Misuse of words – driving me crackers!

I once landed momentarily at LBA. Well we didn’t quite land – got to about 5 metres above the deck and suddenly we’re at full power and going round for a second shot.

Passion is one where the meaning has drifted somewhat. I can’t explain it better than David Mitchell.

Just thought of another one – eXpresso instead of eSpresso for coffee

Its not fast!

People who talk about mute points should just STFU.

I bet most of them could care less.

Surely a mute point has to be conveyed through the medium of sign language 🤔

“Salary” to mean “money”. I always insist on being paid in bags of salt.

“Salad” to mean a plate of vegetables. I always make the waiter go fetch a salt grinder and turn that plate of vegetables into a proper salad.

In much the same way as “legend” has changed from the person who attacks a machine gun nest single-handedly to save the entire platoon, to coming back from the bar with bags of scratchings.

And here was me thinking it meant a story where people did difficult to believe things.

I thought it meant “foot.”

Legend
Anthem
Act
Franchise

So, the first word in answer to a question.

Just thought of another one – eXpresso instead of eSpresso for coffee

Its not fast!

Are you doing this on purpose now?

There’s no “X” only because it’s not normally a part of the Italian alphabet. Espresso can mean many things…Expressed as in pressed out, or especially for the customer (as it’s a individual serving), or fast like Express, there’s no real settled etymology*  I think the first patent for the espresso machine was granted because one of the innovations was that by using steam it was brewed near instantaneously.

* although I’ve no idea what the study of insects has to do with all this…(nerd joke)

* although I’ve no idea what the study of insects has to do with all this…

The relevance is these are things that ‘bug’ TJ 🙂

I have no idea if it’s been said yet (I can’t bear reading through four pages) but…

October: the tenth month when it means the eighth
December: the twelfth month when it means the tenth

This is because the original calendar only had 10 months until the Roman Empire and they decided to add a couple more named after Caesars.

Go on, see if you can work our which two months were added (no Googling).

Go on, see if you can work our which two months were added (no Googling).

Saladuary and Sidtember

Go on, see if you can work our which two months were added (no Googling).

March – after Marcus Aurelius off of Gladiator
April – after that Ape off of Planet of the Apes

Rare. Used to mean difficult to find or not happening very often and now seems to mean pile of shite that you should not waste any time on

Eleventyber – the month after October for the people of the village

Wetbutwarm  – the long month in between September and May.

I think “difficult to find” is scarce. Bog rolls aren’t rare. But you can rarely find them.

nickc – what I meant was people saying “expresso” when what they want is an “espresso”

Oh and “bug” and “insect” are not synonyms. something to with the type of mouth? Bugs have sucking mouths?

Prompted by an instance of its misuse on 6 Music I came here to complain about ‘momentarily’ but I see that it’s already been done. So I shall reminisce instead. Before web forums like this there was Usenet, and one of my favourite Usenet groups was alt.possessive.its.has.no.apostrophe, apihna to its friends. That was full of discussions like this one.

Ah, Usenet, the good ol’ Wild West of the internet. I partook in UK.rec.climbing (or “You’re arsey”) and the C programming one. Fire retardant suit obligatory 😊

legend means……………

I thought it meant “foot.”

Just got this one! Very good

usage, signage, cordage

Bollocks(age)

Bollocks(age)

Wrong thread

What “Age” are we living in? What will it be called historically?

nickc – what I meant was people saying “expresso” when what they want is an “espresso”

like saying outwith when they mean outside..? (joke)

There’s a weird one (like outwith) in Yorkshire, people use “while” to mean between. For instance “8 while 6” used to indicate that a shop is open from 8am to 6pm. Took some getting used to.

“More football then anywhere else” on 5live earlier this year. Needed to buy a new wireless after that

Ah, Usenet, the good ol’ Wild West of the internet.

alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die always made me giggle.

nickc – here we get ” where do you stay?” meaning “where do you live?”

Slight OT, but when people say 3 AM in the morning *, of course it’s the morning you said AM,
But the same person doesn’t say it’s 3pm in the afternoon . ****

* other times are available

Fella, rather than fellow.

Confusing infer with imply.

The apparent confusion between distance and isolate.

Ah, Usenet, the good ol’ Wild West of the internet.

I’m still in regular touch with the folk from alt.peeves

3 AM in the morning

A tautology. I do enjoy a tautology. Domestic crisis at home is my favourite.

A close cousin of RAS Syndrome.

12am and 12pm irritate me, as much for the ambiguity as pedantry. Literally, both mean midnight, which I don’t think is what is usually meant.

12 pm is the start of the afternoon

its surely 12md and 12mn – mid day and midnight

nickc – what I meant was people saying “expresso” when what they want is an “espresso”

You must’ve misused some words, because you said it was nothing to do with being fast, even though a proper espresso is, demonstrably, fast to both prepare and to drink.

I’m going to bring back up the musical one since no one’s commented.The musical scale has seven notes then the pattern repeats. Calling it an octave brings about all sorts of complications since subsequent scales only have seven i.e. a three octave scale only has 22 notes not 24 also the 13th is the same note as the 6th but an “octave” higher.

12 pm is the start of the afternoon

pm is short for ‘post meridian’ meaning ‘after noon’ so 12pm is 12hrs after noon, which makes it midnight

The pedants revolt

There’s a weird one (like outwith) in Yorkshire, people use “while” to mean between. For instance “8 while 6” used to indicate that a shop is open from 8am to 6pm. Took some getting used to.

Here in ayrshire ‘mind’ is sort of used in the place of ‘remember’.

Hence when the train pulls into the station here and the recorded announcement tells people to ‘mind the step whilst alighting’ you’ll often here the humorous exchange between passengers as they step off the train –

“mind the step?”

“Aye I mind the step”

“Aye. It was a good step that one”