A candleholder projecting from a wall, a bracket-candlestick of metal, brass, iron, or silver, an ornamental bracket holding several candles, sometimes with a mirror fastened against the wall. SCOTCH CAKES is the most popular choice as a synonym for SCONCES, obviously a confusion of SCONCE, a candlestick fixed to a wall, with SCONE. SCONE is a Scotch word for a soft cake, a small thin cake of wheat or barley meal cooked on a griddle. The second most popular mislead is SHELLFISH. A CONCH is so often pronounced CONCH as to be easily confused with SCONCE. A CONCH is a large spiral seashell. SHELLFISH include crabs, lobsters, crawfish, oysters, mussels, periwinkles, and whelks. Third in popularity is TRIMMINGS. This may be a confusion of SCONCES with FLOUNCES. A FLOUNCE is a strip of cloth, gathered full, and sewed to a skirt by its upper edge; the American lexicographer Joseph Worcester says: "A frill or ruffle sewed to a gown, and hanging loose and waving." Originally in English a SCONCE was a candlestick, carried by a handle, with a screen or cover to protect the flame from the wind. A lantern was carried by a chain, a SCONCE by a handle. The word comes through Middle English and Old French words for dark lantern, from the same source as the Latin verb ABSCONDERE, to hide away, the source of the English ABSCOND, to steal off and hide, go away secretly. Today a SCONCE is seldom a dark lantern, but instead a wall bracket to hold a candle, or a group of candleholders projecting from the wall.

Private bedroom, cubiculum, small sleeping apartment. CUBICLES are often small sleeping rooms made by subdividing a large room. CUBICLE is sometimes used generally to mean any small, partitioned-off space. To 43 percent of college seniors CUBICLE means GEOMETRIC FIGURE. CUBICLE and CUBICAL are HOMONYMS; they are pronounced alike but have different meanings. Despite the similarity between the two words, there is no etymological connection. CUBICAL, ending in -AL, is from the Greek CUBOS, a die, cube, and means like a cube in shape. CUBICLE, ending in -LE, is from the Latin CUBARE, to lie, lie down. From a Latin nasalized form of CUBARE come a number of words with an M inserted, as: RECUMBENT, lying down, reclining, INCUMBENT, officeholder; PROCUMBENT, lying face downward, prone. From CUBARE, to lie, come also two words without the M: INCUBATE and ACCUBATION. INCUBATE, by derivation lying on, is now used to mean sit on for the purpose of hatching; or, still more figuratively, to aid hatching by any mechanical means. ACCUBATION is an unusual word that means the act of reclining in the manner of the ancients at their meals, either resting on the left elbow or lying flat on the stomach. ACCUMBENT, with the M, is the adjective, leaning or reclining in this manner. In botany, ACCUMBENT means lying against. CUBICULAR, literally belonging to the bedchamber, is the adjective of the noun CUBICLE, small bedroom, tiny compartment.

Top of a doorway or window, horizontal beam across the top of an opening. LINTEL goes back through Middle English and Old French to the Latin LIMES, LIMITIS, a boundary, border. In architecture, the LINTEL is the horizontal timber or stone resting on the jambs and supporting the weight above. Three parts of a door opening are LINTEL, JAMB, and THRESHOLD. A well-known detective story writer describes his heroine with her foot upon the LINTEL of the door, confusing it with THRESHOLD. The THRESHOLD is a board across the opening at the foot of the door, designed to keep the door from scraping on the floor when it opens. The LINTEL is parallel to the THRESHOLD, but across the top of the door, not at the bottom. LINTEL and JAMB are confused by 24 percent of readers. The JAMB is the upright side of the opening, the vertical part of the frame into which the door itself fits. JAMB goes back through the French JAMBE, leg, and the Italian GAMBA, leg, to the Late Latin GAMBA, leg. Joseph Conrad, at least twice in his writings, speaks of a man as leaning against a LINTEL, obviously confusing LINTEL with JAMB. JAMB is the vertical, upright side of an opening; LINTEL is the horizontal top.

Uncertain, vague, doubtful, dubious, obscure, questionable, puzzling, indeterminate, equivocal, of double meaning, capable of being understood in either of two senses. AMBIGUOUS is from the Latin AMBI-, around, and AGERE, to drive, move, do. By derivation, AMBIGUOUS is driving all around without touching the real heart of the matter. From AGERE come also the English words AGILE, active, brisk, moving quickly; AGITATE, disturb, excite, make something move; and finally AGENT, one who acts. The Latin prefix AMBI- is used sometimes to mean around, and sometimes to mean on both sides. To be AMBIDEXTROUS is to use both hands. The Latin AMBI- comes from the Greek AMPHI, which appears in the English word AMPHITHEATER, by derivation a theater on both sides or all around, an open-air theater with tiers of seats around a central space in which contests are held. In the test phrase: "AMBIGUOUS terms," the word is thought by 21% of elementary school students to mean ADVANTAGEOUS, favorable, profitable, beneficial. By another 18% AMBIGUOUS is thought to mean OBVIOUS, clear. This may be a confusion of OBVIOUS, clearly apparent, with OBSCURE. The adjectives AMBIGUOUS and OBSCURE are both used with reference to things which are not clear. OBSCURE is from the Latin OBSCURUS, dark, shady, covered over. AMBIGUOUS is used more often of words, and refers to that which moves around a clear meaning. The confusion of AMBIGUOUS and OBVIOUS may also be a confusion of opposites, for OBVIOUS, clear, unquestionable, is an exact opposite of AMBIGUOUS, uncertain, vague, doubtful.

An EMIGRANT, one who leaves his own country to take up his abode in another; especially, one forced to emigrate for political reasons. EMIGRE is a French word, the past participle of the French verb EMIGRER, to emigrate, leave, depart for another country. This comes in turn from the Latin E, out, and MIGRARE, to move. EMIGRE is thought by 5% of adult readers to mean REVOLUTION. The word EMIGRE originally applied to the royalists who left France at the time of the French Revolution.

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