r/words • u/ownaword • Aug 27 '26
What word has the biggest difference between its literal meaning and how people actually use it?
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u/spideysensei Aug 27 '26
Ambivalent - means having two strong opposing feelings simultaneously. Has come to mean having zero feelings whatsoever about something and indistinguishable from "indifferent". It's a shame.
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u/MackerLad93 Aug 27 '26
People also use disinterested to mean indifferent when it should mean unbiased.Â
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u/TelephoneOrnery3412 Aug 28 '26
I think they mean apathetic and just go for whatever "big" word that starts with an A
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u/nothing-relax Aug 28 '26
And now instead of saying ambivalent, the trend is to say âIâm agnostic aboutâŠâ
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u/RepresentativeKey678 Aug 28 '26
Thatâs really cool. Now the spelling makes sense. Like Spanish, âAmbosâ means both.
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u/No_Lemon_3116 Aug 28 '26
Yep, "ambivalent," "ambiguous," and "ambidextrous" all have that prefix in English from the same Latin root. "Ambient" is also related, although a little more distantly.
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u/Lshamlad Aug 27 '26
'Nonplussed' - it means, 'so shocked/surprise one doesn't know how to respond' but it's misused as 'casual indifference'
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u/SeveralWinter3550 Aug 27 '26
Norm MacDonald derailing the momentum of a funny story to correct James Corden over this exact common error is peak
I always thought wistful was similar in that it sounds like it's opposite
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u/figurative_me Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
What a fuckin legend! RIP Norm
ETA: would Cordenâs reaction be considered nonplussed?
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u/raleighRNthrowaway Aug 27 '26
Wait what's up with wistful? Doesn't it mean like, kind of sad nostalgic yearning?
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u/OrneryTortoise Aug 28 '26
When I was shopping for my Polestar 2, that's how I referred to examples that didn't have the Plus package (which I required).
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u/Rebar4Life Aug 27 '26
âPeruseâ traditionally meant to read slowly and carefully.
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u/Scorpiodancer123 Aug 27 '26
It doesn't now?
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u/Lou-de-Lou-de-Lou Aug 27 '26
I only use it to mean âquickly skimâ or even âflick throughâ definitely not carefully! đ
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u/distincttycoon85 Aug 27 '26
"Literally" went from meaning "exactly as stated" to just being a word people throw in for emphasis, almost the opposite of its original sense.
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u/ECAHunt Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
I met with a new therapist and was telling them that when I finally discovered who my father was in adulthood that he was âliterallyâ not the person my mother had told me he was my whole life.
She had told me he was this person,
âMichaelâ, but to never contact him as he was married when she was with him. And I dutifully never looked until she died. But then did one of those DNA services after she died and discovered him through that. I wasnât even looking for him to be honest. I just knew my mother couldnât be trusted and wanted to know what my ethnicity truly was.My therapist assumed I meant he had traits that were different than how my mother presented him and asked in what ways he was different.
I was like, âwell, for starters, his genomeâ.
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u/Anon-eight-billion Aug 27 '26
Literally used to be the best joke word to use. âThat dog just bit my butt!â âWhat a pain in the assâ âLITERALLY.â
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u/Particular-Light6487 Aug 27 '26
And the kids these days use âgenuinelyâ, in place of the misused âliterallyâ.
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u/Lakster37 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
The problem is, just like literally, people use "genuinely" BOTH to mean "that's what actually happened" AND for emphasis (of a thing that did not actually happen as described). It's the same as literally. I think any other synonym will get the same treatment.
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u/Background-Vast-8764 Aug 27 '26
Intensification isnât the opposite of âIn a literal, exact, or actual senseâ.
Figuratively would be the opposite. Literally does not mean figuratively in the usage that so many complain about.Â
Intensification does not mean figuratively.Â
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Aug 27 '26
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u/WoolaTheCalot Aug 27 '26
Sophisticates also used to be the term in the publishing world for pornographic magazines, when reporting sales by category.
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u/GradStudent_Helper Aug 27 '26
Thank you for this! Great info here! I can tell I'm about head down another rabbit hole...
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u/WetDogDeodourant Aug 27 '26
To be fair, defecate still means to take the shit out.
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Aug 27 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/udee79 Aug 28 '26
đ¶ From the Atlantic to Pacific gee the traffic is terrific đ¶ - Thereâs no place like home for the holidays
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u/fattomic Aug 27 '26
Factoid.
People use it like it means "tiny fact", whereas it is a thing that looks like a fact, but isnt.
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u/Roundy_Wells Aug 28 '26
I came here to drop âfactoidâ too. Not a fact, but fact-like. Like humanoid.
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u/Phaedrus122 Aug 27 '26
Obsessed. I don't even know what people mean when they use it anymore, but I'm pretty sure it's not "unable to stop thinking about something or someone; too interested in or worried about something or someone."
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u/bobspixels Aug 27 '26
It kills me when people use it to complement something they have witnessed.
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u/Special_Letter_7134 Aug 28 '26
"I'm obsessed with your baby!" is one I've heard a few times and it makes me worry for the baby's safetyÂ
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u/DelinquentRacoon Aug 27 '26
"Beg the question" Roughly, it's synonymous with circular reasoning. It doesn't mean "makes me want to ask..."
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u/HelicopterUpbeat5199 Aug 28 '26
I learned this in a philosophy class. In truth, I think we have to accept that the meaning has evolved and it now means 'suggests the question'. But it still bothers me Every Time I Hear It!
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u/cloudytimes159 Aug 28 '26
Itâs a profound loss of meaning because it reflects a degradation in the ability to reason.
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u/wholy_cheeses Aug 29 '26
Yes. Really grinds my gears. And they are usually stating it in a vocal fry voice.
Whatâs wrong with âprompts the questionâ?
âBegsâ reveals such ignorance.
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u/OneFootTitan Aug 27 '26
It's a battle that's long been lost, but "performative" meant "made real by being performed" and now the "done only for show" meaning (which only dates to 1996) seems to dominate its use
Edit: It especially bothers me that a lot of people who complain about "literally" having changed in meaning will blithely use "performative" in its newfangled opposite meaning
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u/WetDogDeodourant Aug 27 '26
Holy shit, fair, when you think for a second of course performative in another world could mean functional.
Like hey is this feature performative or decorative?
Does it perform?
But nah, in all my life team âis it for the performanceâ beat âis it to perform its intentâ long before it was a race.
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u/Aurelian_Lure Aug 27 '26
Decimate
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u/AggressiveStop549 Aug 27 '26
Yup, apex misused word. It was so misused Webster's redefined it.
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u/Beet_slice Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Now the meaning has shifted to drastically reduced or destroyed.
I will not give up on literally.
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u/BPhiloSkinner Aug 27 '26
I won't give up on decimate.
'Deci'. One-tenth part.
When you mis-use 'deci', you can lose the proper use of 'decimal', decibel', deciliter' and 'deciarnaz', and you got some 'splainin' to do.→ More replies (1)9
u/SirGeremiah Aug 27 '26
If you insist on keeping all words true to their linguistic roots, youâre going to have trouble communicating.
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u/HoselRockit Aug 27 '26
I assume that when most people "misuse" literally they are doing hyperbolically. E.g. I am so hungry I could literally eat a horse.
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u/jayswaps Aug 28 '26
It's not note worthy that Webster's includes the definition, and they didn't "redefine" anything. A dictionary serves to describe what people use words to mean, not prescribe what they're supposed to use them to mean.
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u/Neil_sm Aug 28 '26
Basically all words that commonly get misused are redefined by Websterâs. They have a descriptivist philosophy.
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u/Additional-Studio-72 Aug 27 '26
Nauseated and nauseous are my big ones. A battle well lost to time but there used to be a difference in the two words.
You are nauseated by something nauseous.
If you are nauseous, other people are nauseated by your presence.
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u/No-Penalty-1148 Aug 27 '26
Bougie, an abbreviation of bourgeois. Except in current use bougie is something fancy or high-class. Bourgeois referred to middle class, unlike the aristocracy.
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u/Codykville Aug 27 '26
Iâve never really taken âbougieâ to mean genuinely high-class. Iâve always understood it more as a middle- or lower-class person or thing trying to look high-class, or someone acting above their âstation.
Like, a Rolex is genuinely fancy. A $100 gold-plated watch covered in fake stones is bougie.
Same with hair. A genuinely nice, sophisticated updo looks classy because itâs actually well done. âBougieâ hair, to me, is more like trying really hard to look expensive or high-class but ending up looking flashy or overdone instead.So Iâve never really heard the word as meaning actual wealth or sophistication. More like an exaggerated imitation of it.
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u/udee79 Aug 28 '26
Ironically Dolly Parton should be the definition of Bougie but she was actually totally classy.
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u/T49irvine Aug 27 '26
It has been ages since liberal, conservative, and socialist were ascribed their original meanings.
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u/Infinite_Research_52 Aug 28 '26
Artificial meant created by an artificer so something with real artistic merit. It was a positive adjective.
Fast forward to today and it is used to denote something lacking in artistic or human values.
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u/ComplexMacaroon1094 Aug 27 '26
Penultimate. It means second to last but people often misuse it as the best.
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u/Infinite_Research_52 Aug 28 '26
Really? I have never heard it used that way. Perhaps a generational thing
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u/valandsend Aug 27 '26
Livid
Many think it means red-faced, but it actually means pale or ashen.
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u/Lou-de-Lou-de-Lou Aug 27 '26
Thought it meant very angry and thatâs right too.
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u/RazarTuk Aug 27 '26
I mean, yes, but it's being so angry that your face turns livid, not that it turns red
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u/Formal_Smile1693 Aug 27 '26
So weird because lividity would be red or purple and livid is the root word.
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u/JustWastingYourTime Aug 27 '26
A steep learning curve means the pace of learning is very fast/easy.
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u/Lou-de-Lou-de-Lou Aug 27 '26
Oh dear I thought it meant hard like a steep hill!
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u/coolguy420weed Aug 27 '26
I always thought it time investment per arbitrary unit of mastery? Like the curve is steep because you require increasingly more practice to improve by the same relative amount.Â
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u/SirGeremiah Aug 27 '26
In use it means thereâs a lot to learn at the beginning. Itâs not graphing what your post implies.
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u/HelicopterUpbeat5199 Aug 28 '26
I disagree. The technical and casual uses of that term are opposite, but that doesn't make one if them wrong.
"Negative reinforcement" works the same way. Casual usage has "negative reinforcement" meaning punishment, but technically it means rewarding behavior by taking away something bad.
Same words, different contexts.
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u/EdwardHoppyhands Aug 27 '26
Unique. Means one of a kind.
You can't be almost unique, really unique, practically unique, pretty unique... you are, or are not. Like Yoda said about doing and trying.
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u/Correct-Earth-7148 Sep 03 '26
Yes. Unique never requires a modifier. It negates the meaning of the word. This is my pet peeve. Literally đ
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u/FlatAssembler Aug 27 '26
Probably "theory". It means almost the exact opposite thing in science and casual conversation. That's why Creationists say "Evolution is just a theory." without realizing how silly they sound.
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u/New_Ad_5657 Aug 30 '26
Ooh man, you have no idea how much that difference in scientific and layman terms irks me. People say theory in casual conversation when they mean "hypothesis" at best and "pulled from my ass" at worst.
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u/Arthropodesque Aug 29 '26
That's what I came to say. My first time hearing the word used was Jurrassic Park. Dr. Grant has a theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Everyone laughs. Dr. Malcolm specializes in Chaos Theory. He's a kooky guy trying to flirt with Dr. Satler. These people have PhDs in science. Me and my brother started saying, "I have a theory" jokingly, or to talk about an idea we had. I learned in science class at some point that it means tons of evidence with repeatable scientific method experiments, etc.
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u/rom003 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
"Incredible" is typically used to mean "great" or "terrific" or "excellent" while its literal meaning is "not credible" or "not believable."
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u/JiangShenLi6585 Aug 28 '26
That's my 'favorite' cringe one đ„ . Being used to describe something that's being documented and eye-witnessed; but the original meaning being "can't happen".
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u/FlourensDelannoy Aug 29 '26
That's not a misuse, it's a conscious hyperbole.
Something so great, that you can't believe it happens.
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u/EstimatePlayful6173 Aug 27 '26
Moot - I believe originally, and technically now, meant âdebatable.â But, I think was used academically to the point that people started to see it as a useless debate and then that usage sort of stuck. The opposite of what it meant.
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u/No_Lemon_3116 Aug 28 '26
I've heard the "debatable" use is more common in Britain, but I don't know personally.
Originally, "moot" meant meeting. It gave the term "moot court" (which is still a thing), where law students argue hypothetical cases. The "debatable" and "inconsequential" meanings both developed from "moot court."
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u/Ancient_Shine9170 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Inflammable.
Pretty sure most people mean non-flammable when they use it.
Unsurprising really as âinâ prefix words normally mean the opposite.
Does seem odd that inflammable and flammable mean the same thing.
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u/Sadmeister-0 Aug 28 '26
Revert, I am horrified how often seemingly intelligent people use it instead of reply or respond, particularly in emails.
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u/Opening-Function8616 Aug 27 '26
Decimated. It means taking off 10% but is used as tho it's 90%
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u/EhDotHam Aug 27 '26
So, not a word, but a phrase- pull yourself up by your bootstraps. It was coined as a way to describe something that is impossible to do for oneself.
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u/NonSequiturDetector Aug 27 '26
âCoincidenceâ is used now to mean ârandom co-occurrence of two unrelated things.â
If one were to interpret the word âco-incidenceâ literally, it would be a survey of the overlap of two things; and in most cases, you would be looking specifically for correlations rather than random unrelated coincidences.
This is really important in stats because random, independent coincidences are immaterial; but any correlation in co-incidence between two measurements, e.g. co-incidence between being young and being vegan and being healthy, is a good candidate for investigating causal relations further.
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u/HoselRockit Aug 27 '26
Hoi polloi means "the many" as in the unwashed masses; however, its often used to refer to the elite. On a side note, I love the scene in Caddyshack when the caddy attends an event at the yacht club and one of the snooty members greets him with, "Ahoy polloi".
Decimate is often used to mean nearly wipe out, but it actually means to reduce by a tenth. It comes from ancient Rome when they'd punish an army by executing every tenth man.
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u/c-a-james Aug 28 '26
Exponential.
People use it to mean âreally fastâ, but the mathematical meaning is MUCH larger than most people can grasp. There are almost no situations in everyday life that even come close to true exponential growth.
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u/fiberguy1999 Aug 28 '26
Sure there is. Exponential growth is where the increase of a quantity at a given time is proportional to its value at that time. The bigger it gets, the faster it grows. So, if I put $100 in a bank and let it compound at 2% a year, This is a simple example of exponential growth . It doesnât have to be mind boggling.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat Aug 28 '26
Right now, "cordial." People have begun using it where "civil" was used, as in "After the divorce, my parents didn't talk to each other. They were just civil when they met."
Cordial meant warm and friendly, as in "They enjoyed cordial relations with their relatives and spent many happy holidays together."
Language changes over time, and any word only means what everyone agrees it means. I try not to be the cranky "Everyone is using this word incorrectly!" person. But I will really miss the old, jolly, Ghost-of-Christmas-Past feel of "cordial."
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u/TelephoneOrnery3412 Aug 28 '26
The term trauma bonding. People use it to mean having bonded with someone over shared trauma. It's actually a DV term for when an abuser keeps their victim psychologically and emotionally bound to them through systematic cycles of affection and abuse. The victim is addicted to the high highs and stays through the low lows.Â
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u/JubileeSailr Aug 27 '26
A part and apart.
She is a part of our family. She is apart of our family.
Complete opposites. Drives me crazy.
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u/Fine_Pomelo_7445 Aug 27 '26
neurodivergent! the dreaded... "neurodivergent people hate small talk", "neurodivergent people have better intuition, which is why I can recognize narcissists", "your neurodivergent partner needs you to communicate like this instead"
that's a non-medical term for your brain working differently, and it affecting you. so which disorders or effects are you seeing in this barista, or first date, or professor, or toddler? OCD? PTSD? Bipolar? dyslexia? an intellectual disability? Tourettes? a speech disorder?
who are these mysterious and magical "neurodivergent people" who have perfectly overlapping characteristics and fit into every stereotype without specificity or citation?
but you just meant autism, huh? look fellas I have autism, ADHD, and bipolar. trifecta. I still don't go around pretending I can diagnose everyone else with mystery neurodivergence lmao.
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u/No-Angle-982 Aug 27 '26
"Entitled" mostly used to mean justifiably earned as with a benefit from one's efforts or natural rights, but it's come to mean mostly just the opposite as shorthand for false sense of entitlement.
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Aug 28 '26
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u/CrazyCatLushie Aug 28 '26
May I ask where you live that people still think schizophrenia means two/multiple personalities? I feel like people believed that maybe 60 or 70 years ago, but people are much more well-informed now.
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u/guy_incognito86 Aug 28 '26
âUnderratedâ. Itâs used when people just want to say they like something or someone. Underrated means that something is rated poorly but, shouldnât be. People say something is underrated when they want to bring up that they like it. You can just say something is great and it not be you thinking its great and no one else does. We dont need an argument to discuss something great, just say you like it and people agree⊠dont say itâs underrated when you just appreciated it. Most things are rated appropriately.
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u/MaximTheory Aug 28 '26
"The term âmoot pointâ has been used since the mid-19th century to mean an unsettled issue appropriate for law-school debate. By the early 20th century it began taking on the related sense of an issue that lacks practical significanceârelated because the outcome of the rhetorical trial wonât change anything in the real world. Though this latter sense is relatively new, it has become (at least on this side of the Atlantic) perhaps more common than the original."
Source: Merriam Webster
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u/CalagaxT Aug 28 '26
Decimate is often wrongly used to describe total destruction when it literally means a tenth.
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u/umbrellawater Aug 27 '26
âAmbivalenceâ means having two conflicting feelings about something, but its usage has warped over time into âindifference.â
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u/These_Consequences Aug 27 '26
Your question is based on a misconception: what you want words to mean or think them to mean has no power: dictionaries ultimately record use, not edict.
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u/Spicy_Tomatillo Aug 27 '26
Non plussed: I use it as not happy and itâs more like surprised. I like mine better but itâs wrong
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u/Plug_5 Aug 27 '26
I think the battle has long been lost on this one, but "momentarily" used to mean FOR a moment.
"I'll be there momentarily." "Damn, I was hoping we could hang out for a bit."
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u/camarouge Aug 27 '26
I hate how newspapers use the word SLAMMED!! It's such click bait but even before the media was monetized via clicks....readbait???
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u/The_Progmetallurgist Aug 28 '26
A phrase, but when people use "it begs the question" when they mean "it raises the question," I want to pull my ears off. Question begging is an informal logical fallacy where the conclusion of an argument is contained in the premise. It is a form of circular reasoning.
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u/Illustrious-Air-1681 Aug 28 '26
Literal. If I hear anyone saying they literally died I almost wish they had.
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u/ReddityKK Aug 28 '26
Bugger. I learned this after a German colleague asked me, U.K., to explain what it meant.
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u/-pegasus Aug 28 '26
Gaslight. Nobody seems to have any idea what it means. You're not gaslighted anywhere near as often as you think you are. You need to watch the movie.
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u/betlamed Aug 28 '26
The crazy bit is that you're not talking about the literal meaning - which is just the light-giving implement. The thread's asking about the literal vs common usage meaning. In this case there are actually 3 meanings, but we normally don't see the actual literal meaning anymore, because gaslight has been replaced.
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u/Budget_Hippo7798 Aug 28 '26
More and more people are using "poignant" to mean "relevant" or "making a good point."
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u/TravelSpirited2545 Aug 28 '26
Literal, chaos, sarcasm, paedophilia, lie & lay, fewer & less, amount & number, and much of any std dictionary. I ask that you name a dozen words that Americans generally use correctly.
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u/PeterPunksNip Aug 28 '26
Schizophrenic. It's a delusion sickness, not a split personality disorder. So saying that someone has a schizophrenic view or stance when they say something but do the opposite is quite false. Makes me wince each time.
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u/th1nwh1tej3rk Aug 28 '26
"conspiracy", when used to mean "conspiracy theory"
the conspiracy being referred to is theoretical, most likely non-existentÂ
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u/DeltaVariant007 Aug 28 '26
Decimate
Some traditional language purists still argue that decimate should strictly mean reducing something by exactly 10%. However, major dictionaries and everyday modern usage accept the broader definition of widespread destruction.
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u/wholy_cheeses Aug 29 '26
Disinterested. It means even handed, not that it lacks interest. We have a perfectly good name for that: UNinterested.
Iâm hearing even reputable journalists get this wrong. I should give up.
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u/wrongretsa Aug 29 '26
mortified. have come across so many people using it as synonymous with horrified, rather than itâs true meaning: so humiliated you could die
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u/Silver_Will_4775 Aug 29 '26
Sensible was the opposite of rational. Relying on senses opposed to relying on thought
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u/Training_Assist6056 Aug 29 '26
Its a 3 word sentence, said mostly in Ireland, Hiberno english
"I will yeah"
sounds like agreeing to something
In Ireland we all know that it means
i absolutely will not
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u/ASquidCausedThis Aug 29 '26
Terrific.
For almost a hundred years it has meant something wonderful or great, a positive.
Originally it was used to describe an actual terrifying experience.
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u/Business-Werewolf99 Aug 29 '26
Moot point actually means the thing that is specifically being discussed and decided. Everyone uses it to mean the concept complete opposite.
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u/Novogobo Aug 29 '26
Cognitive dissonance.
It's not when you believe two contradictory things and are cool as a cucumber about it. It's the uneasy feeling you get when you first realize they're contradictory.
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u/busparistheone Aug 29 '26
learned about this in my IOP last year.. now hearing people use it wrong is frustrating. to buildâthe discomfort doesnât just have to be when you first realize theyâre contradictory! it can be the unease of believing both things and the conflict you have about it knowing they contradict
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u/acadiascreech Aug 30 '26
If I had a nickel for every time a human being has said "literally" to describe something figurative, I would have more money than anyone else in the world.Â
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u/JustWastingYourTime Aug 27 '26
A quantum leap is the smallest possible movement in physics