Christ. Yeah, it’s Monday. It’s bad enough to see this in some blog or a random comment on an article, but these days, it’s not at all uncommon to see this mistake made in what should be a reasonably respectable publication, or at least a reasonably literate one. I hate it–it makes me cry because it’s so clear to me that the person who wrote (whatever I’m reading) doesn’t read. Stop fucking up simple homophones, you idiots; the fact that it sounds the same doesn’t mean it’s spelt the same, and it most certainly doesn’t mean that it’s the same word. Pick up a book once in a while, dumbasses.

Poring over a book. Poring (there is no “u” in this word) means, “to read carefully with the intent to remember.” It’s like studying, but not something one would necessarily do for a class or in preparation for some sort of test. If this cute little stuffed whatever it is (I have no idea) had a brain, he’d be reading this book with the intention of recalling its contents at some point in the future, for whatever purpose, or perhaps for no purpose at all beyond, “I want to remember.” Apparently, though, many people read the way this stuffed toy reads–without a brain–or just don’t read at all.

Pouring over (whatever object). This is the one with the letter “u” in it. The word “pour” means “to cause to flow out”, and probably the most common usage is for liquids. Water pours over Niagara Falls, I could use someone to pour a double vodka over ice for me right now. Rain can pour down from the sky even though it’s falling in drops instead of a stream, large numbers of people can pour from the doors of an arena after a concert…the point is that this word has nothing whatsoever to do with reading! I suppose that one could say, “She talked rapidly; words pouring from her mouth,” but used to refer to speech in a figurative sense is the closest “pouring-with-a-u” ever gets to reading. This is water pouring over a pretty young woman in a bathing suit. See? No books involved.

Jesus wept for the future of literate humanity.

Images courtesy of a GIS for “God, people are so fucking stupid.”