Deep-seeded or Deep-seated?
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- On August 19, 2015
These two sentences came across my desk the other day. Only one is correct. Which one is it?
• In 1915, the company formally established its travel business and has built it, year by year, on the deep-seeded values of trust, security and service.
• Private commercial bankers are not acting out of any deep-seated sense of public duty but rather out of self-interest.
If you chose the sentence with deep-seated, you chose correctly. Deep-seated means firmly established. Even though deep-seeded might seem to be the right choice—you plant seeds, not chairs—deep-seeded is not even a word (and apparently seeds planted too deeply won’t grow).
One trick that helps me remember that deep-seated is the correct choice is to link it in my mind to the adjective deep-pocketed.
Why? Because you have pockets on the seat of your pants.
Is that a stretch? Not if it helps.