Arrggghhhhhhhhhhhh
* runs around in circles screaming*
Lose/loose.
And it's "toe the line" FFS.
The difference a century makes to word usage was quite pronounced.
I expect 100 Roman soldiers were quite persuasive.
* runs around in circles screaming*
Posted 10 minutes ago
Is that you exercise for the day?
I'm with TJ on this. Language does evolve but when people incorrectly use a word it drives me mad. I work in a job where we use words to describe processes or methodologies for building computer models (natural catastrophes). When people start using their own vocabulary to describe these processes it leads to confusion and chaos.
Unique is a straight forward example.
Infinity is less clear as the maths is changing and there are now various different infinities. Eeeh when I were a lad there was just one.
The trouble with insisting that decimate is only to be used for a a particular punishment of Roman soldiers, is that largely that was a forgotten use of the word up until dusty old scholars revived it in the 19th C. The first written English use of the word refers to the tythe and was used for that for most of the following couple of hundred years. Thus neatly demonstrating that as has been pointed out; use changes over time.
The second problem, is Latin (a dead language, continues to evolve). I'll be on the look out for your incorrect use of the following words.
Century : a subdivision of the Roman Legion
Ovation: an over-wrought celebration of a General returning to Rome, who's getting applause his victory doesn't really deserve
Missile: Gifts thrown towards the Emperor by attendees at Games
Actor: In Roman law, one who brings forward a legal complaint.
And so on; endlessly (probably)
Electrocute does not simply mean to receive an electric shock, it means to die by electric shock.
The mixup between "that", "then" and "than".
I can see where "should of" comes from: "Should have" contracts to "should've" which sounds like "should of". Still wrong though.
Thee and thou - come down to Yorkshire tj 😉
People who talk about mute points should just STFU.
Buncha loosers...
People who talk about mute points should just STFU.
I bet most of them could care less.
Merriam Webster and Cambridge both have decimate to. mean reduce drastically.
@TJagain you used the word Amok in your OP. I didn't know you were Malaysian and prone to sudden murderous frenzies. That's what my 18th century dictionary says it means anyway.
“My bad”
Your bad what….use of the word bad as a noun!?
Soz, I won't say it again!
Chickenman- you can add September and November to your list.
Anyway according to my copy of UED "Every word has a meaning, but over the years those meanings change".
I expect 100 Roman soldiers were quite persuasive.
Shirley you mean 90? 😉
Well pacifically, there are lots of very unique combinations of words that I here. Some of them cause great constipation and affect my mood. Sometimes I completely loose the plot and want to brake things as a result.
I really wish people wood make less mistakes
Actor is also used in military intelligence.."bad actor" is someone planning to, or about to cause harm. This term has been hijacked by the cyber-security industry.
Words do evolve.
Another issue is the vernacular vocabulary in the various English speaking countries. The US just seems to make up new uses for existing words. I've worked for US companies for 20+years and it still frustrates me.
Dice and die (and to a lesser extent datum and data)
Imply and infer
What fascinates me about how language evolved is that it is generally the stupid people that actually change it.
I had assumed it wasn't, but when you look at what's evolving now you realise it is.
Sad but true.
Utilise.
It's doesn't mean the same as use. You use a spade to dig a hole, and utilise it to kill zombies.
Great tit.
It's not a....
Romanes eunt domus
Artisan.
affect/effect
I don't like the way iconic is now used to just mean well known/easily recognised. Seems like the waste of a good word.
There's nothing quite so amusing as a pedant being wrong. Hoist by your own petard tj!
I don’t care – they should properly be called “brown headed for part of the year gulls” Lets get these important things right!
Actually they have brown HOODS not heads. Just to be entirely pedantic. They should be called Brown Hooded Gulls.
The gul with a black HEAD in this country is the Mediterranean Gul.
Germs its not 1896 for ****s sake, use a real word.
Calling it the 24 hour clock when it only goes up to 11.
And I quite like it on an American airline when the announcement "we will be landing momentarily" is met by British passengers doing that mime with their hands of a plane landing and taking off again.
People who say they have two choices when they actually have one choice which is to choose between two options.
and there is no such bird as a seagull
Taxinomincally, there might not be, but every knows what you're referring to, so what's the problem? and gulls will often hybridise, so there's trouble with placing them in species anyway.
Plus, why have truck with the new-fangled words, why not refer to them as Mews?
They're all now doodle****s to me
American misuse; momentarily. "The plane will be landing momentarily"
Hang about
What misused words bug you?
Shouldn't that be which, not what?
Germs its not 1896 for **** sake,
I know - germs have long been superseded cooties.
They’re all now doodle****s to me
I had no idea my mum posted on here.
Hi Mum.
GuLL two ruddy "l"
I didn’t know you were Malaysian and prone to sudden murderous frenzies.
Ah well - thats exactly the sense I meant it in. I spent time in Malaya and learnt how to best have a sudden murderous frenzy whilst there. I even have a kris
Fulsome. It means the opposite of what it is usually used for.
A fulsome apology is an insincere overblown apology. Like Father Jack's "I'm SOOOOOOOOO sorry".
Ditto fulsome praise etc. etc.
maccruiskeen
You mentioned doodle*s on another thread once - its an utterly brilliant word.
Perhaps thats the best solution. No more gulls, no differentiation between types of gull. They are all doodle*s.
*breathes again*
I had a Halfords ad. appear in my Facebook feed. It said, “Looks like you might of missed a bargain”. I corrected it for them in the comments. Next time it appeared, it had been corrected.
I’m brilliant, me.
infer/imply - what kind of dunce gets those the wrong way around?
And outwith obvs - it's not even a real word.
If I see one more person say
Can you see what I just said about that phrase?
run amok
Didn't know you were Malaysian. EDIT: Ah, this has been addressed already. 🙂
I spent time in Malaya
Before 1963 we presume?
Outwith is actually in reasonably common usage in Scotland and is a real word. Its just you Normans down south don't know it.
You mentioned doodle*s on another thread once – its an utterly brilliant word.
It must be in that particular blood line. In her current stage of dementia the Doodle*s are the pieces of one of her jigsaws that have seagulls on. 'Doodle****' seems to be a googlewack so it seems to be her own invention
Her mother referred to loo in our static caravan as "the Chemi Khazi"
Outwith is actually in reasonably common usage in Scotland and is a real word.
But its outwith your OED 🙂
I once made a set of bookmarks with "Without Outwith Within" printed on them and used to slip them into dictionaries In bookshops and libraries
PP - 62 - 66 IIRC ( Actually I don't remember it at all) but I was using "amok" in the correct sense. I don't think only Malaysians can run amok. Anyone can so long as they do it properly in a Malaysian style ( Is Malaysian not the products of the country and Malays the people - like Scots and Scotch?)
Oh - and considering I have apparently been "hoist by my own petard" I really should let you know I do not actually own a 17th century mortar
Oh – and considering I have apparently been “hoist by my own petard” I really should let you know I do not actually own a 17th century mortar
But if you've been hoisted by it you are technically the Registered Keeper
( Is Malaysian not the products of the country and Malays the people – like Scots and Scotch?)
yes, but the country stopped being called Malaya in 1963. It's Malaysia now.
For a good couple of hours this Beeb article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/52036792
...talked about 'unchartered territory' in it's headline and copy.
