Anti-climatic?

[Dimandja]

Here is one seriously misused word: climatic, which is too often used instead of climactic.

"Events unfold, this time to a climatic conclusion, ..."

"...it robs the film of a true climatic conclusion."

"...only to arrive at a rather anti-climatic conclusion."

Climatic: Of or relating to the climate (weather)
Climactic: Relating to or constituting a climax (intensity)

 

[donbott]

If you were talking about Noah's Ark or the film "The Day after Tomorrow" it might be appropriate.

When it rains it pours.


DonBott

 

[CajunCenturion]

Is this a word misuse question, or is it simply a spelling error?

Good Luck
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[donbott]

I say misuse, because I hear it spoken "climatic" more often than not, but that could also just be lazy speaking habits.

DonBott

 

[Zathras]

Don't forget

February v. Febuary
Library v. Libary
Nuclear v. Nuculer
Arctic v. Artic

 

[chessbot]

The third one might be a pronunciation issue as well (by prominent people...)

--Chessbot

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." -- Asimov, Foundation

 

[Dimandja]

>Is this a word misuse question, or is it simply a spelling error?

No, CajunCenturion, it is an outright misuse, or ignorance of the meaning of the word. Try googling "climatic end". Use the quotation marks. Everything you will see on the first page, and the next, is a misuse of the word climatic.

Frankly, many people do not know they are mistaken when they come up with stuff like "climatic end" and so on.

 

[CajunCenturion]

You might be right Dimandja, and I agree those links are wrong. I'm just not ready to call the error a misuse of a variant of 'climate' rather than a mis-spelling of a variant of 'climax'. I don't think anyone in those links is intending to use a variant of 'climate'. It can be problematic to tell the difference when the mispelling of one word results in a different word.

If you view the situation from the perspective of the intent, you have a spelling error. If you judge from the result, then you can argue a word misuse.

I choose to believe that the intent is right, but the spelling is wrong.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Dimandja]

>If you view the situation from the perspective of the intent, you have a spelling error. If you judge from the result, then you can argue a word misuse.

CC, whatever point you trying tomake here is eluding me. Or have you too been spelling climactic as climatic?

Fact is, many people don't know climactic is a word.

 

[Dimandja]

I'm just not ready to call the error a misuse of a variant of 'climate' rather than a mis-spelling of a variant of 'climax'.

Climatic and climactic are not "variants" of those words.

Do a little reasearch, and you'll see that lots of people really don't know what climactic means (and don't understand why they are misusing a completly different word for it).

 

[donbott]

The problem I see with using Google to prove your point is its filters will give you the result you want, if you phrase your query correctly. "Climatic end" as a phrase will almost always be a misuse and so will fill up the first pages.

DonBott

 

[Dimandja]

>"Climatic end" as a phrase will almost always be a misuse and so will fill up the first pages.

That's exactly the kind of results I wanted: to show how prevalent this problem was.

I know that not everyone makes that mistake, but in this case, the mistake is so widespread, many people never heard of the correct word. I quizzed my co-workers on it; they are amazed at the misuse, or ignorance of the misuse.

 

[MakeItSo]

I don't see that the filters produce anything else than what is truly present in the result links.
And what is truly present there seems to be pure misuse indeed.

P.S: I have also not found "anti-climatic" as the 'correct' opposite to "climactic", but only
anticlimactic (no hyphen)
or catacosmesis (as order from most to least interesting)

[blue]The last voice we will hear before the world explodes will be that of an expert saying:
"This is technically impossible!" - Sir Peter Ustinov[/blue]

 

[CajunCenturion]

I did some google searches:
[tt]
"climatic end" ==> 934 hits.
"climactic end" ==> 6,430 hits.

"anti-climatic" ==> 44,800 hits.
"anti-climactic" ==> 132,000 hits.

"anticlimatic" ==> 11,600 hits.
"anticlimactic" ==> 94,800 hits.[/tt]

Without checking each entry to know see if climatic is being used in a meteorological sense, it is very suggestive that it is only a minority of folks who don't know that climactic is spelled with a 'c'.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[MikeBarone]

I agree with CC, I think they simply spelled the word incorrectly. It seems as if they meant to write, or say, climactic.

Dimandja, I am sure it was an oversight in your title or purposeful to get the point across. But does the work anticlimactic have a hyphen or not? I find that it does not.

Adj. 1. anticlimactic - of or relating to a sudden change from an impressive to a ludicrous style
anticlimactical

2. anticlimactic - coming after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot; "everything after the discovery of the murderer was anticlimactic"
climactic - consisting of or causing a climax; "a climactic development"

On the lighter side, if something was to be anticlimatic, that would imply the situation was lacking any notable weather situation - lol. Devoid of a climate, I wonder what that would look and feel like?

 

[Dimandja]

>it is very suggestive that it is only a minority of folks who don't know that climactic is spelled with a 'c'.

I see you are still championning the mispelling angle.

Mispelling occurs when the correct word is knowingly being used. While misuse is when the wrong word is used. We are talking about different things here.

But I see your point. I believe that some writers did mispell the word. While many writers consistently use the wrong word. You should read some of those links to see where I'm coming from. I did the research.

 

[Thadeus]

So, if I want to say anticlimactic and my context relates to "after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot", but I type anticlimatic, it is a typo since the word "anticlimatic" doesn't exist. I can't be misusing a word that doesn't exist, right? Just spelling it wrong?

 

[Dimandja]

>So, if I want to say anticlimactic and my context relates to "after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot", ...

Huh? Are you sure you have read the definition of anticlimactic?

 

[CajunCenturion]

Isn't that the same as definition #2 provided by MikeBarone three or four posts ago?

Perhaps Dimandja you could share with us the meaning of anticlimactic from your sources.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Dimandja]

>So, if I want to say anticlimactic and my context relates to "after the climax especially of a dramatic or narrative plot", but I type anticlimatic, it is a typo since the word "anticlimatic" doesn't exist. I can't be misusing a word that doesn't exist, right? Just spelling it wrong

The key here is did you know that anticlimactic was the needed word? If you did and intended to use it, then it is a typo. Otherwise the misused word is "climatic", not "anticlimactic" which is only compounding the mistake.


>Perhaps Dimandja you could share with us the meaning of anticlimactic from your sources.

Happy to oblige: can you reach climax and anticlimax in the same story? My answer is no. You can build up tension, at wich point you will reach climax or degrade into anticlimax; not both.