fandom_grammar . Answer: What is the difference between "lathe" and "lave"?

What is the difference between “lathe” and “lave”?
With examples from Full Metal Alchemist and Saiyuki.

I only recently learned how to pronounce “quinoa.” I had seen it written out for years but had never heard it said out loud, and I had been mentally pronouncing it as “kee-NO-uh” instead of “KEEN-wah.” A good friend of mine calls that a reader’s error: being familiar with the spelling and meaning of a word, but not its sound.

Misusing “lathe” for “lave” is then, I would contend, a speaker’s error. The two words sound quite a bit alike, but that’s about all they have in common.

Lathe is most often used as a noun meaning a machine used for turning wood, metal or other material on a horizontal axis. In the early twentieth century, lathe became accepted as a verb as well, meaning the process of shaping material with a lathe. (The more common verb for the process in woodworking, however, is “turn.”)

Winry worked at her lathe threading screws for Ed's automail late into the night.

Lave is a verb meaning to wash or bathe. Now that I write that out, I have another idea as to where the confusion may come from: Lathe could be a mistaken portmanteau of lave and bathe. However, since lathe is an existing word with a completely different meaning, this is not an acceptable portmanteau.

In conversation, lave is a fairly uncommon word. But it can add a gentle, poetic effect to a written passage, and in the realm of fanfiction you’re liable to encounter it more often — particularly in hurt/comfort or erotic fic.

Gojyo winced as the bandage he was removing stuck to the wound, causing a fresh trickle of bright blood to flow from the slash across the man's gut. Carefully, he laved it away with cold water and hoped the guy was going to live.

My fellow grammarian

mab_browne mentioned in a comment how much it can ruin the mood to "read about lovers lathing the nipples of their partners (ow!)." To remember to use lave in these instances, it may help to associate it with other words that come from the same Latin root, lavare (to wash). Your character may be lavishing attention on a particular body part or performing ablutions in a lavatory.