Grammar Moses: 'Caregiver' or 'caretaker'? Who's caring for what?

Is it better to give than to take?

Jan Hollen writes: "Can you help us determine when to use 'caregiver' and when to use 'caretaker'? I always thought a 'caregiver' gives care to someone (a person), and a 'caretaker' takes care of a thing. Are they synonymous or do they have specific usage rules?"

You'd think this would be a simple answer. I've always used "caregiver" to talk about someone who cares for people and "caretaker" as someone who cares for a thing.

I thought it prudent to consult a few good resources.

Grammarist.com says the two terms are synonymous in the States but that in England one who provides care for another person is a "career."

I turned to the very British Oxford English Dictionary, which says a "caregiver" is the same as a "career" - someone who takes care of another person. It also notes that a "caretaker" tends to buildings or other things but that in North America a "caretaker" also can tend to people or animals.

Merriam-Webster says a "caregiver" tends specifically to people, while a "caretaker" can take care of people or things.

So I think we have consensus, Jan.

For my money, the quintessential caretaker is Jack Torrance, who minded the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's "The Shining" (and probably still does).

While he was more concerned with "taking care" of the people in his life with an ax, he lovingly tended to the Overlook. And those who've read the book or seen the movie know the Overlook was more than just a building. So in my twisted mind that satisfies both definitions of "caretaker."

It's the principle

A reader who asked to be identified as "KJ" wrote to tell me that a board he is on was reviewing an intergovernmental agreement that - in the first paragraph - identifies parties to the agreement by noting their "principle" offices are in Whoville, Illinois.

"Attorneys from both sides had reviewed this document and deemed it final," KJ said.

The astute among you will note that the proper spelling is "principal," meaning primary.

Some of you will shrug at this homophonic mishap, but in legal documents, precision is everything. Contracts have been voided over a misspelled word or a misplaced numeral or comma.

Even if the result wouldn't be as dire as that, there is a good chance an attorney will have to redraft the document. And who among us wants to spend more money on lawyers?

Paraprosdokian redux

Constant reader Cynthia Cwynar offered a fun paraprosdokian that I hadn't heard before. It is especially poignant for me, given I just celebrated a wedding anniversary in such low-key fashion that we agreed the washer and dryer we had to buy a few weeks ago would serve as our gifts to one another.

For those of you in need of a refresher, a paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is unexpected in a way that requires you to reinterpret the earlier part. It's the basis for a lot of humor.

Therapist: Your wife says you never buy her flowers.

Husband: To be honest, I never knew she sold flowers.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.