Commonly misunderstood words that get your blood boiling

[Eekaida]

PIN Number. Older people mostly. What exactly do they think they 'n' stands for?

Also TITULAR. I just read a magazine which reviews anime, manga and asian films, which used the word 'titular' more than it used a fucking apostrophy! They only used it right one! Every time I read it, I thought to myself 'THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANS!!!!!!!'

What it does mean:

?adjective
1. existing or being such in title only; nominal; having the title but none of the associated duties, powers, etc.: the titular head of the company.
2. from whom or which a title or name is taken: His titular Saint is Michael.
3. of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a title.
4. having a title, esp. of rank.
5. designating any of the Roman Catholic churches in Rome whose nominal incumbents are cardinals.
?noun
6. a person who bears a title.
7. a person from whom or thing from which a title or name is taken.
8. Ecclesiastical . a person entitled to a benefice but not required to perform its duties.

 

[raankh]

Mine is a bit more semantical; the word 'anticipate'

Although it's mostly used in its more modern meaning "to look forward to as certain", in most cases the word should, imo, be 'expect'. Anticipation implies you act now in anticipation of what's to come. So "we anticipate ten people" means you are going to have a problem if there's eleven, while "we expect ten people" means you're being impolite not to seat an eleventh guest.

Or, if you are surprised by the Spanish Inquisition then saying "I surely didn't anticipate the Spanish Inquisition" is just all wrong. Of course you didn't. Much less expect it.

 

[comadorcrack]

how much I see it on this sight...

First off, it's SITE, not SIGHT. [/quote]

Son of a *****! Now I just feel silly...

 

[PurplePlatypus]

People don?t often know the difference between an acronym and an initialism.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

EMP Pulse.
RPG Game.
What does the acronym stand for ladies and gentlemen? Yes. Good. Now, do you realise you are effectively saying Electro-Magnetic Pulse Pulse?
And Role Playing Game Game?

Sorry, but this one.
Acronym: the initials of the term forms a word (examples: SCUBA, AIDS, SHIELD)
Initialism: initials do not form a word (examples: EMP, RPG)

Edit: Damn, ninja'd while I was typing this up.

 

[ghostalker.cepo]

how much I see it on this sight...

First off, it's SITE, not SIGHT.

Son of a *****! Now I just feel silly...

Tee hee hee, I knew that was a typo, but I had to, you understand right?

Also, there's a kebab shop near me that abuses the apostraphe in ways that it doesn't deserve to be. I think they must have stolen them all from the rest of the places round there in a daring midnight raid

 

[raankh]

The one that really gets me that I hear all the time is irregardless.. Some people seem to think it's actually a word.. So I guess this is the non-word used incorrectly that really gets my blood boiling.

When I was in the twelfth grade, my english teacher became rather irate when one of the other students used 'Irregardless' in an essay.

Ouch.. Well that's the 12th grade.. Imagine hearing it used by executives on a regular basis..

Eeep ... 'irregardless'? So that would be "not without regard". Whuut? Do they mean 'irrespective'? Or just 'regardless'? Or 'despite' even? The Semantics! AAhhh, my brain*?!

 

[Unesh52]

I once was doing a work sheet in an AP Literature course that asked several multiple-chioce answer questions regarding John Lennon's "Imagine" lyrics. One was something to the effect of: "What is the primary ideology implied by the poem?" The choices I narrowed it down to were Nihilism and Socialism. Now, I'd heard both, but never had a chance to use them in any kind of discourse, so I thought to grab a dictionary, just to be sure I knew what was what. Go ahead, look up the lyrics and the words and give it a try...

Spoiler: Go ahead, it is not long, I'll wait.

...done? Good, it's obviously nihilism, right? Well my teacher, who is head of the English Department and 2 time Teacher of the Year winner disagreed. She picked Socialism because she felt the connotation of the root "social" was closer to Lennon's ideals. Meaning I got it wrong.

Fuck that -- the day subjective connotations can supersede objective denotations in a pass or fail classroom setting is the day I loose faith modern education. In fact I would have... if I hadn't already. And honestly, it wouldn't still upset me if it didn't exemplify the incompatibility between the abstract, subjective methods involved in literature analysis and conventional scoring practices employed throughout my scholastic career that has always infuriated me about Literature classes in general.

 

[Dexiro]

I dont really have a pet peeve about people using words in the wrong sense; mostly because Im guilty of it myslef, no doubt. Though I do get irked when people use the word "gay". No, not because im a homosexual and I get affended by it, but having almost been an english major, I have a fondness for old english literatury (I think I killed that word, cause I also cant spell worth a damn in some cases... would that be ironic?) I would love to know how "gay" became a derogatory term when it originally meant "happy".

It's so much easier than saying homosexual though xD I like the word gay.

My pet peeve is of a taboo word.
******.
Dictionary definition: A rude, immoral, or otherwise ignorant person.

I've got one similar to that. It annoys me when people say 'Negro' is an offensive word, I had my school cause a fuss over it before calling me a racist once :/

 

[Assassin Xaero]

People on facebook that try to use words they don't understand, especially this one word. I saw this one girl post a status "I'm oober excited"... I wanted to go to her house and beat her with a sledge hammer.

 

[VivaciousDeimos]

The most common and infuriating mistakes I've seen in my time as an editor are:
"Beg the question"
"Should of"
"All intensive purposes"

"Should of" makes my eye twitch like nothing else. It's like people don't understand the concept of contractions anymore.

I hate the word Awesome. It means "god-like in appearance." Part the oceans for me ***** then if you think you're awesome.

....I love the word Awesome *sadface*. Though I also use it with a sense of hyperbole.

 

[instantbenz]

Bemuse and irregardless. I also hate how ironic and sarcastic is thrown around so much.

you got it ... fuckin professors using irregardless .... as i'm nearly done at my university, if i hear a prof use it, i'm calling them out.

also mac and apple are two words that are misunderstood as being superior when, in fact, they are overpriced mediocrity.

 

[chiggerwood]

It irritates me when people mix up Objectivism with selfish assholes. Objectivism is about the individual, applying reason to all situations, and REASONABLE selfishness; not some dick in the fortune 500 who makes off with all his company's money while leaving his employees to suffer.

I know this has already been done but, the word Irony

Spoiler: none of these are ironic!

An accurate example of irony is: A comedian that makes people cry.

Also people who misuse the words PER SEY, Because of them I can't use my favorite two words (when appropriate) without looking like a tool

 

[instantbenz]

kirisute gomen

People on facebook that try to use words they don't understand, especially this one word. I saw this one girl post a status "I'm oober excited"... I wanted to go to her house and beat her with a sledge hammer.

Ueber .... UEBER!!!!! u(umlaut)-b-e-r *cringe cringe*

 

[Berethond]

Decimate, meaning, to reduce by 1/10th ...If I hear one more guy talk about getting decimated on a game and his screen is utterly devoid of troops I will punch a kitten.

<url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decimate>Well, you're actually wrong.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

David Mitchell accurately describes my view on 'I could care less'.

 

[Ildecia]

I hate it when people mispronounce the word Manga.

It is pronounced "Mon-guh" not "Main-guh"

It pisses me off to no end.

this

and "Irony"
i know its funny; and i know that its probably of some signifigance; but if you had a dream of me eatting your birthday cake; and the real situation is us playing a computer game; thats NOT ironic

>.>

 

[masterkeaton]

Alright here's my major one:

People using text speak (e.g. dude, r u cuming out tonight?) I honestly can't stand people that use that it's like yes, we have an English language that we speak, but let's forget that and use a language primarily used by Chavs.

One more thing, people who say "there" instead of "their" or "they're" it makes me wonder that those people were doing in school when they were being taught these things.

 

[chiggerwood]

Bemuse and irregardless. I also hate how ironic and sarcastic is thrown around so much.

Oh I hate it when people think they're sarcastic, and witty when they're not. Here's an example

I have long hair, and I was walking out of a Barnes & Noble.Some blonde bimbo (you know the ones with the painfully obvious fake tan, and blonde hair) was walking by me with her cackling herd when she said in a shitty tone of voice "Phssht you got long hair" I asked 'what's wrong with my hair?' She looked at me, and said in all seriousness. "well someone here doesn't understand sarcasm." I was about to scream at her 'YEAH IT'S YOU YA DUMBASS!' Then I heard the voice of my great grandpa say "Now you be kind. Yelling at someone that's stupid doesn't make them smart. It just makes you look dumb."

I swear Jiminy Cricket was modeled after that man