Aureoles/areolae eggcorn?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 24, 2006, at 7:11 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> This has been a problem for decades. When I began to do umresearch
> upon reaching puberty in the mid-'Forties, I learned "aureole" from my
> readings. It was perhaps ten or more years later that I first came
> across "areola." By that time, I had studied Latin for about five
> years and I decided that "areola" - "a small area" - must be the
> "correct" term, as being more descriptive than "'aureole,"

so you had the substitution "aureole" >> "areola".  (the reverse
substitution is the common one.)

> from a
> Latin word that means "golden, gold-colored, gold-plated," etc.

ah, let me correct my earlier posting.  the latin nouns involved are
AREA and AURUM (not AURA, which is something else entirely).

arnold

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