Tuesday, January 3, 2012

attainable vs. obtainable.

i mentioned yesterday that from now on, i'm setting realistic and attainable goals (part of the S.M.A.R.T. plan, duh) and almost immediately i worried that i meant obtainable? so let's all learn something, or re-learn it, because surely this was covered in our nation's great education program?
obtainable speaks of truth that some thing exists and one can get. attainable speaks use of intelligence to get it.

"A prostitute is obtainable, but true love is not attainable so easily."

obtainable- that may be procured or gained.
adjective 1. available, to be had, procurable.
adjective 2. accessible, achievable, at your fingertips, at your disposal, reachable, realizable, gettable, accomplishable.

attainable-possible to achieve
able to be achieved, accomplished or obtained. possible to achieve, reach, or get.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I had no idea!

kristina said...

samesies! i felt a false sense of brilliance after googling the twain (i totally had to look that word up too), which i hope to validate by using both of these in conversation soon.

thanks for stopping by!
kristina

motormouth said...

The relentlessness of wonder. Heh.
Try using punctuation. Commas, capital letters and such. If you want readers to take you seriously, you have to communicate your thoughts accurately, by using some periods, capital letters and the all powerful, comma. Just put wherever you would breathe if you were talking.

Thenondweeb said...

I have learned something, thanks for this!