Pink is a Homophone
I believe it is called a homophone – a word that, while spelled and sounding the same, has a number of unrelated meanings. It just occurred to me on Wednesday while cutting up fabric scraps in my never-ending attempt to put them to good use, that “pink” is a homophone. It’s not only a colour, currently infecting my sensibilities (and, it seems, my Making Fridays), but also a verb, meaning to cut zig-zag edges with a special pair of scissors called pinking shears.
My shears did a lot of pinking today, turning long scraps into pretty fabric ribbons, some of which are now available for sale in my Etsy shop. The price? Well, it’s a snip!
Rossie
Pink is a homonym. Same spelling, same pronounciation, different significations.
There/their/they’re etc is a homophone: same prounounciation, different spelling, different significations.
yeah…i am a word nerd…. : )
Skinny laMinx
“A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of “rise”), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms”
I’m a word nerd too (and researched my post before publishing)
Thanks for bothering though. These things do matter! 🙂
x Heather
Rossie
Oh, I’ve never heard it used as an umbrella term! There’s a funny line about homonyms in the Austin Powers movie…thus, the term always brings a smile to my face.
melinda
HI Pink is not only a homophone and a technique used deftly by Skinnylaminx but also so so many other things as shown in this great video by Steven Tyler giving all its uses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLRLhV9U0kQ
molly
those ribbons are just awesome!
shirley
Hi Heather! Long time no commenting! Been busy!!!!!
I know nothing about this word that you have apparently researched but I do know a few of my roots and prefixes. Wish I could say I learned Latin but public education drilled it into me every morning in class. So… was going to say… ‘homo’ means same and ‘phone’ has to do with sounds. But I’m not sure what the ‘nym’ in homonym means (wanna research that for me? haha) and I’ve never heard of homograph (but I do know what ‘graph’ means). 🙂
I love words!!!!! (Actually, I love language and speech and communication in general too)