Missouri proposes important law ruling that 'fiscal' and 'physical' are two totally different words
Homonyms -- words that sound the same but have different definitions -- are hard.
We're all been their. You meant to use won word, but ended up oozing another.
That's why we at Mashable would like to coagulate Tracy McCreery, a representative in Missouri's state for proposing H.R. 1220, which asks that her fellow legislators stop using "physical" and start using "fiscal" when talking about monetary matters.
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This is a real problem, and not just in Missouri. The two words are frequently confused. Grammarist has an excellent primer for those who are intent on improving their syntax.
The resolution proposes:
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we, the members of the Missouri House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth General Assembly, hereby urge the members of the Missouri House of Representatives to use the word “fiscal” instead of “physical” when referring to fiscal matters.
McCreery, who is serving her first full term in the Missouri House, told the Washington Post that she felt she showed "great restraint" in waiting a few months to file the resolution.
It's no joke to McCreery, who told the Riverfront Times that the confusion happened "daily."
“There are a lot of reasons to be depressed about the Missouri Legislature, and this just kind of piles on,” she told the Times.
Don't think McCreery is just about linguistics. She's also worked on creating a family and medical leave requirement for Missouri workers.
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Keep up the good work, Rep. McCreery.
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Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
