Showing posts with label ode. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ode. Show all posts

Thursday, March 13, 2014

owed, ode

Owed or owed is the past tense of "owe", meaning to be in debt to, or under an obligation to repay--
She owed me ten dollars, but she only paid back five.
I have owed him a letter for months now.

Ode or ode ( rhymes with owed ) means a poem. Ode once meant a particular type of poem, intended to be sung; now it more generally means a poem, or a poem expressing exalted feeling or strong emotion --
He has been trying to memorize "Ode on a Grecian Urn".
Don't interrupt him; he's composing an ode in honor of the Monday holiday.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"He offered the clerk his "Ode in Praise of Waffles", but the clerk said he still owed $11.50."

Note--not to be confused with "eau de" ( almost rhymes with owed ), French for "water of "--
If the eau de toilette is too strong, try the eau de cologne.

Note # 2--"-ode" may also be a suffix ( added at the end of a word ), meaning a path or way--
He still has an old television with a cathode ray tube.