Writers who are unfamiliar with a word shouldn’t use it … or should check with someone who knows it before they include it in a story. Ideally, an editor will spot a misuse and intervene. But neither of those things happened in a restaurant review in the March 22 edition of Nuvo, an Indianapolis newsweekly.
The writer shared this quote from the restaurateur: “As we get our sea legs and Chef Stum gets used to this food we’ll start to take some risks and do some more interesting things under the hospices of Southern European food.” I’m guessing the writer taped the interview and transcribed what he heard … or at least what he thought he heard. I’m really hoping the word was “auspices,” which in this context refers to guidance and patronage, because “hospices” are organizations that provide end-of-life services and places people go to die. Not quite the ambience one expects from a trendy eatery.