Special delivery! Here comes another rogue word for us to rip apart: envelope.
The word envelope is derived from the French word enveloppe (from envelopper, which means to envelop).
There are a number of difficulties in spelling this tricky word. Native French speakers often struggle with envelope in English because it has one p rather than two. But even native English speakers can have trouble: namely, understanding when to use envelope and when to use envelop.
Envelope (with an e, pronounced Ehn-vuh-LOPE or Ahn-vuh-LOPE) is a noun meaning a wrapper or enclosure. When applied to aircraft or other technology, it means a set of accepted performance limits. This is where we get the phrase “pushing the envelope.”
The explorers were excited when the new spacecraft was completed. They hoped to push the envelope of space exploration during their upcoming voyage.
Envelop (without the e, pronounced ehn-VEH-lup) is a verb meaning to completely enclose or surround something. Like many other verbs, -ed is added to the end when it is used in the past tense (enveloped).
The black velvet night enveloped the explorers’ spacecraft as they sped away from the Earth to a faraway galaxy.
For several years, Earth heard nothing from the brave pioneers. The head of the Space Exploration Agency felt as if he were enveloped in despair. His daughter had insisted on joining the outbound team, and now she was lost to him. He wondered why he even bothered to come in to the office any more.
Then one day he walked in and discovered a strangely glowing envelope on his desk. He carefully opened it up and read the words, “We made it, Dad!”
There was a blaze of warm light, and he felt his daughter’s arms envelop him in an enormous hug.
Bonus Word: Endeavour
Endeavour is another tricky word to spell.
To help you remember the “ea” part of endeavour, think of yourself as an explorer going “full speed ahead” on an endeavour. Ahead has an “ea” combination just like the “ea” in endeavour.
Endeavour is also tricky because the ending is spelled -our in British English and -or in American English. Even NASA had trouble getting this one sorted out.
Which spelling do you prefer, endeavor or endeavour? And where will you go exploring today?
***
Picture of space shuttle Endeavour from NASA
This post is dedicated to Celine Jeanjean, Naturelover, and Nicole De Courval. Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, where I will flatten the formidable letter F…
© Sue Archer and Doorway Between Worlds, 2015
I enjoyed this so much. I spell the last word like this: “endeavor”. There are some other words to which I sometimes ad a “U”. Savior can be Saviour.
Do you like acrostic poems? I just finished the longest one I have ever done, and posted it as my “E” word. Here it is: “Eupatorium Colestinum”
Have a great day! 🙂
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Thank you! There are a lot of those “u” words, aren’t there? And yes, I do like acrostic poems – I will be sure to come by today and take a look!
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Another surprise! 😄 i didnt know there was a difference between envelop(e). REALLY, this is helping expand mu vocabulary and knowledge. Thanks Sue, keep em coming 😁
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I’m happy to hear it! Don’t worry, more are on the way. 🙂
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I love the glowing letter showing up on the desk, from the daughter! A nice heart-warming read on a Monday.
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Thanks, Pat! I think I got all exploded out last week, so I wanted a change. 🙂 I’m so glad you liked it.
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Thank you sue for explaining this difference. It is really helpful:)
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You’re very welcome!
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Finally a rogue word that is not in my repertoire 🙂 I don’t get these ones wrong! I had no idea where envelope came from though, most interesting.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)
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Hi Tasha! Yes, it’s a relief, isn’t it? 😉 Glad to hear there was still something in it for you!
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That’s funny about NASA. I was thinking “it’s not misspelled for us Yanks” but, then, I guess it actually was. D’oh! And I liked your story. Warm, enveloping hugs are always nice. 🙂
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Thank you. I think everyone could use some warm hugs on a Monday!
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I always have a hard time with nouns ending with -e and the same verb ending without -e. I almost never get it right 😦
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They are tough ones! I’ll have to see if I can come up with more tips on them in future posts.
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I didn’t know there were so many envelopes!
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Yes, it’s surprising, isn’t it? English is so adaptable!
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Luckily, because I have to teach the beautiful phonics rule that is Magic E, I don’t have much trouble with envelop or envelope, though endeavor is an amusing one. As I’m American, I’ll cut the long u sound, but editing work for so many people in different countries has messed up my spelling in the long run, haha. They’re JUST different enough to make me always question my spelling.
Alex Hurst, A Fantasy Author in Kyoto
A-Z Blogging in April Participant
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I’m curious, have you run across a good link for that Magic E rule?
I hear you about messed-up spelling…I find the trickiest part of editing is correcting those things that are not actually “wrong” but aren’t “right” for that audience!
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I happen to have a lovely song, for kids, but it’s catchy:
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That’s so cute! And definitely catchy. Thanks, Alex! 🙂
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Ah, another good one. I’ve had to catch myself on this one a couple times. Along a similar vein, I sometimes note ‘breath’ and ‘breathe’ misused. It’s easy to forget to add the ending ‘e’ when referring to the verb.
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Hi Carrie, yes, that’s another one that’s easily missed. Maybe I should write about that one someday!
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Your little story explained well the use of envelope & envelop. I always enjoy the sci-fi twist 🙂
Endeavour, is the way I learned it. “our” – I like the look of those words ending with “our”, a tradition of some kind, that I want to preserve. thanks for this educative session! Exploring today…if I get time, in more posts of the A to Z challenge!
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Hope you enjoy your explorations, Nicole! There are a lot of good posts out there from A to Z. 🙂
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I also misspell envelope. Spell check is probably tired of correcting me.
~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
Member of C. Lee’s Muffin Commando Squad
Story Dam
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
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Luckily, I don’t think spell check ever gets tired…otherwise we’d be in trouble!
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I definitely prefer ‘our’ but that is because I am Canadian, so we don’t kick the u’s out of words like our Southern neighbours (see neighbour! :P)
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As a fellow Canadian, I definitely sympathize with your point of view, Leetah! 🙂
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I always spell endeavor wrong (I tend to use the British way; and yes, when I typed it here that way, it came out as misspelled LOL Thank goodness for the spellcheck!) And envelope / enveloped: don’t even get me started. This is a word my students–and even I– type wrong and I have, on occasion, missed it on re-reads! I think I read it so fast my brain just twists the word into whatever I need to be at the time. I need to be more vigilant with those words. 😀
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Hi Kat! It’s hard to make your brain slow down, isn’t it? One of the fun tips I have learned as a proofreader is to only read two or three words at a time, and to read them in strange groupings (like groups that go across sentences) so you are really looking at the words, rather than thinking about the meaning. Time-consuming, but it works! 🙂
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I love finding out where expressions such as “pushing the envelope” come from, so thanks for explaining that.
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You’re welcome, Anabel! Thanks for reading. 🙂
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I didn’t know the noun and the verb were spelled differently. I thought it was the same word, but with two different uses. Like building, which can be both a noun and a verb.
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You’d think they would be the same, but not in this case! That’s the joy of the English language. 😉
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I more often read “endeavour” (it seems like more Brits use it in their writing than Americans do) so when I write “endeavor” (because I’m American) it looks funny to me.
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It looks funny to me, too, because I’m used to the British spelling. I wonder if the British use it more than the Americans do? Now that would be interesting to find out!
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Hi Sue. I never knew about the phrase pushing the envelope’s connection with aircraft or other technology. I learned something new today. And every time the “u” is missing from words (Canadian spelling) the word looks naked to me, haha.
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Naked! Now there’s a good word for it. 🙂
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These posts are so useful and entertaining! Thank you, Ms. Sue!
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You’re welcome, Albert! I’m happy you are enjoying them!
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I’m a pretty good speller but I think you just taught me something about the word envelop. Thanks.
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Hi, Eve! Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I’m glad my post was helpful for you!
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I just use “endeavor.” Loved the glowing envelope and the hug. Made me smile. 🙂
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I’m so glad! 🙂
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What a fun fact, and great lesson. Glad I stopped by.
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Hi Silvia! I’m happy you liked it. Thanks for coming by and commenting!
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I had thought the space shuttle was ‘Endeavor’, since it was made in the USA…
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Yes, it’s a bit of a surprise, isn’t it?
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That was a cute little story! Always prefer the English spellings even though they’re usually longer.
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Thanks, Nick! Yes, they look fancier to me somehow. 🙂
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Another great set of words. I think you enveloped the topic nicely 🙂 I used to use the English spellings in school just to aggravate my teachers 🙂 Yes, I was one of ‘those’ students.
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Of of ‘those’ students, eh? You know this means that someday you will be a teacher who has to deal with someone exactly like you. 😉
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perhaps. I’ve already taught Scouts 🙂 so I think I’ve had my pay back 😉
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I had no idea that the verb had no e at the end.
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I’m glad the post was helpful, Rhonda!
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Oh this is great – I hadn’t known about the envelope / envelop difference, I guess spellcheck sorted that one for me until now!
I guess for us frenchies there are three levels of difficulty to the word envelope then – e or no e, and one p or two!!
By the way I just read a blog post that I thought you’d find interesting: http://nofacilities.com/2015/04/04/nudification/
Dan mentions how normally ‘de’ as a prefix is a negative (such as deactivate), but in the case of denuding, it isn’t. I thought that was quite interesting, I have no idea why that is, but thought maybe you’d know! 🙂
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Thanks for the link, that was an interesting post! I hadn’t looked at it before, but my dictionary says one of the meanings of denuded is to deprive of a possession or attribute. So that’s kind of a negative. Still weird though!
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Well yes but nude already means bare – so following the normal rule of the ‘de’ prefix, to denude should be to ‘un’ bare if you see what I mean, and therefore should mean adding, rather than depriving. It’s amusing just how many exceptions there are to each and every rule in the English language!
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Yes, it is! I found something about the etymology of the word denude which makes more sense. It comes from the Latin “de” (completely) + “nudare” (to bare). Apparently the Latin “de” means a lot of things, which is why we have this confusion. Here’s a link about “de”: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=de-&allowed_in_frame=0
Thanks, I learned a lot on this one!
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Another great little ditty, Sue. And I especially enjoyed the link to the NASA banner. What an red-faced day for those poor folks. Ah well, it’s the thought that counts, right? Cheers
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Yes, it was a great gesture…too bad that error ended up in the public eye!
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