormousness_ are examples. Sometimes they merely look or sound much alike. _Mean-demean_ and _affect- effect_ are examples. Sometimes the things they designate are more or less related, so that the ideas behind the words rather than the words themselves are responsible for the confusion. _Contagious-infectious_ and _knowledge-wisdom_ are examples. Let us distinguish between the two members of each of the pairs named. A thing is _continuous_ if it suffers no interruption whatever, _continual_ if it is broken at regular intervals but as regularly renewed. Thus "a continuous stretch of forest"; "the continual drip of water from the eaves." _Enormity_ pertains to the moral and sometimes the social, _enormousness_ to the physical. Thus "the enormity of the crime," "the enormity of this social offense"; "the enormousness of prehistoric animals." _Demean_ is often used reproachfully because of its supposed relation to _mean_. But it has nothing to do with _mean_. The word with which to connect it is _demeanor_ (conduct). Thus "We observed how he demeaned himself" implies no adverse criticism of either the man or his deportment. Both may be debased to be sure, but they may be exemplary. To _affect_ means to feign or to have an influence upon, to _effect_ to bring to pass. Thus "He affects a fondness for classical music," "The little orphan's story affected those who heard it"; "We effected a compromise." _Affect_ is never properly used as a noun. _Effect_ as a noun means result, consequence, or practical operation. Thus "The shot took instant effect"; "He put this idea into effect." A disease is _contagious_ when the only way to catch it is through direct contact with a person already having it, or through contact with articles such a person has used. A disease is _infectious_ when it is presumably caused, not by contact with a person, but through widespread general conditions, as of climate or sanitation. Our _knowledge_ is our acquaintance with a fact, or the sum total of our information. Our _wisdom_ is our intellectual and spiritual discernmen
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