From time to time, I hear someone say, “in lieu of” when the person means “in light of.”

I don’t hear this a lot, but it hit home last night when I was reading my favorite author, and he did it.  It was something like, “We decided that, in lieu of the deterioration of the relationship, it would be best if we stopped seeing so much of each other.”  I sure hope this was an editor’s mistake.

Clearly, what he meant was “in light of.”

“Lieu” is derived from French.  It means, “stead” or “place.”  When used in English with “in,” as in “in lieu of,” it means, “instead of” or “in place of,” or “as a substitute for.”  We see it used mostly in invitations, like, “in lieu of a gift, please make a donation to . . .”  One also sees it in funeral announcements, “in lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the favorite charity of the deceased.”  Occasionally, you see it in other contexts, like, “In lieu of paying his rent, the tenant left the landlord an IOU.”

Nothing all that complicated here.

“In light of,” on the other hand, means “considering,” “based on,” “due to,” or “taking into account.”  You might also say, “since this is the case . . .”

“In light of” is often seen in a sentence with words that refer to “recent events.”  Like, “In light of last night’s primary results, the Senator from Pennsylvania suspended his campaign for the presidency.”  Or, “In light of the weather forecast for the weekend, the company cancelled the picnic.”

Again, this is not a difficult concept.

So, we must ask, how do people mix up these two?

Several blogs I consulted suggest that there is some arrogance or pretention going on when someone uses “in lieu of” when he means “in light of.”  Alas, it is sad when someone looks stupid by trying to look smart.

“In lieu of” is so commonly used correctly, however, that I don’t see anything pretentious about using it to mean “instead of.”