Ttitled -vs- entitled

M

Michael

歌舞伎
Valued Senior Member
The book was titled: '50 Ways to Loose a Woman'.
The book was entitled: '50 Ways to Loose a Woman'.

She was given the title: 'Queen of the Damned'.
She was entitled:'Queen of the Damned'.


My question: Do we use the words titled and entitled the same for people as we do for books?
 
"Entitled" means, roughly, qualified to do something by law. So, I am entitled to vote, for example. A book isn't entitled to do anything.

A person can be "titled". A titled person is generally a member of the peerage - a knight, an earl, a duke, a king, etc.

I don't think that "She was entitled 'Queen of the Damned'" is correct usage. "The book was titled 'Queen of the Damned'" is barely acceptable, but would be better phrased as simply "The title of the book was 'Queen of the Damned'".

By the way, why is it such a common mistake to write "loose" when you mean "lose"?
 
What is definition #1 from Dictionary.com?
entitle
1. To give a name or title to.

So this couldn't be a book title?

RE: spelling
As a child I got caught in the middle of that Gods damned experiment on teaching children to spell by visualizing and not by pronunciation and doing away with grammar which should be willy nilly and "evolve" with society. Some hippy bullshit from the late 70s mid 80s that proved a failure! Add to that a flu that's totaling my brain and if spell check misses it, it ain't gettn corrected!
 
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I feel that I'm entitled to a title..

Sidenote: I know I will regret typing the above.
 
Unfortunately the difference between the two words has been muddled by years of imprecise usage. Definition #2 of "entitle" in Dictionary.com is:
to call by a particular title or name: What was the book entitled?
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The only definition for "title" as a verb is:
to furnish with a title; designate by an appellation; entitle.
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The other dictionaries it references are consistent with this.

To talk about "entitling" something instead of merely "titling" it is an example of using loftier-seeming language in the hope of appearing more sophisticated. Other examples include:
  • Pronouncing the first C in "arctic," even though it has been silent since before the word was borrowed from French in the first place.
  • Assuming that "to dive" is supposed to be a strong verb on the model of "drive" and "strive," and inventing the past tense "dove"--while, amusingly enough, not remembering to turn the past participle into "diven."
 
Gremmie said:
I feel that I'm entitled to a title..

Sidenote: I know I will regret typing the above.
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heh... :D

Fraggle Rocker said:
To talk about "entitling" something instead of merely "titling" it is an example of using loftier-seeming language in the hope of appearing more sophisticated.
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That's how I was going to use it, until I worried I was using it wrongly and thought - OMG, I'm going to look like a the worst kind of douche if I use this word here :eek:


:D
 
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