Showing posts with label phiale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label phiale. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2012

vile, vial

Vile or vile means despicable or loathesome, often meaning behavior--
What a nasty woman. Such vile manners!
This cake tastes vile. Did you put in salt instead of sugar?

Vial or vial ( rhymes with vile ) means a glass tube or small container , probably with a cap on the top--
She broke a small vial of perfume, and the whole house smelled of it.
The vial of medicine contains three doses.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"The nurse gave him a vial of vile-tasting medicine for his sore throat."

Note-"phial" is an old-fashioned spelling of "vial"--
Dr. Jeckyl swallowed a phial of the potion, and became Mr. Hyde."

Note # 2--not to be confused with "file", meaning a folder or set of papers, or a particular body of information stored electronically--
Did you find the file on housing costs?

Note # 3--to "file" something--a verb ( action word ) means to arrange it alphabetically ( from A to Z ) in a set of files--
She had a stack of folders to file.

Note # 4--a "phiale"  is a kind of ancient Roman drinking cup shaped like a saucer--
They admired the strange phiale in the glass case at the museum.