This is something that I used to have trouble with, confusing etymology, the study of word orgins, with entomology, the study of insects.
I recently thought of this mnemonic device: Entomology is like antomology, while etymology makes me think of etcetera which originates in Latin.
Get the two confused and our beloved podcast would be "A Way with Worms."
"A Way with Worms." Now, that's funny!
You're not the only one who gets them mixed up. I see journalists do it all the time.
I once told my coworker (who was wearing a bee costume for Halloween) that she was looking very apian. I think she might have gotten offended.
And I thought I was safe because she said she had a degree in entomology.
Luke: I think I subconsciously use the same mnemonic.
Luke: I use that same device to help people remember.
Every now I'm in a discussion about a word's history and someone says entomology to which I reply "Oh, you like bugs?" They look confused until I explain myself.
Some years ago I was listening to Schickele Mix. At the end of the show Peter Schickele summed up by saying this had been an episode concerning music composed in the pentatonic scale, a word referring to the intense, "pent-up" emotions conveyed by such music. While he was explicating, the phone by his mic rang. Flustered, he answered it on the air; judging by his apologies, his boss had called to berate him for his poor research. After he hung up, Mr Schickele retracted his definition; apparently, he said, "pentatonic" comes from the Greek word ("penta-") for "five", because there are five notes to the octave in that scale. "It seems there must have been a bug in my entomology", he finished up, thus making me happy for a week.