Melliferous vs Mellifluous

Among the many wonderful benefits to flow from the UK Brexit crisis, I am personally grateful to John Bercow, surely one of the greatest Speakers of the British House of Commons, for prompting me to clarify an essential question of word meaning. Calling on honourable members to attend to the explanation by our current Attorney General, concerning why he advised the government that it would be proper to lie to the Queen about the purposes of the recent prorogation of Parliament (now being struck from the official record in response to the Supreme Court decision nullifying it), Bercow remarked on the Attorney General’s thespian vocal style (which is not in the slightest bit contrived), that he had a mellifluous tone.

Shocked, I grabbed the dictionary. And there it was, mellifluous, ‘having a smooth rich flow like that of honey’. For I, you see, had been labouring for decades under the impression that the correct word was melliferous — but that, of course, means ‘producing or yielding honey’ (which makes it one of those rare words which can be used correctly only of bees and certain tropical ants).

The other benefits of the Brexit crisis will have to be the subject of a future blog post. A long one, naturally. For the moment, I can only assume that my admission of honey-based confusion will be costing my business dearly, and unlike the Attorney General, I have nothing to say in defence of my indefensible error.