"Very discrete shipping and billing" - spam message subject
Actually, what the twerp is suggesting is discretion, not discreteness, for his/her dubious pharmaceutical products. However, I guess that the target market is probably not known for its intellectual or grammatical abilities.
Discrete means separate, distinct, self-contained - as in "the population of Uplyme parish lives in several discrete settlements, including Uplyme proper, Holcome, Harcombe and Rocombe".
Discreet means hidden, private or covert, as in "your package of expensive fake pharmaceuticals will be delivered in a discreet brown envelope, so no-one will know how sad you are."
I think that some of the confusion may come from that close relative of discreet: discretion - which has ony one "e".
23/04/08 @ 21:30