A Plethora of Pinatas: More Words That May Not Mean What You Think They Mean

In a recent article inspired by Vizzini's comical misuse of the word inconceivable in The Princess Bride, we examined two frequently misunderstood words--literally and fulsome. Another movie comedy from the 1980s, ¡Three Amigos! (1986), provides an excuse to look at a few other words that may not mean exactly what you think they mean.

A Plethora of Pinatas
It's a sunny afternoon in the village of Santo Poco, and the villainous El Guapo is talking with Jefe, his right-hand man:

Jefe: I have put many beautiful pinatas in the storeroom, each of them filled with little surprises.
El Guapo: Many pinatas?
Jefe: Oh yes, many!
El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?
Jefe: A what?
El Guapo: A plethora.
Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.
El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora?
Jefe: Why, El Guapo?
El Guapo: Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has no idea what it means to have a plethora.
Jefe: Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?

Regardless of his motive, El Guapo asks a fair question: just what is a plethora? As it turns out, this Greek and Latin hand-me-down is an example of a word that has undergone amelioration--that is, an upgrade in meaning from a negative sense to a neutral or favorable connotation. At one time plethora meant an overabundance or unhealthy excess of something (too many pinatas). Now it's commonly used as a non-judgmental synonym for "a large quantity" (a lot of pinatas).

A Noisome Bacillus
One of Mark Twain’s pessimistic metaphors for humankind was "a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey." No, Twain wasn't alluding to noise pollution or the excesses of the chattering classes. He was equating the "damned human race" to a particularly dangerous type of bacteria.

Related to the word annoy, the adjective noisome means harmful or offensive to the point of arousing disgust.

Unraveling the Meaning of Raveling
If the verb unravel means to unknot, unscramble, or untangle, it's only logical to assume that ravel must mean the opposite--to tangle or complicate. Right?

Well, yes and no. You see, ravel is both an antonym and a synonym for unravel. Derived from the Dutch word for "a loose thread," ravel can mean either to tangle or untangle, to complicate or clarify. That makes ravel an example of a Janus word--a word (like sanction or wear) that has opposite or contradictory meanings.

And that probably helps to explain why ravel is so rarely used (except, perhaps, when listening to Boléro): you never know if it's coming together or falling apart.

Perusing a New Janus Word
Another Janus word is the verb peruse. Since the Middle Ages, peruse has meant to read or examine, usually with great care: perusing a document means studying it carefully.

Then a funny thing happened. Some people starting using peruse as a synonym for "skim" or "scan" or "read quickly"--the opposite of its traditional meaning. Most editors still reject this novel usage, dismissing it (in Henry Fowler's phrase) as a slipshod extension--the mistaken stretching of a word beyond its accepted meanings.

But keep an eye on your dictionary, for this is one of the ways in which language changes. If enough people continue to "stretch" the meaning of peruse (and stop reading carefully), the inverted definition may eventually supplant the traditional one.

To learn about other words that may not mean what you think they mean, please visit our Glossary of Commonly Confused Words.

Image: El Guapo (played by Alfonso Arau) in ¡Three Amigos! (Home Box Office, 1986)