Void - Devoid - Avoid - KNOW YOUR TERMS!!!

[GeneratorPower]

Grammar police, here. Everybody put your hands up!

Words:

Void - An empty space or hole (noun). To cancel something (verb).

Devoid - Completely lacking, destitue, or empty (adjective).

Avoid - To keep away from (verb).


A tropical wave can be "devoid" of deep convection. It cannot be "void" or "avoid" of deep convection. The NHC guys will sometimes say that a wave is "void of convection", however, they are using the wrong grammar. Void is a noun. What they need is the adjective, devoid.

Just something helpful, hopefully not insulting.

[tropicana]

i knew AVOID, i didnt know the difference between void and devoid, so thanks!

-justin-

[coriolis]

some storms seem to AVOID deep convection

[fasterdisaster]

I don't mean to be a prude, but a storm can indeed be void of convection. Void has more than one definition, and one of them is in fact the same thing as 'devoid'. Void can be a noun, verb, OR adjective. As an adjective, it means lacking or empty.

[GeneratorPower]

I don't mean to be a prude, but a storm can indeed be void of convection. Void has more than one definition, and one of them is in fact the same thing as 'devoid'. Void can be a noun, verb, OR adjective. As an adjective, it means lacking or empty.

Dictionaries in the last few years have begun to recognize this incorrect use, just as they have added different spellings and pronunciations for things like "Poinsettia" or "Poinsetta" in reference to the Christmas flower. However, it is not proper to refer to the flower as Poinsetta because it was named after a Mr. Poinsettia, its discoverer. The elimination of the "i" is laziness, but the dictionary people accept it anyway.

Same thing with void and devoid. They are not interchangeable, however people are using them that way so the dictionary labels them as such. My opinion is that a dictionary should be a source of correctness; a standard we can always compare ourselves to. Of late they have become simply a recording of the way things are used, not the way they should be used.

[fasterdisaster]

I don't mean to be a prude, but a storm can indeed be void of convection. Void has more than one definition, and one of them is in fact the same thing as 'devoid'. Void can be a noun, verb, OR adjective. As an adjective, it means lacking or empty.

Dictionaries in the last few years have begun to recognize this incorrect use, just as they have added different spellings and pronunciations for things like "Poinsettia" or "Poinsetta" in reference to the Christmas flower. However, it is not proper to refer to the flower as Poinsetta because it was named after a Mr. Poinsettia, its discoverer. The elimination of the "i" is laziness, but the dictionary people accept it anyway.

Same thing with void and devoid. They are not interchangeable, however people are using them that way so the dictionary labels them as such. My opinion is that a dictionary should be a source of correctness; a standard we can always compare ourselves to. Of late they have become simply a recording of the way things are used, not the way they should be used.

Ah I see. Yes you're probably right. (Though I do know how to spell poinsettia fortunately. )

[fasterdisaster]

Hmmm...but I have to still say that one of the definitions of void is an adjective meaning almost the same thing as 'devoid'.

It can't just be a recent thing, as with a little research, I found that this definition has been used as early as biblical times, as can be seen in the verse, "The Earth was without form, and void" which can be found in Genesis 1:2 I believe. And also in Acts(don't know what verse, sorry) it's said "A conscience void of offense toward God" and in Proverbs "He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor."

Now this would create the possibility that it's an archaic definition, but a run on thesaurus.com(directly taken from Roget's) will give you:

Synonyms: abandoned, bare, barren, bereft, clear, deprived, destitute, devoid, drained, emptied, free, lacking, scant, short, shy, tenantless, unfilled, unoccupied, vacant, vacuous, without

for the adjective definition.

The only difference between 'void' in its adjective definition and 'devoid' is that 'void' merely means 'lacking', while 'devoid' actually means 'lacking, only after something has been taken away

[abajan]

Languages change with time - sometimes significantly.

For example, if someone said to you that something was "awful and artificial" you would think he or she didn't like it. Right?

Well, if someone said that to you (say) a couple hundred years ago, you would think just the opposite. That's because back then "awful" meant "awesome" and "artificial" meant "artistic"! (Or so I'm told.)