Are you a trooper or a trouper?
The English language is rife with vast confusion when it comes to its, well, words. I was recently trying to categorize Tiger, the Wonder cat as a "real trooper" and had to pause and look up both words to see if I got it right.
The operating principle in this particular case seems to be that if you're trying to describe courage and the like, you're a trooper (origin 1500s and war stuff). If you're trying to describe cooperation, dependability, "the show must go on" it's trouper (origin 1800s show business).
So with regard to Tiger, both happen to work.
We need to clean up this damn language.
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