Winter and vintner are easily confused words.
The spell-check application of most word processing software programs would not catch a slip-up of these two words. Spell-check is looking for words that aren’t in its dictionary, and words that resemble words in its dictionary, but are possibly spelled wrong. Spell-check isn’t perfect. It doesn’t know and can’t guess what word you wanted, or what word you meant, it can only judge the words on the page. If you used words that are all spelled correctly, it gives you a pass anyway.
Autocorrect suggests words that start with the same letters. It’s suggesting what word you may want to save time, but quite often, its suggestions are pretty off base. They don’t help you out, but they do make you laugh.
Winter (pronounced “wihn-tuhr”) has multiple meanings.
- As a noun, it means the colder solstice of the year. In the northern hemisphere, this happens December-February. In the southern hemisphere, this happens June-August.
- As a verb, it means to vacation in an area during the winter months. For example, people in northern climates in the US, if they can afford it, winter in Florida, Arizona, or other sunnier places.
Vintner (pronounced “vihnt-nuhr”) is a noun. It means someone who sells wine.
The following story uses both words correctly:
Vijay quit his high-stress job in hedge fund management to start a vineyard and small goat farm. In five years, he was the most successful vintners in his area. Once his staff felt comfortable running the store without him, he wintered out of town. Sometimes he took in film festivals. Other times he went to Sedona, Arizona.
Kathleen W Curry 