Today’s Word Nerd will look at three words that have almost nothing in common except pronunciation, and yet they get mixed up all the time. Just for fun, we’ll throw in a suffix that you’ll probably never use.
Site
The physical location where something is, was or will be, such as the site of a building or battle. On the Internet, site refers to a virtual location.
Cite
to reference an authority, such as a legal precedent, or to issue a citation (either negatively, such as a traffic ticket, or positively, such as a military honor).
Sight
The ability to see, or something to look at.
Site dates from around 1350; it’s Middle English, derived from the Latin situs, meaning position, arrangement, location.
Cite originates around 1400; late Middle English, from the Latin cit?re, to hurry or to set in motion.
Sight first appears before 950; from the Old English sihth, by way of the German Gesicht meaning face.
Bonus word:
-cyte
a suffix used in biology to create cell names and classifications; a word ending in -cyte is a name of a cell. Example: lymphocyte.
-cyte comes from New Latin -cyta, from the Ancient Greek kutos container, vessel, jar.
If you site an author, you’re identifying his location.
If you mention the sight of a historic event, you’re talking about watching it happen.
And let’s not forget the added confusion for some people who say they visit a websight!
The virtual sense of “site” as a location is not restricted to the Internet. For example, a feminist critic might talk about the body as a site of discrimination. While bodies are physical, the critic is talking about the idea of the body or bodies in general, which are abstract.