Perspective - prospective

Do not confuse these two near-homophones. In current English, they have clearly distinct meanings; but a typographical error can confuse a spellchecker. Be careful to use the word you mean to use.

• Perspective is essentially a noun, used sometimes as an epithet, as in 'perspective drawing'. Its primary current meaning is 'the technique of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional (plane) surface', as in the drawings that an architect presents to show how a proposed building will look . This has extended to the figurative senses of 'a sense of proportion', 'the understanding of priorities' as in such idioms as "the student must develop a sense of perspective [e.g. when looking at a detail in an historical account, and not looking at the broader picture]"; and 'a standpoint', 'the position from which something is observed', as in "looking at this from a purely financial perspective [without any ethical, political etc considerations]".
  • Archaic meanings of perspective include 'the science of optics'; 'an optical instrument', e.g. a magnifying glass, or a telescope; a landscape view, or any general scene; 'a looking forward', 'an anticipation' (a meaning now only for the word prospective ).
• Prospective is essentially an adjective. It is rarely used nowadays substantively. The central meaning is 'of the future [and not yet actual]', sometimes with connotations of 'intended', 'proposed'; less often of 'hypothetical'. (Cf. the phrase "in prospect", meaning 'in the foreseeable future'.) A "prospective merger" between two companies is on that will probably happen, or that has been proposed with some likelihood of success; a prospective parliamentary candidate (ppc) is a person who will be declared a candidate when an election is declared (but is not yet subject to restrictions on legitimate expenses, because not yet an official candidate).
  • Archaic meanings of prospective include 'a device to enable one to [allegedly] see into the future', e.g. a crystal ball; 'a device to see at a distance', e.g. a telescope; 'a view', 'a landscape' or a picture of it (cf. prospect).

Etymological note: these two words have been confused from their earliest appearance in England. This was in the form of the Latin verb p**spicere, which scribes wrote in an abbreviated form, using various modifications to the letter 'p' to indicate a prefix. In the case of per-, this was a straight horizontal bar half-way down the tail of the letter 'p'; for pro-, it was a curve on the left-hand side joining the serif at the foot of the letter to an extension of the bottom of the semi-circle. The position is more ambiguous than this, in that there are regional variations in scribal practice and convention: in Spain, for example, the curve used in Britain for pro- was used for per-. The original verb, in classical Latin, was ''prōspicere: perspicere is a post-classical `variant;." The original could be used in the senses of both modern words, indiscriminately.