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Wordwise: the differences between "ear" and "eer"

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In English, some words may present spelling challenges because of sounding the same though written differently for different meanings.

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Consider this pair: “dear” (cherished) and “deer” (cervine/antlered animal) in which the elements “ear” and “eer” have the same pronunciation. Two other similarly paired variations occur as follows: “tear” (eye secretion) and “tier” (level of a row or a series); and the practically interchangeable “sear” (cook briefly with food surface exposure to high heat) and “sere” (drying affected by heat), these two also parallel to “hear” and “here.”

Thus do the above-noted examples demonstrate the possibility of each of these four variations having the sound factor: ear, ere, eer, and ier while adding an associative concept to the core word.

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Here are a few more samples of the above vowel-combination formats:

Ear – appear, clear, dreary, fear, gear, rear, shear (cut), and year. Ere – adhere, interfere, severe, and sphere. Eer – beer, cheer, jeer, leer, sheer (bright/clear), sneer, and veer. Ier – cashier (money handler), chiffonier (fabric-bits storage cabinet), financier (investor), bandolier (for an over the shoulder and across the chest to the opposite waist ammunition belt/band worn by infantry soldiers), bombardier, brigadier, and fusilier.

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The latter four examples of military association also so show up in the “eer” category, as per the following: carbineer and musketeer which referred to persons having such-related responsibilities from the so-called weapons: carbines (shortened from Italian “Calabria rifles”), “musket” from “mosca” as Italian equivalent to French “mouche” (fly) in description of line after line of musketeer soldiers firing pellet-bullets (ideally four per minute with each reloaded manually) their making a fly-like buzzing sound in flight through the air. Similar weapon-associated soldiers were cannoneers and pistoleers.

Other “eer” terms include the following. Auctioneer from a Latin root meaning “augment” (build up) the value as such a person does for the sale of goods.

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Buccaneer – a pirate of the Caribbean named from clothing and body having the smell of smoke (French “boucan” – smoke) from an adoption of the local custom of cooking meat over shoreline fires (aka “barbecue” – a native Carib term also for a “wooden framework” as the base for such a fire.

Charioteer – originally one who drove a horse-drawn chariot, but nowadays possibly applicable to someone who permanently borrows a supermarket shopping cart known in French as “un chariot de magasinage.”

Engineer – one who has the extraordinary ability (in-born/genetic) for designing useful machinery or “engines.”

Mountaineer – one interested in climbing mountains. Pioneer – sourced from “peon/pion” (French “pied”) once used in the description of someone travelling on foot possibly to find a new place to live for whatever reason, then later applied to those in 1800s North America who, for such a purpose, travelled westward in covered wagons.

Scrutineer – one who “examines,” now applied to someone who checks election results. Timoneer – one who steers a boat, a helmsperson from “timon” originally for a manually controlled rudder shaft. Finally, two more “eer” terms with a power sense: “commandeer” and “domineering.”

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