Misused words

[Klumpfot]

"Welp." As in "Welp, I guess I'll just continue using this non-word!"

It isn't in Merriam-Webster or the Oxford Dictionary, it is incredibly ugly and it is more difficult (though only marginally) to type than "well", which is the word you actually mean to use. Kindly stop using it and save my eye's twitch muscles some undue strain!

 

[Epic Bear Man]

IRONY
IRONY
IRONY
IRONY
And I'm done, that's literally the only word I can think of where people get all uppity about the meaning and such, for such a simple word it's meaning is just so hard to pin down...

Oh yeah and I thought people got over the whole "Gamer entitlement" thing by now?

Someone explained the meaning of irony to me once in a way I might HAVE understood back THEN;

Being struck by lightning while wearing metal armour. The armour acts as a lightning rod, causing you to be struck, when the armour was supposed to protect you.

In any case, I still have no clue what is ironic and what is not, so I'm just going to back to being sarcastic.

Well irony has several different forms, there's situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony.

Verbal irony is when you say something but mean another. For instance, if I was wearing a grotesque outfit and you said to me "Oh, that looks wonderful" but really meant "oh god, my eyes are slowly cannabalizing themselves after looking at that outfit!"; that would be verbal irony.

Dramatic irony is present only in entertainment, but it's when the audience knows one thing that the character doesn't know. If a father said to a child "I'll see you in the morning", and the child believed it whilst the audience knew he wouldn't be coming back, this would be dramatic irony.

Situational irony is when the action someone takes has a the opposite effect that we would assume would happen. Your suit of armor could work for situational irony. Another example of situational irony would be The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy goes on a long quest to see the wizard only to find out by the end that the ruby slipper she had allowed her to go back home at any moment. Likewise, the scarecrow seeking intelligence had it all along, the tin-man had compassion and a heart from the start, etc.

Does that help?

 

[BlastedTheWorm]

Here's one. I'm not sure if "misused" is correct, but it's certainly lost its original meaning.

Does anyone know what the word "meme" means? It's not a captioned picture...

 

[micahrp]

Fair. It rarely comes with a basis of comparison and even more rarely admits to the full picture of the situation.

Politicians that use it without addressing both of those need to be penalized in some way.

 

[Groenteman]

'Epic'. Its an extended poem about heroics and legends and all that. In its adjective form, its either a poem like that, or something of 'heroic' quality. Something you could potentialy write an epic about.

Aaand yet this word shows up in all sorts of places where it doesnt belong. Everything anyone ever liked on the internet was at some point called 'epic'. Cat videos, traffic jams, headshots, teabag sessions, skyrim item quality, are all things which are not very 'epic'. You cant write an epic about a cat falling off a couch, teabagging is not very heroic, and when I churn out 20 bows at once it wont do to call every one of them 'epic'.

Of course this also points to the internets strange habit either absolutely loathing something, or absolutely adoring something. The latter of which nobody ever seems to know any words beside 'epic' or 'awesome' for. And while neither are incorrect in every case, it realy wouldnt hurt to use one of those many other words for things you like.

 

[bananafishtoday]

Yeah, as others have said, "entitled" in that context isn't being "misused." It's shorthand for false feelings of entitlement.

OT: I hate it when people mix up "discrete" and "discreet." Although sometimes it can be hilarious if you pretend they actually meant what they typed. Eg, "I'm a married man looking for sex with a discrete woman."

 

[Biodeamon]

I ounce nearly punched a friend after they used the word anorexic for people who are underweight

 

[RonHiler]

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Thanks for that link, that's hilarious. It made my day Or at least alot of it (I KID, I KID!!!).

 

[solemnwar]

As someone who is studying Greek/Latin Elements in English, and has looked at old english, middle english, and "modern" english literature, I've got one thing to say to everyone here:

LANGUAGE CHANGES. LANGUAGE CHANGES A LOT. Meanings change, pronunciation changes, usage changes, new words are made by smooshing other ones that exist haphazardly together. And by dirtily stealing words from other languages, especially Latin and Greek, although we don't do that so much anymore (I think).

Yes, it's ungodly annoying, and I find myself going "HAUUARGH" when people misuse language sometimes too, but... there's really not much to be done about that. It's going to happen, regardless.

 

[tautologico]

Here's one. I'm not sure if "misused" is correct, but it's certainly lost its original meaning.

Does anyone know what the word "meme" means? It's not a captioned picture...

Indeed, the meaning has shifted to something which spreads "virally", but it does not necessarily have self-replication instructions included (as should be the case with a meme). But there are "memetic" elements in what people call memes nowadays, so it's not like it has completely changed from the original meaning.

Maybe the image macros/captions could be better classified as "visual snowclones" or something similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowclone

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

And here I was for a bit of harmless fun...and we feel the need to complain about issues of sexism and entitlement even in threads that do not ask for it.

"Of" - as in would, could, or should of. This is something that should have been rectified in primary school and it's a disgrace that some people still think it is a real phrase.

"Then" - you would rather something THAN another. THAN. One compares the two things, the other in a stupid way indicates which order you'd have them in.

"With all due respect/no offence" - more often than not, used to say something subtly or blatantly offensive under the guise of being 'protected' by this qualifying bulls***. While 'with all due respect' I suppose works for everything, considering the amount of respect due differs, 'no offence' is just ridiculous. If I'm going to take offence, you think I'm going to consider that you said "no offence" and be all cool about it? No. [small]Imma smash yo head in.[/small]

"People" - this word is sadly underused in the media. It's always "Men, women and children." THAT'S JUST F***ING PEOPLE, WE ALREADY HAVE A SINGLE WORD FOR THAT. Likewise, it is not 'persons', police of the world.

 

[Innegativeion]

"I could care less"

COULND'T! YOU COULDN'T CARE LESS!!!!! THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR SAYING!

Considering it is so ubiquitous in the modern vernacular, it's always struck me as a simple figure of speech or shorthand for "couldn't care less". In fact, I tend to use it more often simply because it's so much less awkward to say.

The oxford dictionary recognizes it as an American colloquialism, and what with modern English dripping with sarcasm and wordplay, I don't find it abrasive at all.

"I could care less (so continue telling me about it so my interest in it further decreases)", as a sarcastic expression.

"I could care less (but not much less)",

or it can simply be a shortened less syllable-heavy form of the older saying.

And if none of that satisfies, turns of phrase don't have to make logical sense. (For that matter, how do you turn a phrase?)

 

[TheNaut131]

"Welp." As in "Welp, I guess I'll just continue using this non-word!"

It isn't in Merriam-Webster or the Oxford Dictionary, it is incredibly ugly and it is more difficult (though only marginally) to type than "well", which is the word you actually mean to use. Kindly stop using it and save my eye's twitch muscles some undue strain!

Welp, I guess I can't use this imaginary word anymore.

Let's see. "Could care less" instead of "couldn't care less" and "should of" instead "should have."

These are honestly the only things that really bother.

 

[Tony2077]

"I could care less"

COULND'T! YOU COULDN'T CARE LESS!!!!! THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR SAYING!

i was going to say this if no one else did

 

[ThePS1Fan]

Does anyone know what the word "meme" means? It's not a captioned picture...

Isn't meme something that spreads very quickly, or something like that?

 

[Soljer13]

Misogyny, Sexism, and Artificial Difficulty come to mind.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

The prefix "pre". Mainly because after this was known to people...


...they still use it in ridiculous ways!!! *headdesk*

 

[smithy_2045]

The one thing that really rustles my jimmies is "I could care less". Using it to indicate your complete lack of interest in something is completely moronic and downright irritating. It's couldn't care less. COULD NOT. It's really not difficult to add an "n't" to your could. SO DO IT YOU BASTARDS. I couldn't care less why you refuse to use the phrase correctly, just use it correctly and we can have a nice, civilized conversation about whatever it is the kids are talking about these days.


/rant