I was reading a Facebook post on one of my favorite magazine’s news feed. In that post, they used the word palate. When I read that word, I was reminded of a story that I wrote for the same publication using the word palette.
The fact that palette and palate are two entirely different things, at that very moment, hit me upside the head like, well, like a ton of bricks. What also hit me upside the head was that I remembered using the wrong word both in my query and in my story.
From Merriam-Webster.com
Conscientious freelancer that I am, I felt compelled to let the editor know that the wrong word had been used in my story and that I was, nonetheless late to notice, deeply sorry. So, I dug out the printed issue with my story and found that the copy editor that handled my piece actually changed my use of palette, for the roof of the mouth to, get this, taste buds.
Ha! The joke was on me.
