Certain sets of words in the English language tend to confuse people. I have found the following to be among them:
JAW / OTHER JAW
Years ago, I asked a doctor friend to read the manuscript of my novel to see if I’d made any technical errors in the medical realm. He found only one: “People have only one jaw,” he said.
I mentally smacked myself on the head and thought: Of course! The ole jawbone. I knew that!
But I’d forgotten it when I wrote that my protagonist was hit on “the other jaw.”
Recently I noted the same mistake in a literary novel by a noted author, so now I know I’m not alone when it comes to this faux pas.
To be clear, we humans do have both an upper jaw and a lower jaw, both of which contain our teeth, but what we are referring to here is the lower jaw, which is one, single bone, also known as the mandible, which is hinged to the lower part of the skull and forms the chin at its outermost reaches.
INCORRECT: The assailant jabbed him on the left jaw and then in the stomach before delivering the final lights-out blow to the other jaw.
CORRECT: The assailant jabbed him on the left side of the jaw and then in the stomach before delivering the final lights-out blow to the other side of the jaw.
© 2019 Ann Henry. All Rights Reserved.