Misused words

[maninahat]

Strawman argument

No one who uses that phrase knows what it means.

Spoiler

Well after a year's worth of gaming debacles, I've finally become sick of the word "entitled".

Pfft, that's such a straw-man opinion to have.

I'm not sure how, but evidently a fairly significant chunk of the Internet populace has gotten it into their heads that the word means something along the lines of "over-expectant and spoiled".

Stop making straw-man arguments!

Now for convenience, here's the Oxford dictionary definition of the word (entry #1 in this case):

entitle
verb [ trans. ] (usu. be entitled)
1 give (someone) a legal right or a just claim to receive or do something : employees are normally entitled to severance pay | [ trans. ] the landlord is entitled to require references.
2 give (something, esp. a text or work of art) a particular title : an article entitled ?The Harried Society.?
? [ trans. ] archaic give (someone) a specified title expressing their rank, office, or character : they entitled him Sultan.
ORIGIN late Middle English (formerly also as intitle): via Old French from late Latin intitulare, from in- ?in? + Latin titulus ?title.?

God, you're being such a straw-man right now.

Now I understand that language is a living organism, and that the meaning of words evolve over time (the multiple entries of entitle being proof of that), but when in the name of William Shakespeare's gym socks does word manage to mean the very opposite of it's original definition? That's like using the word "hot" to describe Absolute Zero! It's insane!

No-one said that! Classic straw-man.

It's not even like there's much effort required in using the word properly in the context. Using the term "over-entitled" requires a whopping 5 extra characters, yet it fits the bill perfectly with no ambiguity or confusion.

*sigh* /rant

Anyways, for learning and discussion value, which words are your particular pet peeve for their misuse, and what is their original/correct intent? Feel free to use any language for this.

I'm not even going to answer such a post full of so many blatant straw-men running around.

By Odin's tits... this person actually used correctly!

Come to think of it, most fallacies count. People like to read up on them and dish them out in a debate, often without either understanding how the fallacy applies, or how it is even supposed to refute the person's point. I hate arguing with people, only for them to fire off "APPEAL TO AUTHORITY! andandandand "REDHERRING!!" Go away and learn what those terms mean, and then stop using them anyway because they're taking up the room you should have been using to refute my argument.

 

[krazykidd]

literally, and IMHO.

I do some game app support and read emails from many many many people, and cant help but notice how many people misuse these words.4

How the hell do you misuse IMHO? I need an example.

OT: In relation to games : SURVIVAL . People have no idea what survival means . Survival horror and horror are not the same things.

In every day life : i have yet to meet a person who can use the word "complacent "properly .

 

[Fluffythepoo]

In french when you negate something you say not twice like "billy not do not". The two words are different "ne" and "pas", but mean the same thing. The pas used to actually mean foot, but to embellish a negation people would add the word foot (things lik "i would not move a foot") and eventually it became a necessary and fundamental part of the language to the point that if you have to choose between dropping ne (not) or pas (foot) its better to drop ne and just say "billy do foot". It always makes me giggle when i think about that

Though the only thing that actually annoys/irritates me are people who say other people are stupid because of their language. Saying France french is real french and quebecois is a filthy disease ridden offshot is fine and dandy, but when you say someone who speaks Parisien is smarter than a Qubecois (or any other dialect/pigeon driven conflict) you can go fuck yourself with something sharp and spiky.

You know the one that gets on my nerves? "A lot". I don't know why, but it just makes me cringe when people write "alot". THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS ALOT. Seriously, it's four letters, how do you misspell that? I've also seen people use "allot" when they mean "a lot", which is not quite as bad (at least it is an actual word, even if it's not the one they want).

Whenever anyone puts the word alot into one of their posts (and this covers what seems like about 85% of internet posters), it's a red flag to me that I can safely ignore the rest of whatever they are saying. If you're not intelligent enough to correctly spell a one and three letter word, there is very little chance anything you are saying is worth my reading time. Generally, whenever I see alot in a post, I immediately stop reading and move down to the next poster.

yah see, shit like this

I fluently speak 3 languages, am learning a 4th (in September a 5th), am undoubtedly more linguistically competent and better at English than you can ever hope to be in your lifetime. I use the word alot.
People who judge the vehicle of communication and not the concepts being communicated are goddamn elitist morons. They're usually uni-lingual, always think whatever version of a language they were taught is far superior to any other, always criticise spoken language, and rarely have any actual formal language training. Preferring instead to assume that what they do is right and therefore anyone fails to emulate them is wrong.

 

[Catie Caraco]

I hate the word "natural" when used in tandem with "organic" and as an antithesis of "chemical". There is nothing natural about industrial machinery mixing lemon juice in with your laundry detergents. By that logic, MSG is "natural", seeing as how it is derived through fermentation and bacteria and shit. They're all chemicals.

Oh my god, this. This, this, all of this.

I work in a grocery store where we have a "natural food" section. Which is full of gluten-free bread and waffles and vegetarian burgers and chicken patties.

There is nothing LESS natural than gluten-free bread or chicken patties made of corn! It's infuriating. This section is also where all the "organic" items are. The misuse of organic is another thing that grinds my gears. They should just call it the "hipster" section and be done with it.


Just in case anyone with celiac disease is here, no, I don't think you're a hipster anymore than those who are lactose intolerant. But most people who buy gluten-free from my store do it because "it's healthier".

 

[jdogtwodolla]

Literally is the one that pushes my button.

Legitimately may be one a word I hear misused but the one word I know is misused would be Blatantly. Don't use the word blatantly if the situation really isn't that obvious.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Objective. Instead of being used to describe something that has its truth separate from any opinions or personal feelings, it is used to describe something that someone has a strong opinion or personal feeling about.

Either people have no idea what it means, or they're just really full of their own opinions and think they pass as objective truth

 

[Shraggler]

"Of"

Should "of"
Could "of"
Would "of"
Hadn't "of"

*cringe* Make it stop. I can understand making a mistake like this if you're a child and you've heard it but never read it, but come on. A grown-ass adult should have done enough reading in their life to understand this distinction.

Yeah, this one gets under my skin a bit. The interesting thing is I see this from people who claim they often read books. However, their lack of awareness of an elementary contraction strains their literary credibility just a bit.

 

[jdogtwodolla]

I just thought of another: fad

Fad is misused for the reason (I find primarily on this site) that the person tossing the word about is doing so prematurely.