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 a 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 his 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 his jaw.
© 2021 Ann Henry. All Rights Reserved.