Ever misuse a word for ages and then suddenly figure out you were wrong?

I have had many but can only remember 3 offhand:

I thought "erstwhile" meant something like "notable" for ages still I read in a book that it really meant "previous"

I thought "debacle" meant something like a debate or controversy for a long time. I think I can explain this one though: a. the word looks similar to the word "debate" and b. the first time I read it was in reference to something in some game (I forget what now) that caused some big argument, so you can see how I would come to that misconception.

Most recent one: I thought "inveigh" meant something like "to weigh down on" (in a figurative sense such as, "her conscience weighed down on her") I had to look it up for some reason and found out it meant "to protest strongly".

Edited by Bootlebat on Mar 31st 2019 at 9:26:40 AM

I often used to call my girlfriend, "Darling", but later realised that I should have been saying, "Bitch".

Thats not very nice

This wasn't for very long, but I thought that condoms and condos were the same thing.

Imagine if you told someone your friend lived in a condom...

Kinda did, in a fanfiction. I said a character lived in a condom, when I should've said condo.

My own research into the definitions of those words led me to correcting that error as soon as possible.

Edited by BrightLight on Apr 7th 2019 at 3:34:13 AM