discrete means separate, divided. you might say “Each of my mice has its own discrete personality.”
discreet means careful, subtle. you might say “Xylem was discreet so Dijkstra didn’t notice her eating a sunflower seed.”
i know it truly doesn’t matter, that there’s no point fighting a losing battle against changing usage if they’re blurring together, why be prescriptivist, etc… but i keep seeing this mixed up in otherwise professional text!!
mnemonic: the “e"s are separated in "discrete”, which means “separate”
Stressing that the rules were formulated for the safety of all Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines Thursday governing female body hair. “Effective immediately, women nationwide are advised to remove all hair from arms, legs, underarms, and genital areas or suffer the legal consequences,” said CDC spokesperson Jamie Reardon, stressing that failure to comply with the newly issued weekly waxing schedule for women 18 and over would result in a $50 fine for every hair spotted that was over a millimeter long
I only got 20 because I’m too old to recognize kid’s cartoons that aired AFTER I GRADUATED COLLEGE.
Same on the cartoons, but also I never had anything to do with MySpace so I got that one wrong too. I think that’s the MySpace guy?
The two I got wrong are because I was in the wrong economic class to ever see that car|bus|train|plane phone thing, and napster and limewire just blur together with every other app of that ilk and time
this is just so helpful and freeing to think about
doing the best you can AND trying to do better
taking care of yourself AND needing care from others too
this was such a revelation for me to discover and put into practice and – even beyond just helping myself – allowed me to be kinder and more generous with other people generally
The beginning of the cure for the Problems that Plague us
When I say “Dialectical thinking will save your sanity and your soul,” I am not even a little bit joking.
ALT