GalacticCactus Forum

Forums => English & Linguistics => Topic started by: mackillian on May 16, 2005, 08:49:17 AM

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: mackillian on May 16, 2005, 08:49:17 AM

Okay, which do you use where?

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: Jonathon on May 16, 2005, 09:20:55 AM

Careen means "to sway or lurch," while career means "to speed in a course." It looks like the usual error is that people use the former to mean the latter.

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: AFR on May 16, 2005, 09:30:01 AM

I would say "The car went careening into a wall" but "The car went careering down the highway." That's just off the top of my head. Careening means uncontrollable movement while careering means a barely-controlled balls-out headlong rush.

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: Jonathon on May 16, 2005, 10:10:21 AM

Yeah, what he said. Good examples, AFR.

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: mackillian on May 16, 2005, 10:16:22 AM

Okay. That's what I THOUGHT I'd learned. I saw two instances today where the wrong word was used. Irritated me, but I thought I'd check to make sure I had a right to be irritated.

Title: Careening vs. Careering
Post by: Icarus on May 24, 2005, 12:08:33 AM

I had no idea "career" was a verb.

Now, "car rear," on the other hand . . . (As in "I car reared that minivan when I was trying to parallel park.")