In 1762 in Baltimore County, Maryland, the debts of an estate were divided into two categories, sperate and desperate. I was aware of what desperate debts were–unlikely to be paid–and a little bit of critical thinking led me to conclude that sperate debts were the opposite of ones that were desperate. A look at Merriam-Webster confirmed my hypothesis as it referred to sperate as an adjective meaning “giving some hope of being paid.” There were several pages of debts listed due the estate. Fortunately my forebear John DeMoss was in the sperate category. Comments: it’s perfectly fine to not realize you remember what a word means. It’s not perfectly fine to fail to look it up. Google does not like archaic words that differ from a modern word […]
Thanks to everyone who took advantage of our 50% off sale on webinars. We’ve extended the sale for one day–through 11:00 pm central on 24 November. Details are on our announcement page. Thanks!
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