Wednesday Word: Ca(l)va(l)ry

There seems to be this strange misconception among well, everyone, that the words Cavalry and Calvary are interchangeable. 

This is very very false.

It is most easily seen in that extremely popular phrase made immortal by countless television shows and movie:

'Here comes the cavalry!'

Only the problem is, most people actually tend to say:

'Here comes the calvary!'

Which is just a shade different than what they mean to say.  What they mean to say is:

'Here comes the large military force of men mounted on horses!'

What they end up saying is:

'Here comes the hill where Jesus died!!'

Now, it doesn't matter a jot whether or not you believe in Jesus.  But it is a plain and simple fact that the word 'Calvary' refers to the place where people believe he died.  End of story.  That is the definition of the word.

It is a rather unfortunate fact that these two words sound so similar--with only the placement of an 'l' to distinguish them.  It is also equally unfortunate that 'Calvary' is easier to say that 'cavalry.'  This assures its continued misuse in our language, and in an effort to stop that, I propose we practice saying 'cavalry' to make it no harder to say than any other word in our language. 

Because seriously people, if we can all say supercalifragilisticexpialidotious, we should certainly be able to say cavalry.

Say it with me now: CA-val-ry

ca
val
ry

ca
val
ry

Here comes the cavalry!

Here comes the large military force of men mounted on horses!

Yes!  Yes!  You've got it now!

Cavalry!  Cavalry!


My work here is done.