An Embarressing Blunder

Have you ever said a “word”, quite confident of its existence, only to find out (quite embarrassingly) that it doesn’t exist?

This week we read and discussed famous speeches in my essay reading class (British and American Essays). We looked at Abraham Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address”, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” and the recent “Yes We Can!” speech by Barack Obama.

Talking about different rhetorical techniques used by orators I mentioned the term “intuation” – even writing it on the board. The blank faces of my students caused me to explain the concept as “the upward and downward tone of the voice while speaking” and I even gave some practical examples. One student asked hesitantly if it is similar to “intonation”. I blushed. Where I got “intuation” from I have no idea. The closest real word to it is “intubation” which means the insertion of a tube into a hollow organ, to catheterize!