I Can Totally Conflate

I find it so exciting when I run across a word that is completely new to me. First I smugly assume that the writer just misspelled a word and it isn't a word at all. This is especially true when it's found in a letter to the editor. Later I might consider that it's really a word, but the writer used it wrong. And sometimes it's just a perfect real world that is used in the perfect context and I desperately want to add it to my vocabulary despite the fact that no one I was talking to or writing for would understand it!

In today's paper, a writer of a letter to the editor writes, "...as a Jew, I am deply disturbed that anyone should attempt to defend the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza..." In closing, she writes, "I refuse to conflate Judaism with Israel." I kept the paper folded open to that page until I got around to looking up the word, finding the following definition:

Conflate - verb (trans.)
to combine (two or more texts, ideas, etc.) into one

Now I can't stop thinking of things that I would like to or cannot conflate.

I wish we could conflate customer service and customer satisfaction.
I cannot conflate health insurance with health and financial security.
It's a shame that many people cannot conflate school with education.

What about you? Any thoughts?

Di

Comments

[Shirley]

How about dieting (or maybe heathly eating is a better term)with weight loss? That just popped into my mind first since I am starting the New Year trying to go easy on the chocolate- backslipping badly already.

[Shirley]

Oops, I posted too quickly -spelled healthy incorrectly - I know you caught that one Di.

[Liz]

JFYI,You put "world" instead of "word" in the fifth sentence. :) No matter how hard we try, it's hard to be perfect with conventions.

[Di]

Great catch!