2021-03-19
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – wary & weary & leery
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Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง wary = ‘WAIR-ee’
ออกเสียง weary = ‘WEER-ee’
ออกเสียง leery = ‘LEER-ee’
Dictionary.com
Wary vs. Weary:
How To Tell Them Apart
Wary and weary are words that make us do a verbal double take.
Have you ever started out saying
“I was wary of the situation,” pause, and think:
“Wait, or was I weary of the situation?” We have!
There are several factors that contribute to the confusion
between these two words.
For one, both are adjectives
often used to describe one’s feelings.
For two, they are fairly similar in pronunciationand spelling.
But perhaps the main reason these two words are often conflated
has to dowith wary‘s synonym: leery,
which phonetically sounds very closeto weary.
That was a mouthful …
So, let’s dive in to see what the difference actually is.
What does wary mean?
The word wary is used as an adjective
meaning that one is being “watchful or on one’s guard against danger.”
For example:
The mother was very wary of the group of teenagers huddling by the swing set.
In this context, wary doesn’t necessarily confirm the reality of danger;
it is speaking more to the fear of there being danger.
Wary can also mean “arising from or characterized by caution.”
In this context the word would be used like:
The mother shot the group of teenagers by the swing set a wary look.
What does weary mean?
Weary on the other hand is an adjective used to
describe “a feelingof physical or mental exhaustion
brought onby hard work or exertion.”
For example: Her weary hands ached after hours of kneading dough.
And it can also be used to characterize the causeof fatigue,
for instance: It was a long and weary road ahead.
This descriptor can imply one’s impatience or dissatisfaction, too.
For instance: He grew weary of her lies.
So, what’s the biggest difference?
Weary can also be a verb (wearied, wearying).
As a verb, weary means “to make or become weary; fatigue or tire”
or “to grow impatient of.”
For example, His boring story wearied the party guests.
Origin stories
Wary is first recorded in the mid-1500s.
It is rooted in ware, an older adjective equivalent
and related to aware.
Weary is recorded far earlier, in the 800s.
It comes from Old English wērig,
meaning the sameas weary: “tired, fatigued, exhausted.”
This adjectiveis related to an Old English verb wōrian,
“to crumble, break down, totter.”
Ever feel so tired you’re going to fall apart?
Apparently, that’s what weary is getting at, etymologically speaking.
So, when it comes to distinguishing the two, don’tgrow weary,
just be wary of your intended use and you’ll be fine!
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for wary
CAUTIOUS, CIRCUMSPECT, WARY, CHARY
mean prudently watchfuland discreet in the face of danger or risk.
CAUTIOUS implies the exercise of forethought
usually prompted by fear of danger. a cautious driver
CIRCUMSPECT suggests less fear and stresses
the surveyingof all possible consequences before acting or deciding.
circumspect in his business dealings
WARY emphasizes suspiciousness and alertness in watching for danger and cunningin escaping it.
keeps a wary eye on the competition
CHARY implies a cautious reluctance to give, act, or speak freely.
chary of signing papers without having read them first
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for weary
Verb
TIRE, WEARY, FATIGUE, EXHAUST, JADE
mean to make or become unable or unwilling to continue.
TIRE implies a draining of one's strength or patience.
the long ride tired us out
WEARY stresses tiring until one is unable to endure more of the same thing.
wearied of the constant arguing
FATIGUE suggests great lassitude from excessive strain or undue effort.
fatigued by the day's chores
EXHAUST implies complete draining of strength by hard exertion.
shoveling snow exhausted him
JADE suggests the loss of all freshness and eagerness.
Appetites jaded by overindulgence
Sick and Tired:
The Literal and FigurativeMeanings of Lassitude
Lassitude and weariness make an interesting pair.
As with many nearly synonymous pairs of wordsin English,
one is derived from Latin and the other from Old English.
Even though they both mean “the condition of being tired,”
they are used in different ways.
Following a common pattern,
the Latinate word tends to be used
in technical, medical, and formal writing,
and the Old English-derived word is used
when referringto physical, emotional, and spiritual qualities.
Lassitude comes from the Latin word lassus, meaning “weary.”
Our English spelling comes from the French word
that developed directly from Latin, borrowed in the 15th century.
In French, the word las (masculine) or lasse (feminine)
means “weary” or “tired,”
and the idiom être las de means “to be sick and tired of.”
This led to another English word with the same root:
alas,a word that expresses sadness or disappointment,
but conveys some measure of fatigue and resignationas well.
Though it sometimes is just a fancy word for fatiguein medical contexts,
lassitude is also used in ways that are metaphorical
and closer in meaning to “negligence”:
Congress was being choked by pettiness and lassitude.
The case was delayed because of sheer lassitude.
The failure was the result of moral lassitude.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Word History
The Tired History of 'Fatigue'
A relatively new word for an ancient feeling
The two most basic words used to mean
“drained of strength and energy,”
tired and fatigued,occupy time-honored parallel positions,
so typical in English, as respective Old English-
and Latin-derived words that are nearly synonymous.
'Fatigue' is often used to express medical or clinical specificity,
such as "muscle fatigue."
As is usually the case, the word from Old English,
tired,is the most frequent household, familial choice,
and tends to be used in a straightforward way
both in literal and figurative contexts:
It’s late and I’m tired.
They are tired of hearing the same excuses.
The word derived from Latin,
fatigued,can be used with these meanings
but is also used to convey a medical, clinical, or technical
specificity to tiredness.
Fatigued and the noun fatigue,for example,
are the terms used when discussing symptoms of illness:
When that happens, the shortage of red blood cells, known as anemia, causes the body to feel fatigued, according to the Mayo Clinic.
— S. Wayne Carter, Jr., The Baltimore Sun, 4 February 2018
Hepatitis A is marked by fatigue, poor appetite, abdominal pain, nausea, jaundice…
— Sandra Tan, The Buffalo News, 7 February 2018
After just six weeks, those in the exercise group showed significant improvements in balance, fatigue and dizziness, compared with those who hadn't gotten the workouts.
— Chicago Tribune, 7 February 2018
They are also used when referring to the weakening of building materials:
The company planned to reposition the farm to lessen the forces of drag on the structure that it already had identified as its top priority for replacement because of metal fatigue and corrosion.
— Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, 28 January 2018
Indeed, fatigue is most often paired with words
that express medicalor psychological conditions:
chronic
muscle
compassion
battle
mental
combat
eye
Other terms feel technical or even legal,
like driver fatigue or voter fatigue.
Nevertheless, fatigue is also a very basic part of today’s vocabulary,
not limited to medicalor legal use.
What’s interestingabout fatigue is that,
for such a common word,
it only dates back to the mid-17th century in English
—it’s not used even a single time by Shakespeare
or in the King James Bible.
The fact that it’s more frequent than tiredness in today’s usage
isn’t really surprising,
since tiredness is in fact not much older than fatigue,
dating back only to the mid-16th century.
The noun commonly used for “the state of being tired” prior to 1600 (and indeed for many years thereafter) was weariness,
a term we might associate today more with metaphysical fatigue
—emotions and moods—than with physical fatigue.
Both of these meanings of weary were used from the beginning,
but Shakespeare used it
to mean “physically tired” or metaphorically “tired of”
about twice as often as he used it to refer to a depleted emotion or mood (think world-weary).
Today weary is often used to convey emotional exhaustion,
sometimes in a slightly poetic or ironicway:
I grow weary of his constant complaining.
It’s notablethat both Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster
used weary to define both tire and fatigue in their dictionaries.
Early usesof fatigue often were in military contexts:
…the fatigue of our long March, and the night intervening, prevented our very farre pursuit of them in a strange Country…
—Gamaliel Dudley, A true copie of Colonel Sr. Gamaliel Dudley's letter to His Highnesse Prince Rupert from Newark, 1644
There they stood facing each other an houre or two, till the Colonell perceived his Squadrons of Horse to grow thin, many of them slincking away by reason of the extreame fatigue and fasting, wherewith most of them both Horse and Men were opprest.
—Edward Walsingham, Alter Britanniae heros: or The life of the most honourable knight, Sir Henry Gage, late Governour of Oxford, epitomiz'd, 1645
… wherein verily I have taken so great delight, that the exercise of Arms, could never divert me from so noble an employment, which hath alwaies been to me a well-pleasing recreation amidst the fatigues of war.
—Henry Estienne, The art of making devises treating of hieroglyphicks, symboles, emblemes, aenigma's, sentences, parables, reverses of medalls, armes, blazons, cimiers, cyphres and rebus, translation by Th. Blount, 1646
Fatigue came to English from French
and ultimately derives from the Latin verb fatigare,
meaning “to tire out” or “to exhaust.”
Interestingly, it displaced an earlier direct borrowing into English
from Latin, fatigate, which was used in the 1500s before disappearing
(it’s now labeled obsolete in our dictionaries).
Fatigue entered English first as a noun, then the verb
(“the work fatigues me”) and adjective(“a fatigue detail”) came along.
The noun was used to mean both
“the state of being tired” and “labor,” “effort,” or “trouble”
—a sense that seems old-fashioned today.
Early useswith this meaning were often in the plural:
the fatigues of war
the fatigues of a long journey
they no longer have fatigue without pay
toil and fatigue
These sensesled to two military-specific uses of fatigue.
First, it came to mean
“manual or menial work performed by military personnel,”
and then, consequently,
“the uniform or work clothing worn on fatigue detail and in the field.”
This is how fatigues came to mean “uniform” in the military.
When your job seems to be all work and no play,
even your clothes get tired.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Weary' and 'Wary': Use With Caution
Beware of the difference.
What to Know
Wary describes something "marked by keen caution."
One can be a "wary driver" for example, orcan be "wary of driving."
Weary,on the other hand,
means "exhausted in strength of emotion."
To keep them separate,
remember that wary sounds like other caution-related words like aware and beware.
While you might grow weary of our usage articles,
it's important to be wary of bad advice.
So, we recommend you pay attention to this one.
Wary Meaning
The adjective wary means
"marked by keen caution, cunning, and watchfulness
especiallyin detecting and escaping danger":
While Irma's exact path is uncertain, wary shoppers stood in long lines outside some stores Tuesday in Florida as residents prepared for the storm.
— MyFox8.com, 6 Sept. 2017
Wary can be used in front of a noun, as in "wary drivers navigating an icy road," but it is often followed by a preposition such as of or about:
A resident of Penn South, Ben Friedman, expressed his concern for the upcoming holiday season. He said there are a lot of people in the city during the season, and everyone should be wary of pickpockets.
— Scott Stiffler, Chelsea Now, 31 Oct. 2017
It's also sometimes used in combination
for when you want to indicate caution in regard to a particular thing:
Having to change dollars into foreign currencies may well be the most tedious part of international travel, but it also that means that budget-wary travelers can save a lot just by keeping an eye on how the American dollar fares against other currencies.
— The Huffington Post, 6 Dec. 2017
Weary Meaning
Weary means "exhausted in strength, endurance, vigor, or freshness,"
as in "weary workers heading home after a long shift."
Like wary,
weary can also be used in front of of.
In this sense the word means
"having one's patience, tolerance, or pleasure exhausted,"
with the source of that exhaustion being the objectof the preposition:
In Grove Hall, which straddles Roxbury and Dorchester, residents are also beset by large potholes and litter piling up in a field next to a deteriorating post office. Residents who call City Hall for repairs soon grow weary of the slow grind of bureaucracy, so they endure, advocates said.
— Meghan E. Irons, The Boston Globe, 4 Mar. 2018
Wary and weary sometimes get confused,
and the fact that
one can be wary of somethingas well as weary of
it is likely where the root of that confusion lies.
To be alert to a thing
means something different from being exhausted
or made impatient by it.
One way to keep these two adjectives distinct
might be to remember that
the e-less wary,with its connotation of vigilance or alertness,
is related to aware and beware,two words that share that connotation.
Weary,meanwhile, might suggest a "wearing away" of the body
(or emotions) due to fatigue,
even thoughthat word is not related etymologically
to the sense of wear meaning "to cause to deteriorate"
to "to consumeor waste gradually."
But it sure looks like it, and that's what counts in a mnemonic.
In summary:
Both weary and wary are short words,
they differin but a single letter,
and each might describe one's feelings for a dinner invitation.
Remember: only oneof these words has an e in it,
and that is the one that means "tired."
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Wary & weary& leery
People sometimes write “weary” (tired)
when they mean “wary” (cautious)
which is a close synonym with “leery”
which in the psychedelic era was often misspelled “leary";
