What's a word you've spent a long time not using right?

Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 158 points –

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what "tories" meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it's not usual to use it as short for "territories" as I've used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I'm reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing "encephalitis" with "hydrocephalus" when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

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Table might count for me here.

I grew up in America and "a bill was tabled" means that a bill was removed from consideration there... while as in Canada it means the precise opposite "a bill was tabled" means it was introduced for debate.

I don't use the term often in common speech, but I was really confused reading political news when I first arrived.

in America and "a bill was tabled" means that a bill was removed from consideration

Really?

In Canada to remove from consideration the term is "shelved", just in case that's different. Tables and shelves, what's with these terms? (probably what happened with the physical paper it was written on.)

Yea, and the Cambridge dictionary backs me up here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tabled

UK

to suggest something for discussion:

An amendment to the proposal was tabled by Mrs James.

US

to delay discussion of a subject:

The suggestion was tabled for discussion at a later date.

US doesn't make any sense to me. The table is where things are discussed. You bring it to the table.

Just because it has been brought to the table doesn't mean it will go anywhere else. "Tabling" a discussion suggests that we are stepping away from the table for now. We are taking away any deal we have struck, but leaving behind any issue still under contention. Maybe we will bring it up when we come back, maybe not.

We use "tabling" in much the same sense as the idiom "leaving money on the table", meaning "concluding a transaction without demanding all consideration owed to you".

Tabling means it's brought for discussion, it doesn't need to go anywhere else.

The other idiom even has to specify leaving the table.

*Hell even the prior definition had to say "later date" because it was to be discussed at the table.

It absolutely does need to go somewhere else. The issue under discussion is not yet operational. It's not yet a law, or part of a contract. While it is on the table, it is nothing more than hot air. The participants have to come to a consensus and carry it away from the table as an agreement before it becomes actionable.

Tabling an issue means it isn't progressing into operation. It's still on the negotiating table, but we are moving on to other, more pressing issues for the time being.

Context also matters. If the issue isn't currently under discussion, then yes, it makes sense that "tabling" means you are bringing it to the table; inviting discussion on that issue.

But, when the issue is already under discussion, a proposal to "table" that issue certainly doesn't mean to reintroduce the issue we are already discussing.

...discussions are discussions. They don't need to lead somewhere for the discussion to happen, ie the discussion to be brought to the table.

You're describing a conversation, not a discussion. A conversation can be had for no other purpose than to have it.

A discussion has an objective, a purpose. A discussion ended without achieving that purpose has been "tabled": it has been left on the table, at least for the time being, while the participants divert attention to more pressing issues.

My purpose in this discussion is to convince you that "tabled" can be logically used in the manner I described. As you do not seem receptive to that concept, I'm going to table this discussion and continue with my day.

It’s not yet a law, or part of a contract. While it is on the table, it is nothing more

It does not need to become law, it does not need to be part of a contract for it to be discussed or brought to the table, aka tabled. You know to be brought under discussion or consideration.

You're oddly adversarial about this, so cheers.

My impression is that a tabled thing is put down and is no longer the thing at hand. It will probably be picked up later, once other things, that are on the table, are through.

Then it is shelved. Basically for a later dated. Tabled is where the discussions take place.

So did you table your use of table or was it tabled and therefore, still on the table?

every word i use is right, its the english language that is wrong

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. ' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things. ' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.”

Encephalitis is caused by viral infections. Our immune system usually suppresses said viruses, and HIV takes away the ability to suppress them.

This happens with a lot of illnesses... thrush, Tuberculosis, fungal infections. HIV allows a lot of stuff to have far worse impact than it normally would.

That's not quite the same as HIV causing them... Pedantic maybe, but since we're talking about words meaning things... ;)

Encephalitis literally just means "in the brain inflammation".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/encephalitis

This brain inflammation can be caused by many things. Quote from Mayo Clinic:

Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/encephalitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356136

It can also be caused by prions. Mad cow disease is aka bovine spongiform encephalitis. I believe the word just indicates cell death in the brain which leaves regions of dead tissue.

True, but in the context of talking about someone's child in my local culture, it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn't associate the two conditions.

it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn’t associate the two conditions.

I don’t get it. It raises an eyebrow if you don’t link encephalitis and HIV? I’m about 90% sure I must be misunderstanding you...

Encephalitis has many causes, yes, but HIV is the one that sticks out. If you go to someone and talk about it, they're going to have the same "assume the worse" or "out of context" mindset as if you were to talk about mononucleosis (to give a distant analogy). Sure, mononucleosis can be caused by several things, such as sharing a toothbrush or having someone cry on you, but everyone associates it with what it's famous for, being spread through liberal usage of intimacy. Same with encephalitis. So when you go to a random neighbor here and say "how is the kid with encephalitis" they're not going to take it well. People here are prudish like that.

You have a very exceptional bubble. Or a false impression.

I was homeschooled and was basically educated by books, so I have a massively large vocabulary and I mostly use it correctly.

But pronunciation? I'm fucked.

You have "a massively large vocabulary" and couldn't think of anything other than "massively large"? 🤔

I was raised by dyslexic wolves in a dixie cup full of turds and was basically educated by punches, so naturally my encyclopedic repertoire of words is aptly humbled by the plentiful platitude of my somewhat planar pronunciation.

ah. youve read the mormon bible.

Come on, that's still super better than all the super unimaginative kids who super use super as a superlative every super single sentence

I take your point, but please consider: People who like to show off their checks thesaurus prodigious vocabularies are generally insufferable to be around.

My wife is the same. Very well read, but never learned the pronounciation of her fancy words.

Imagine the look on her face when I explained that the "hors d'oeuvres" she read about in books are the same thing as the "or durves" she was serving at the party.

I had the opposite, I always thought the word "grandiose" I saw in books was the word "grandeur" that I hear people say, so I always read "grandiose" as "grandeur" and thought "grandeur" was spelled that way. Whenever I heard people say "gran-di-ose" I would pipe up "uh, actually, it's pronounced grandeur, the s is silent".

Very similar to this, on multiple occasions I'd try to make macarons and accidentally make macaroons and vice versa.

My son is a voracious reader, and he has the same thing. He's 15 now but still, every so often, he'll say a word and it'll take me a minute to figure out what he means.

I don't really value pronunciation as much as some do. If you understand what you're talking about, that matters more than being exposed and remembering the right pronunciation.

So many words we never hear people say, but we read them and have to know them.

Freedom.

Apparently where I live it means torture people till they off themselves.

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Oh in English -- I used to say renumerate (numerate a second time) instead of remunerate (pay someone for a thing).

Me too!! I'm Italian and I used to say "renumerare" instead of "remunerare".

If you're curious, the verb comes from Latin "munus" = service/duty/tax

Yup, that makes sense!

I've cornered the market on Latin-Vietnamese cross-language humor though. Stay off my turf :P

I have never heard nor saw it spelled "remunerate".

Yup, that was the case for me too. I think I only figured it out when I was like 30.

Man, I'm a voracious reader, my heads full of words I probably put the wrong emphasis on but it ain't like when i was younger when i would completely and consistently mispronounce words i could spell, and no one would correct me, because they didn't know either. But this one, I absolutely would have caught this one. Every author, reporter, newscaster, writer I can think of, has apparently spelled or pronounced it wrong and seems it's in some dictionaries, i just learnt.

Ah yeah, that was me as a kid too. I read whatever I could get ahold of, which was mostly English and French from 50+ years ago (yay, secondhand books and copyrights expiring). So my vocabulary in both languages was (and occasionally remains) antiquated. My pronunciation fixed itself some time after university, but was weird in my youth.

I've since de-prioritized human language, for practical reasons. Communicating with machines efficiently is simply much more productive (and lucrative)! My shorthand also is it's own language, where there is no distinction between letters and numbers, of which there are 16, and they phonetically map to English. Hexadecimal English, or Hexen for short. It's optimized for writing quickly (every character is precisely 1 stroke).

Quite handy for taking notes around people I don't want reading them, too.

Holy shit. You ever have that moment when you realize you're talking to someone way the fuck smarter than you? I understand what you're doing, good explanation, but I don't want to play chess against you.

Truth be told, I'm terrible at chess (so... you're not wrong). Games where I have perfect knowledge of the state of play, and where one player moves first, I don't enjoy much. For each of these games, there provably exists a strategy where the first player that moves can only win or draw. This strategy is trivial for tic-tac-toe, known for checkers, but unknown for chess (although we know it exists). Anyway, just knowing that sort of ruins it for me.

Anyway, I know that feeling well! I'm not that smart, I just study a few subjects a lot. There are just so many things I don't know, that it's easy to find people I can learn from.

Games where I have perfect knowledge of the state of play, and where one player moves first, I don’t enjoy much. For each of these games, there provably exists a strategy where the first player that moves can only win or draw

That doesn't seem quite correct for any game meeting those criteria (I'd also add that the game is deterministic - no true randomness in the game either, since that is distinct from state - otherwise the outcome could trivially depend on random events). There are two other possibilities for a deterministic game: that optimal gameplay by both players will always end in the second (or another player if more than two) winning, or that optimal gameplay by both players will result in a game that never ends (impossible for games with a finite number of states, and rule that the game ends in an outcome if the same state recurs too many times - like chess).

A trivial example of a (poor) game that would meets your criterion but where the first player loses under optimal strategy: Players take turns placing a counter anywhere in the play area from an infinite supply of counters. Players cannot skip a turn. If there are an even number of counters on the board after a player's turn, the player who placed the counter can optionally declare victory and win. Not a game I'd play, but it does prove there exist deterministic open state games where one player moves first where the first player will not win or tie.

In a 3+ player deterministic open state game, the actions of a player who goes on to lose could impact which of the remaining players win (they are essentially just a different source of non-determinism).

I think it is correct to say that any two-player deterministic open-state game which can only end in a draw, win, or tie, for any fixed initial conditions, there exists a strategy for one of the two players that will ensure that one of the three outcomes occurs: the game continues forever, that player draws, or that player wins. That can be proved by contradiction: either one or more move in the strategy decision tree can be improved to make the player win, which contradicts the strategy not existing, or the other player can rely on the strategy not existing for the first player to devise a strategy, which also contradicts no strategy existing for either player.

I'm a bit sleepy and ate far too much seafood to process all you've written here presently -- but the specific thing I was referring to is called Zermelo's Theorem. Which is up there for top 10 theories with cool-sounding names, as far as I'm concerned -- here it is in case you're interested (I periodically forget about this theorem and it's always neat to re-find it -- which you could call an... optimally suboptimal move)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo%27s_theorem_(game_theory)

I've never had this problem in English nor Spanish but you made me realize those two words are very similar in Spanish too (reenumerar, remunerar)

How about " till " in English vs " 'til " ?

In English, a till is a cash drawer or a plough. The abbreviation for "until" is " 'til ".

I see it in subtitles. I worry for society.

Haha, sorry to confuse things further but this is not true .

Tldr, "till" is its own word and is actually older than the word until, and they've been used synonymously for centuries. 'Til with an apostrophe is acceptable but has been less common, and til without an apostrophe is even less common.

I used the term 'pursuant' incorrectly for a long time. I thought it meant something like 'things you do in order to achieve something', like sweeping the floor is pursuant to getting the kitchen clean, vs the correct usage, which is either 'in accordance with', or 'in a manner conformable to'. So a correct usage would be 'sweeping the floor is pursuant to the procedure we set up to clean the kitchen'. Nice word, though. I like it.

As a foreigner I would have made that same mistake, since it sounds like it’s related to pursuit. Educational comments in this

sweeping the floor is persuant to the procedure...

Its more often used in formal and legal stuff. I'd kinda perceive you were being an ass or condescending if you were to use it that way. Like its just an annoying word generally.

You might want to simply say

"please do x like I showed you"

or something like that. I would honestly never use persuant unless I was a prosecutor even though I'm intimately familiar with its use in legal and other academic writing.

Just don't use it, also is English your first language? I feel like no native English speaker would ever really use that aha

I cooked my poptart perfectly pursuant to the packaged directions?

Why not just say I made/had a poptart? Why do you need to get that descriptive about it, its junkfood that you just eat or pop in the toaster, hence the name. Is like a tart you pop in the toaster

Worst case, use according but I don't get why you'd ever need to say that. Nobody who speaks English would really ever say that, that sounds like a textbook exercise lol

I thought phallic (fálico) meant flawed (falho) and used it so much. I cringe when I remember this 😭

Local news anchor once ended a segment saying something was “a phallus” instead of a “fallacy. Understandably but hilarious.

I thought penultimate meant ...basically ultimate

Am doofus

Edit: to clarify, I thought it meant it in a good way, as in best. It actually means next to last

One of my professors would regularly use the word antepenultimate, "before before last".

when you're reading linguistics literature & forums you'll see variations all the way up to "propreantepenultimate" (fifth last) commonly

meanwhile in Italian you'd just see "quintultimo" but fuck those guys amirite

Ah, that works much better in Italian!

One related word I have mixed feelings about is 'antediluvian'. On one hand, it's got a nice ring to it. On the other hand, there are enough floods in my area that it translates to "more than a short time ago", which feels contrary to it's intended usage.

Some people might require a flood of biblical proportions. We get those less frequently, but in practice, still too often for the word to be used as intended.

On a semi-related note, I accidentally stumbled on a temple the other day that looked Buddhist, but the symbology had far too many tentacles and various statues had... unusual numbers of limbs. Perhaps the core issue is that I apparently live in R'lyeh. Still... affordable housing on land risen from the deeps, not much pollution or traffic. Google maps can be a bit glitchy. Fresh (if highly unusual) seafood.

Well you were close. Some might say you were right next to it n

Binge watch all of Taskmaster, you’ll never use it wrong again

I just learned! Thanks! That's what I thought it meant as well!

Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

From the NHS website:

Encephalitis is most often due to a virus, such as:

  • herpes simplex viruses, which cause cold sores (this is the most common cause of encephalitis)
  • the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles
  • measles, mumps and rubella viruses
  • viruses spread by animals, such as tick-borne encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis, rabies (and possibly Zika virus)

Encephalitis caused by a virus is known as "viral encephalitis". In rare cases, encephalitis is caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites.

I didn't realize "effect" and "affect" were different words for a long time.

It's freeing to just use whatever one you want with zero effect.

I always used the two as different tenses of the same word except for the fact that "affect" can also be the verb form of "affectionate".

“Effect” is a noun, while “affect” is a verb. You can cause effects, by affecting something. “Affecting” is the act of causing effects, while “effects” are the actual causes of an affliction.

As an example, let’s say you get drunk. There are two different ways to phrase the same scenario: you are feeling the effects of the drinking, or you are being affected by the drinks. The end result is the same, but you need separate words for them.

In the former, you are feeling the effects. Feeling is the verb, effects is a noun. The same way you would feel the clothes against your skin, or the ground beneath your feet. But with the latter phrasing, the drink is acting upon you, so you need a verb; You are being affected by it. The same way you would be affected by someone else in the bar pushing you. Falling over is the effect, because you were affected by the push.

Effect and affect are both verbs. They are also both nouns.

effect n. meaning as you described: "The effect of the potion was that I grew three sizes."
affect v. meaning as you described: "The potion affected everyone the same way."
effect v. meaning "to successfully cause": "The potion I'm mixing will effect a revolution among the goblins."
affect n. meaning face or appearance: "Realizing she was about to drink the life-changing potion, the goblin's entire affect shifted to delight."

You know that the other two words also exist though, right? Like, you can effect change in an organization, and there can be something strange in the affect of a psychopath. So there's a verb "to effect" and a noun "affect" (although here the pronunciation is different--the accent is on the first syllable). It's true that the most common usages follow the rules you're laying out, but it genuinely is an oversimplification.

The arrow affected the aardvark.
The movie had great special effects.

Somewhat grim for the poor aardvark, I suppose. It's useful though.

Honestly, you can pretty much always use effect unless you're affecting a fancy manner.

I am strongly in favor of depreciating affect.

You may find you mean deprecating.

Depreciating is reducing in value due to time, deprecating is disapproving of (or in software, marking as obsolete)

Sigh, that one I can legitimately blame on autocorrect and adhd.

Is encephalitis caused only by HIV, though?

I seem to think it was a thing before HIV.

You are correct. -itis just means inflammation or infection, encephalon just means brain. You can have encephalitis caused by multiple things, viruses, bacteria, fungal, auto immune diseases and so forth

literally, apparently.

I happily described a nice coffee shop as "kitschy" to the guy behind the counter and quickly learned from his reaction that it isn't the synonym for "artsy" that I thought it was.

It means "a naive imitation" for anyone who's ears are turning red now. Puts on a wool cap.

And here I thought it meant quirky, fuck

If I’ve literally learned anything, it’s that if a bunch of us keep using it as a compliment to mean quirky, we can shift the meaning!

I thought something similar about the word "campy", as in something so dry it becomes its own style.

For decades I pronounced albeit like "al-bayt", instead of "all-be-it". I only ever saw it in writing, and never hears anyone say it. Meaning made also so much more sense when I finally heard it being said out loud. Eye opener.

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I used poignant wrong for a long time, when it came to describing memories. I thought it meant the memories were strong, clear sensory ones but it meant sad ones.

TIL. I've been making the same mistake and had to look it up as a result of this comment.

When I was younger I actually thought "poignant" was how some accents say "pregnant". Cue unnecessary congratulations.

I would say it means strong but with an implied sadness, but you can have positive poignant memories too - you’d just have to state they were positive. The day I graduated from University was poignant because it was the end of an era and the start of another, but it doesn’t mean it is a sad memory.

Nothing too big or embarrassing, but for a while I thought "nepotism" just meant the same as "narcissism" when it's actually about favoritism towards one's family.

Not a super long time but I conflated apocryphal with like sagely or scholarly

I still use catharsis in the way one might use "recieving one's just punishment"

(Cathartic: It's the feeling of excrement. A bowl movement. Cleansing yourself after eating a bunch of chilli dogs and coming out the other side fresh.)

For people wanting to know about the word catharsis: Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. "music is a means of catharsis for them"

Also, you may want to look into your "bowl movement" XD

Can I submit an expression? "Have the work cut out for you". My thinking was "there was a lot of work, but my boss said I'll have the work cut out for me. Phew, now there's less work after some of it being cut out!"

Yes you can submit an expression. I have a history of mistaking those as well.

I used to say "worth nothing" while, obviously, the correct way is "worth noting".

However, given how many Google results are there about the wrong spelling, I'm clearly not the only one.

"Congratulations, you won the lottery!"

"Worth nothing."

"Uhm... alright."

Honestly, I would just see you saying two different things without context.

Unless as part of a sentence, like "it's worth nothing that it will be extremely hot during the picnic" at which point I'd probably ask you to rephrase the sentence

I lived for the better part of a decade in Vietnam thinking "đại lý" was a loan word from English meaning "daily".

It actually indicates an agent (like a reseller) -- e.g. a lottery ticket seller, news stand, and so on. "Daily" just worked in all those contexts by coincidence.

I also mix up "in stock" (in a warehouse) and "available". So an analogy is I often ask people if they have "a clock in their warehouse" instead of if they "have the time".

Also probably two dozen equally weird things I'm not even aware of. People are pretty chill about it, mostly because the number of people without Vietnamese heritage that speak the language in any capacity, rounds down to zero.

In Germany, it's really popular to call each other "Digga" as a way of saying "Dude" or "Man". Its origins come from the word "Dicka" (read: hey fatty, hey thicko), but the Hamburg dialect changed the k to a g.

I, uh, thought it came from a different route via the US. I was wrong...

Similarly, I saw "fija" in the Spanish description on so many bottles of hairspray that I thought it meant "spray" in English. No. It's "hold" in that context.

When I was a kid, it was Yosemite.

I was obsessed with GTA San Andreas, and that was the big truck in the game, and it was my favorite. I was pronouncing it like "yosa might" for a while until somebody pointed it out, and then I connected the dots

I'm actually learning this now. I thought it was pronounced like the "semite" in "anti-semite" but with a "yo" in front instead of an "anti".

I'd always read it the same way. Watching Looney Tunes and realising one of the characters was called Yosemite Sam was what made it click for me somehow. I still say yoss-em-ite in my head though.

I don't use it wrong because I don't use it but to me "mirth" feels like it has a negative connotation even though I know it means joyful.

Nonce. I've always used it just like Dunce. Turns out it does in fact not mean the same and instead means pedo.

In cryptography, a "nonce" is a number used only once. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_nonce

In linguistics and psychology “nonce” words are fake words invented for a specific purpose (like to use as stimuli in an experiment). They have no meaning but should sound like plausible words for the language phonetically. In English some commonly used ones are “blicket” and “wug.” Ironically “wug” is so commonly used there’s actually a formalized “wug test” for morphological development.

I actually used to use this wrong, thinking “nonce” was a variation on “nonsense,” but it’s actually from the same origin as the cryptographic nonce: it’s a one-time-use word. So while they are often nonsensical (like basically all of the Jabberwocky poem) they can also be perfectly sensible and comprehensible, just with a one-time specific context of use.

(Also I’ve never heard nonce used as an insult of any kind. Is it a British thing?)

Nonce as an insult is definitely used in British, although it has a very specific meaning so not something you’d casually call a friend (depending on the friend!)

I think it might be, the first time I’d heard it was in reference to Jimmy Savile after his death

Turns out pseudo is not spelled like sudo.

Of course, sudo means "superuser do"

What got me was the Pokemon sudowoodo and having heard the word pseudo in some kind of media and figuring out what it meant but not how it was spelled. It's name is probably a nod to superuser do, but that's not how I first encountered it as a kid.

Sudowoodo males sense if the word is meant to be psuedo. Pseudo wood o, Like fake tree. I always thought it was a pretty clever name. I dont know how it works in relation to superuser do

Pokemon names nearly always deviate from the spellings of their constituent root words in at least one superficial way.

There are a couple odd exceptions like Electrode and Talonflame, of course. And even more now with paradox mons, but those are, uh, a special case.

My point being, I am confident the "sudo" in "Sudowoodo" is not a nod to sudo at all, it's just a coincidental side effect of corrupting "pseudo". As they do.

I suppose if one really wanted to know, one could just ask Nob Ogasawara himself, the one who named Sudowoodo. He's on Twitter...

In German we use the English term 'understatement' in some occasions, e.g. 'his dressing style is a clear understatement...'. My brain somehow tied the meaning to something like 'understanding', maybe due to the similarities of both words. For decades it was clear to me that someone dressing like that were dressed to the point and 'making a clear statement'. Now that I've checked the real meaning, I'm completely puzzled when and how to use the term and what I've misinterpreted all the years...

You might have been looking for the term understated.

As in, to dress in an understated style. Which relates to simplicity, elegance, and versatility.

Understatement would be like “it’s just sprinkling” when it’s actually raining really bad. Typically used sarcastically when someone tries to compare the situation to something that is normally comparable but to a lesser degree.

Unless I am unclear on what you’re misunderstanding :)

Encephalitis (en-sef-uh-LIE-tis) is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others. 

Penultimate. I used it as though it referred to the last thing rather than the second to last thing.

Inflammable means flammable? What a country

Inflammable means it catches fire and flammable means it starts fires. Maybe. I guess. I'm not a chemist

You have those backwards, flammable means it can easily catch fire in the presence of an ignition source. Inflammable means it can easily catch fire even without an ignition source. I remember the different because inflammable is Immediately flammable without help.

Since OP is in the UK, I can pull out “nonplussed.” Current American usage of the word is a lack of surprise or general acceptance. I am nonplussed when news arrives that another politician was caught in a sex scandal. Non-American usage is complete surprise and an inability to act. The Scot was nonplussed when the drunk American vomited noisily on his shoes.

Edit: I am firmly in the “general acceptance” camp and usually have to process for a second or two when someone uses it in its traditional sense.

I have never heard it used as general acceptance. That really drives me nuts! What good is a word that's self contradictory 😨

Likewise, only ever known it as the total surprise meaning.

I wonder if the American meaning has any relation to the seemingly common use of the phrase "I could care less", which is similarly opposite to its (to me) correct meaning.

Oh and don't get me started on uninterested/disinterested...

It’s also generational. My dad was very confused (dare I say nonplussed?) when I used the informal meaning. IIRC he corrected me which is what led me to realize the difference. It seems to go back to at least 2013.

What good is a word that’s self contradictory

Words like those are common enough, and there's normally no problem in understanding them. When's the last time you misunderstood the word clip or dust?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contronym?useskin=vector

That's cool! I've never heard of a contronym before.

However the difference is that most of those have different usages - e.g. if you say "I'm going to clip the hedges" vs "I'm going to clip something to the hedges", you have to use the word differently. With "dust", it's different based on the context, because you need to be talking about some sort of powder to be talking about putting something on. If I said "I'm going to dust the furniture", you would assume I meant clean, but if I said "dust the furniture with cleaning powder", you'd probably understand the difference. Different locations and activities also help here (e.g. skiing, cake decorating, cleaning, etc).

Nonplussed on the other hand likely derives its alternate meaning from an incorrect understanding of the original meaning, and so it's used in the exact same manner and context to mean the exact inverse. If I say the sentence "he was nonplussed at the news", which meaning am I referring to?

"Table" is another contronym that's ACTUALLY confusing (learned that one from this post as well).

Not in the UK itself (hence I distinguish them with "mainlanders"), just someone who has lived a commonwealth/territorial upbringing and has moved around a few times. The debate with said mainlanders sticks out because people within the physical UK differ largely in how they say things, and when you emulate them and fail from the perspective of someone from a lesser part of the anglosphere, you can't make the case as well that it's just a matter of different equally valid uses for the same vocabulary.

Terrence Thatcher, T. May, Terroris, Ttruss;
Terry-Tories, Terry-Tories, make a fuss!

It also gives a different meaning to the citizens of British Overseas Tories!

It took me until graduate school to learn that "mortified" is not another word for "scared"/"fearful"

It still looks that way to me what with mort in there!

It also took me a long time to realize that the word "awry", which I read often in books and inferred its meaning, and "ah-rai" were the same thing. I thought awry was pronounced "aw-ree" and it was just a synonym for "ah-rai".

Man, I'm learning some weird stuff about British people. I've never heard of encephalitis being associated with HIV or a nonce being any kind of person.

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The word "nauseous" is parallel to "noxious" and means "causing nausea". If you're experiencing nausea, you're nauseated -- the thing that made you nauseated is nauseous.

I don't use it very often but I misuse the word "Gattaca" on purpose sometimes. In reality it's the title of the 1997 film that's named from the letters G,A,T, and C, referring to guanine, adenin, thymine and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.

But on the TV show The League, the character Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) screams it as his battle cry during paintball, completely oblivious to what it actually means or that it's the title of a movie. I urge you all to misuse this word at some point as well -- if you ever need to hype yourself up, try screaming "GATTACA!" as your battle cry!

Does the character mean to cry "Attica"? Like people who yelled it in the 70s, referencing the prison revolt?

Yep, but then Family Guy conflated it 20 years ago to "Gattica!" as a way for Peter to show his support for civil rights whilst highlighting that he's an idiot. I doubt Family Guy were the first to make that joke either

It's never explicitly explained, with the most being the other characters saying that they don't think he's ever seen the movie Gattaca and doesn't know what it's about, and Rafi later confirming he had no idea it was a movie.

Since Rafi's character is defined by being as uninformed, devoid of all decency, and chaotic as possible, I think that it completely fits though. Especially since most of his lines are improvised by Mantzoukas, who would be clever enough to use a similar-sounding movie title in place of an actual event for Rafi's character. Adding to that, there is another scene in later seasons where Rafi is getting kicked out of a store and he says that they'll have to call in the police and the FBI to get him out of there, again shouting "Gattaca" which definitely plays into your theory.

If anyone gets the chance to ask Jason Mantzoukas a question, this is the one to ask about! Until then, I think this just became my headcanon. GATTACA!

Callow. It just means immature but I somehow got it in my head that it meant cowardly.

For a long time I just thought of it as "callous", like cold and indifferent.

I actually did until now. Never bothered to look it up. Thanks, Lemmy!

It is a very rare word, though.

Not a word but I thought the idiom toe the line meant basically the same as push the envelope. As in you're testing the boundaries of something by walking right up to the line and nudging it with your toe to move it further.

Turns out it means pretty much the opposite, essentially the same as fall in line.

ages ago, i spent something like half a year thinking there was a word "appericate". it was an odd one, since i only ever saw it in print, and from context it was clear that it meant the same thing as "appreciate", which, oddly enough, i only ever heard in speech.

and then one day i stopped at an "appericate" in a book and re-read it 9 times, very slowly.

Portuguese ⟨bisonho⟩. I always used it as "needy", "demanding excessive attention" (like a child). Until someone informed me that it was supposed to be "weird".

I mean, homonyms exist, confusing them/not knowing a word has one doesn't make it "wrong". Surely you (e: plural, not having a go at you op lol) could tell tories and Tories apart by context (if not capitalisation)?

Redux. I've always just used it as a fancier 're-do'. Still going to keep using it as such. I like the word too much.

Often I do see it used that way, many times a "remix" of a song will be labelled a "redux" on YouTube.

Depreciate.

I'm going to Depreciate this computer. That means to get its loss of value on taxes....not to shut it down. The word I meant was Deprecate

With English as my second language, the difference between terrible and terrific has always confused me.

Apparently muted? I was using it like a muted yellow, so yellow but it's been faded in some way. They thought I meant like a muted sound on the computer which meant turned off entirely.

Prostate and prostrate are close to each other in my brain and I don't use either much.

Idk, there were a lot of words I apparently used wrong as a kid but it was never explained how. But also if you jump down someone's throat for a definition right there and then I struggle to give one

I think, you were right about muted all along. Muted in the sense of zero sound I can relate to but it didn't make it into dictionary yet

Noisome means smelly, not noisy.

enormity means serious or grave, not very large.

terrific isn’t always great or amazing; it can be synonymous with terrifying.

"just" was meant to indicate a recent position in time. As in "just now."

If you just adjust your justice you might just make it just.

If you just

Yeah that's the one that gets me. People use it to say something without having to commit to having said it and/or attempt to reduce the weight of an action. Just make more money, just work harder, just work faster, just don't worry about it, just calm down. Pretty much minimizes the context the person they're talking to comes from like whatever they're suggesting is so easy no one should have to think about it.

"Just don't use the word just!" lol

Using it as a shortening for justice doesn't bother me for some reason xD

"Alternately" when I meant "alternatively".

Still don’t know the difference.

"Alternately" means "switching back and forth" like "She spoke rapidly, alternately English and Spanish, whichever came more readily to her tongue."

"Alternatively" means "as another option", like "We usually go with Bob in this situation; alternatively, I think Rudi is ready to try this solo."

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