A Hotel Made Out Of Sand

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‘Made of’ and ‘made out of

By FADZILLAH AMIN


COULD you explain the difference between “made of” and “made out of”?

For example, should it be “The tiara is made of gold” or “The tiara is made out of gold”? What is the difference?

My second question is about the word “circa”. How should this word be used in a sentence or caption?

– Jessie, Kuala Lumpur

1. Both expressions – “made of” and “made out of” – mean the same thing, but “made of” is more commonly used. “Made out of” is sometimes used when something is made out of an unusual substance. Here are some examples:

“A hotel made out of sand in England”

(http://www.hotel-blogs.com/guillaume_thevenot/2008/07/a-hotel-made-ou.html)

“Fully recyclable, the bike made out of cardboard”

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4221806.ece)

2. “Circa” is a Latin word meaning “about” or “approximately” and often used before a date. It is more often used in captions than in sentences, where one can use the English word for it.

An example of its use in a caption is given in the Oxford English Dictionary:

“A curious photograph of a rustic family at work, circa 1390” (1861 National Rev. Oct. 307)

Sometimes “circa” is just abbreviated to “c” or “ca”.

source: thestar.com.my