Paparazzo Versus Paparazzi

Faux Pas? by Philip Gooden

I've been enjoying "Faux Pas?" lately and it succeeded to inspire me a lot. I feel like a very beginner in English as I only know one or two exact meanings of words I easily see. It's so amazing to know that many people (including myself) mistakenly using words through the wrong and sometimes silly ways. This book is written by Philip Gooden and you could see the cover on the left.

So, when I was traveling around a brand-new world of new vocabularies, I found a good question for you. Which one would you pick as a correct word, paparazzo or paparazzi?

Honestly said, I even have never found the word paparazzo before. Just before I read this book and it broadened my mind! I thought that paparazzo might be the original word that made the term paparazzi because I never read that word anywhere. It might be because I don't like celebs gossips so much. But also might be because medias around me don't even know about paparazzo. Lots of possibilities, but now with the help of this book, I could use the correct term whenever I need to.

Okay, time's up and here's the answer. Both paparazzo and paparazzi are correct! So, what's the difference?

The truth is, paparazzo is for singular person while paparazzi for the plural form of paparazzo.

Paparazzo is freelance photographer who specializes in catching celebrities, particularly during off-guard moments. Paparazzo is the surname of a fictional free-lance photographer in the 1960 Italian film, La Dolce Vita. The word now applies to a whole class of contemporary villains (note the word villains here, surely Philip has a good sense of humor!). A paparazzo (plural, paparazzi) is likely be a hate figure for the celebrity, unless his/her career is flagging or unless there is some other, tortuous reason for publicizing that 'indiscreet' moment. From the opposite side, the paparazzi can get a lot of stick from the public for hounding celebs, as shown by the uproar following the death of Princess Diana in 1997. Yet everyone knows the world would be a duller place without them.

Here are my opinions about Philip Gooden's Faux Pas? from general perspective. What I like from this book is that every word has its pronounce-helper and the original language where this word came from is also attached. It has great descriptions and definitions, also several information including history about the word itself. There is also a mark whether the public extremely mistaken in using the word, moderately, or even none. Each of them also supported with usage examples, which are very good and taken from great source as well.

Note: I bought the second-hand book at local bookstore just for around US$5 (if converted). I'm living far from Europe and US, so that's a great deal for me!