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Bullseye hit on a pet peeve of many years: the confusion between phosphorus (a noun) and phosphorous (an adjective).
by ableal 12y ago
Bullseye hit on a pet peeve of many years: the confusion between phosphorus (a noun) and phosphorous (an adjective).
- ars 12y agoYou mean the difference between the element and the quality of glowing? The adjective is falling out of usage, so you can assume references are to the first unless you are sure otherwise.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoBut it could be phosphorus black phosphorus ?
- dvanduzer 12y agoI don't know anyone who uses that stuff, except maybe Hotblack Desiato.
- ableal 12y agoThe chemical compounds, for instance, are phosphorous this or that. (If you speak a romance language, it jumps out at you because the adjective has an extra syllable - e.g. 'fosforo' vs. 'fosforoso'.)
- waqf 12y agoThat's true of phosphorous acid (where the name distinguishes it from phosphoric acid), but otherwise English chemical names use the noun form of the positive ion (e.g. phosphorus pentoxide).
- digikata 12y agoYes, I think the adjective in it's more modern form usually occurs as 'phosphorescent'.
- RobertKerans 12y ago> You mean the difference between the element and the quality of glowing? Or just something containing/made partly of phosphorus (compounds of phosphorus being the most obvious examples, as @ars says): that's common (though glowing with a phosphorous light does have a lovely cadence)
- waqf 12y agoOh, God, yes: the only similar example that I see abused as much is callus vs callous.