Are there any words that people misuse all time that gets under your skin?

General Discussion
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I’m not targetting ANYONE on this forum, and I’d probably be the topic’s worst violator, so I’m not without guilt here. There are though, words repeatedly being misused, and widely accepted as being right. I’m not one who personally believes that the changed meaning in words due to social ignorance is a form of evolution, so much as it is just a mutation of the word.

Ok, this first one had been ingrained in my mind since I was young by Occam, so I’m starting this one out by asking if you believe he was right in saying this word had been so misused that people changed its very definition. The word “Nauseous” was never meant to be used as feeling nauseated. He’d argue that saying that you’re feeling nauseous means that you’re nauseating the people around you. The other words I’ll just throw out there and see what people here think.

(ENORMITY) The word has always meant great ugliness, yet after being misused so much, we now see it holding double meaning. Now when you refer to the enormity of a building, you’re saying both great in size, and ugliness.

(DECIMATE) The word decimates brings images to the mind of a building being leveled to the ground, but it actually means to have been reduced by 10%. Apparently, it was a stock term which in the world of stock 10% loss is a huge number.

(UNCONCIOUS vs SUBCONCIOUS) Maybe I’m wrong on this one, but I’ve always been taught that being unconscious refers to being knocked out, whereas the subconscious had been just below a person’s awareness. We use to say “he does it at a subconscious level”, but now I even see Psychologists misuse this word. I’m not so threatened to admit that I could be wrong, so feel free to call me out on this.

(NORMALCY vs NORMALITY) I’d swear to Normalcy is a made-up word if I ever heard one. People had historically used the word normality until Warren G. Harding (the least sharp presidential tool in American had been quoted, “Return to normalcy”.

(ALZHEIMERS DISEASE) aka “All-Timers Disease” or better yet, and STILL my #1 favorite, “Old-Timers Disease”. I had a nurse throw me that curveball.

There are more words out there that I could edit into this post later, but these are the ones off the top that I could think of. Agree/ Disagree. Let me know what you think, and feel free to add any misused words that may have challenged your sanity.

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“Democracy” is often used mistakenly to mean Liberalism when it just means rule by the people.

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We know “Democracy” certainly isn’t in the vocabulary of the conservatives.

1 Like
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Maybe not but we know what the word means.

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Given what’s happening in Washington DC I don’t think most Republican have any conception of what democracy means.

Along with “Pluralism” Bet that one is on the GOP chopping block also - though it’s a term those meat heads ought to learn about before they complain about our government.

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For me, it’s a phrase (2 really) “ain’t got no…” and the other one “Where ya at?” Both are grammatically wrong and hurts my ears.

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Or, if you happen to be in the minority it means the tyranny of the majority or even the tyranny of the masses. tyranny of the majority - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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I hear many people, even news anchors, use the phrase “one of the only” when they should say “the only” or “one of the few”. I do not find valleyspeak cute, especially from people who are paid to comunicate.

And many more people, including those who are paid to speak English, use “less” when they should use “fewer” and “fewer” when they should use “less”. Both errors stand out like the proverbial “sore thumb”.

I confess I can’t remember when to use “it’s” or “its”, so I lok it up every time.

I also don’t remember the rule - I think there is a rule - about whether to put the period after the quote mark at the end of a sentence or before it, but since I doubt many people do know the rule I just put it before sometimes and after at other times. I should do better.

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wrong words, phrases, bad pronunciations /stumbling over words…

Yes, I’m surprised at the level of mistakes some of them make.
Granted, I ain’t no better, but then again, it’s not my career.

Simone Biles testimony recently - she said something about the whole system was at fault for “perpetrating” the abuse. … I think “perpetuating” may have been more appropriate - but not really holding it against her.

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The news is the worse with bad grammar. It really gets on my nerves. “It’s gonna warm back up…” No, it should be something like, “It will warm up to around 70 degrees today” or something like that, but don’t end the sentence with a preposition, if you can help it.

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“This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put”

I went to look up “prepositions” and ran into the above site. Apparently there are no “official” rules for English. I was taught there were and I’ll bet my teachers thought there were. Amazing what one can learn by just looking up something.else.