Agreeance vs. Agreement

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Sadie here in San Diego. Hello Sadie. Welcome. What can we do for you?

Well, I have a question about the word “agreeance.”

Agreeance. Use that in a sentence for us, will you?

Well, we were all in agreeance that we should go to the party.

And how was the party?

Well, it was actually a party that my boyfriend didn’t attend. And so we were outside chatting before we went inside and my friend’s husband asked why he wasn’t coming and we talked about it and I said well we were all in agreeance that he shouldn’t come and then my friend’s husband said is that a word and I said I think so and I tried to look it up and I got some mixed messages so I decided to see if you guys would have the answer.

Oh that’s my kind of party.

Oh so you came to us for more mixed messages. Very good.

Agreeance! And did he suggest the word that he would have used?

Well, he said that we should have said we were all in agreement.

And after you kicked him in the shins for interrupting your spin.

Yes, and that’s how he is. That’s kind of the nature of our relationship.

I really wanted to know who was right, so I’m excited.

So either I’ll be, you know, groveling or he’ll have to eat his words.

Alright, well here’s the thing about this, Sadie.

Agreeance is technically a word, but, but, a huge but, a big, I mean it’s like a rose with thorns, don’t grab the stem.

Just look.

The problem with agreeance is that nobody recommends that you use it.

It’s very rare, and it’s mostly used by people who are quasi-educated or uneducated, or else lived in 1820.

I was going to say.

Well, I like to read older books.

Okay, how old are we talking here?

In like the 1800s.

That could explain it.

The 1840s was a big time for this word.

You could have legitimately picked that word up from your reading.

It was far more common than–here’s the thing.

Agreement is the better word in every case.

But the problem is that agreeance has a little nuance.

Agreeance talks about the state of agreement only.

It never talks about the act of agreement, right?

And so agreeance has got this little place that it can occupy, a very tiny place that is also occupied in full by agreement, which has more than one cent.

Yeah, and it used to be a legal term in Scotland.

Yeah, exactly.

It’s like it used to be.

It used to be a thing.

If you use agreeance most people are just gonna cock an eye at you and then in this non-sequitur fashion without your permission correct your grammar and then you are forced to be the bad guy and kick them in the shins.

Right which is the position I get put in a lot.

So you know this is what happens.

I always say this is what happens to people who try to read things that are

good for them because you always are reading just a little bit above your

level and everything’s not a hundred percent, you know, when you absorb it and

it takes a while to sort it out and get it right.

Don’t worry about it. It happens to everybody. All, I’m serious, all avid readers have this problem. Something just kind of comes out a little misshapen. They don’t say it exactly right or use it exactly right. And the old vocabulary thing, I had this happen to me. There was a period in high school where I was reading Dickens and I was like throwing out these like these old London spellings of words into my school papers. And my teachers were like, they were florid with the red ink.

They were just like, it looked like a bouquet of flowers when I got my papers back.

Because there’d be all these red squiggles.

Like, what do you mean you left the E off of diverse?

Because that used to be a thing.

So I’m with you on that.

But avoid agreeance if you can.

And you know what you need to do to this guy?

He, just tell him he doesn’t have permission to correct your grammar.

I mean, he’s not your, he’s not your parent.

He’s not your teacher.

He’s not your copy editor.

Right?

Right?

He’s not on the Gram.

Oh, I love you guys. I love you guys.

That’s exactly what I need to see here.

It’s not his job.

Nobody hired him.

If he’s got a problem with the way that you speak, then he can go do his own thing.

Well, you guys have a really great time.

At the party.

Yeah, at the party.

Great!

Make him sit in the car next time.

Wow, you just made my day.

Thank you.

But do avoid agreeance, though.

I will.

That’s the other side of that, Sadie.

Do avoid it, all right?

I’ll just throw an agreement about that.

Yeah.

We are in agreement.

All right, take care of yourself, Sadie.

Thank you so much.

Bye, Sadie.

Bye.

Bye.

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