Answer: what's the difference between poultry and paltry?

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

Qdiebirchen submitted a topic about the confusion of similarly sounding words, including some examples she's seen writers use. We've taken those examples to bring you some of those commonly confused words, starting with the difference between "poultry" and "paltry".

Poultry and paltry are words that sound similar, though personally I pronounce them a little differently, but their meanings aren't alike at all.

Poultry are "domesticated birds kept for eggs or meat". So a chicken, from which we get eggs or meat, or a turkey would be an example of poultry.

Tony laughed as McGee sprawled headlong amongst the chickens in the small yard outside the victim's farmhouse. "Nice moves, McPoultry!"

Paltry, on the other hand, has several meanings: "inferior, trashy"; "mean, despicable"; "trivial"; or "meager, measly". Note that, while these meanings aren't identical, they do have a "smallness" to them – inferior, trivial, meager. If you're thinking about something being of little value, then paltry would be an appropriate word. For example:

Tony looked horrified as he inspected the plate of pasta placed in front of him. "What is this paltry excuse for lasagna?"

Ziva slowly raised her hands and looked at the black ink stains on her fingers. "This is a paltry trick Tony, even for you."

Abby gave McGee a hard stare as she watched him drop a twenty dollar bill into the donation bucket she was holding. "That's it, Timmy? What a paltry gift to the nuns from someone as well-off as you."

Although paltry can be used in multiple situations, it probably isn't as commonly used as it used to be. I'd expect to see words like "worthless" and "trivial" used rather than paltry in most situations. But it's definitely still appropriate to use paltry as defined above.

What's a good way of remembering the difference? An egg looks like an O, so if you're talking about chickens or eggs use poultry. The word small contains an "a", as does paltry, so if you're thinking about something trivial use paltry.

Sources:
Poultry at m-w.com http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poultry
Paltry at m-w.com http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paltry

Comments

[achacunsagloire.livejournal.com]

This is a good, concise post, but...didn't diebirchen him-/herself post about this topic in the comments of the previous post? I remember seeing something about "poultry" versus "paltry" while reading through them.

[theemdash]

diebirchen did indeed, not knowing that we were answering this very question in just a few days! (I chuckled when I saw the comment since I knew what was coming up on our schedule.) You might also note that the question was submitted by diebirchen who clearly already knows the answer. Sometimes we have betas and other grammar-savvy people submit questions for issues they commonly run across—which is very handy for keeping us in content!

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Thank you for putting that in. Having been asked to apply as a fandom grammarian, I was taken considerably aback at being accused of asking a moronic question that any dictionary could answer. Shouldn't those writing this verify what is put down before posting?

Not exactly in high dudgeon, but Geeze Louise!
FGoVU/The Fairy Godmother of Verbal Usage

[achacunsagloire.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. Thanks for explaining. :)

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Well, nooooooooooo! Actually I didn't ask that and never posed the question. I was the one who mentioned that I'd seen someone who had used "poultry" when she clearly meant "paltry," an entirely different matter. In fact, I've mentioned it several times in various places, which is certainly the ultimate source of all this. I am she who knew the difference and giggled, not the moron who said, if memory serves, that someone used something or other as a "poultry excuse for poor behavior."When words have somewhat similar pronunciations, folks with "itty-bitty, teeny-weeny, yellow polka-dot" vocabularies run into trouble. I am also she [Yup -- female!] who mentioned having frequently seen "withering" for "writhing." So there they are, whoever they are, having sex, and the female is "withering" beneath the male. Might I just add, "Eeeeeeeeeeeew!"

[theemdash]

After doing some research with my co-mod, I think I stumbled across the exact problem: In September you submitted a topic to a request for more questions/topics. Our query queue, requests such as that, and our gmail are the only places where we gather user-submitted questions. All ideas generated internally—sometimes by comments left in posts here—are uncredited because they are from the grammarians rather than from the community readers. While you may not have been asking about that topic for yourself, you did leave it for us to answer.

When topics are left, we always rephrase them in the form of a question to (1) assist the grammarians in focusing on the issue and (2) to make the community more consistent and searchable. Normally we ask if the submitter's name may be used in the post (if permission is not already given), though I believe we may have missed that this time (the first time in four years, d'oh). I apologize for the confusion!

I completely understand not wanting to be held accountable for not knowing the answer to something you clearly know. If you would like for us to edit the post to remove your name or acknowledge that you submitted this as a topic for us to address—not that you were asking the question for yourself—please let me know and we'll take care of it as soon as possible.

[theemdash]

The post has been updated to summarize the original intent of the topic and acknowledge that we broke the topic into parts, starting with some of the examples you provided. I know other examples you submitted are in our question queue and we are currently planning to list them as anonymous questions.

I hope this resolves everything, but if you have any other concerns, please feel free to PM me or email fandomgrammar @gmail.com

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

P.S.
Awaiting an answer.

[pathology-doc.livejournal.com]

When your poultry is paltry, it's time to get out of the chicken business.

[chiroho.livejournal.com]

Now why didn't I think of that when writing this!!

[diebirchen.livejournal.com]

Well, I for one would have preferred it.

[achacunsagloire.livejournal.com]

Nice one!