Ninja's English Usage Advice Column

The root e comes from the Latin (and Greek) ex which means "out of" or "from". The root i comes from the Latin in which means "into" or "towards". Strictly speaking, shouldn't inquire mean "to be asked of" and enquire "to ask of or about"? We seem to enquire after someone's health, and others inquire of me why I was late for dinner. But, in fact it is widely accepted that enquire is a variant of inquire and that they can be used quite interchangably. Entrust and intrust have the same flexibility in usage. Personally, I would never intrust my violin to you. I am more apt to entrust it to you instead. I am giving it up, giving it out, handing it away and over to you after all. You are well within your rights to differ on this.

To emigrate, however, always means a very different thing from immigrate. If I leave the country to take up citizenship elsewhere, then I have emigrated. And I could be an emigre, but this word often refers to a political exile. It is more likely that I am a plain vanilla emigrant. In the country I have moved to I will be considered to have immigrated into it. And I will likely be treated in many matters as an immigrant in my new land.

Consider explode and implode. An explosion is an outward event. According to the Pocket Oxford, it means to "expand suddenly with a loud noise owing to the release of internal energy." An implosion is an inward event. A "burst[ing] inward", according to the Oxford, instead. An explosion that is directed inwards rather than outwards. I must admit, I find that quite hard to visualize.

In any case, you need no longer wonder if the National Enquirer could have been named the National Inquirer since either name would serve the same purpose in providing the same kind of information.