Also, a very gay fellow's pronunciation of "sluice": "Why, I had a simply fab-ulous time at the orange orchard, until I dropped my juith in the sluith."
Anxious - I'm anxious to go on vacation tomorrow. It's used as if they are eager but the word anxious is closer to nervous (like the word anxiety). When someone uses this word, it's usually the opposite meaning and is confusing. Don't use it at all if you cannot use it correctly.
Literally - I literally died laughing. Said as if they really did die but usually used in situations where they mean figuratively. Again, don't use it if you're not sure about the meaning. It has become acceptable in our language to use the word as its opposite meaning and has been done so often that the dictionary now lists this as an appropriate use of the word.
Moot - It's a moot point. Used when the discussion has been finalized and resolved. Actually, the word moot means that something is ready to debate. Again, this is used the exact opposite of how it was intended adding more confusion in our language.
@kadagan I have several friends that can speak multiple languages and they said that English was the hardest to learn. There are so many idioms like "It's raining cats and dogs" that those of us born here know exactly what that means but they take it literally and it is confusing.
@cengland0 I mostly sorta disagree with the rest of your assessment, but I'm still mourning the loss of my friend, "literally." I sometimes literally get nauseous just thinking about it. And I mean oldschool "literally."
@Gurkie And the problem is that people have used "moot" incorrectly so long that it has become common place to use it wrong. If you tell someone it is a non-moot point, they will be totally confused. Best to completely wipe that word out of our language to avoid conflict.
@cengland0 It's fun to annoy people by deliberately mistaking moot for mute or (for advanced hilarity) mood. "It's a mute point, nothing else needs to be said." "It's a mood point, I'm not in the mood to discuss it." White-hot fury usually ensues.
@jqubed Like someone else commented on the photo, "Dictionaries not only give a word’s meaning, but also describe its use." The way people use it is wrong.
@cengland0 While I understand the frustration, language is a living thing. It evolves with the culture, attitudes, literacy, and even the mistakes of the people who use it. The definition of several words has changed over hundreds of years. This is completely normal. Watching it happen, though? That is disconcerting.
@cengland0 "You can disagree all you want but then I would suggest you refer to a dictionary." Which will tell me that I'm right. Yeah, I knew that already. ;-p
@cengland0 On moot, there's some excellent discussion right off of the top here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:moot_point And ironically (yeah, go ahead, language pedants, and jump on me for that one too), the statement that its "misuse" is the exact opposite of its "intended" meaning (wait, who determines and how do they, what the "intended," let alone authoritative, meaning of a word is?) is not only presumptuous, but the sort of imprecision that you ostensibly oppose. Speaking of "intended," I'll grant that if the intent of the speaker is to specifically indicate that the issue is resolved, the usage is sloppy arguably to the point of being incorrect. But I suspect that you make the judgment of misuse when the actual intent is that further debate is unwarranted or useless, which isn't much of a shift from "disputed." The point of a thing being debatable isn't so much that it's "ready to be debated," but typically that it's unlikely to be resolved by debate. BTW, here's a dictionary making my case for me: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moot
@chellemonkey I knew someone would be bothered--nauseated perhaps (literally or not). The usage is well established and seems fine to me (and, perhaps merely coincidentally, many dictionaries). Be assured that I meant to annoy you and your ilk. :-)
@joelmw Part of what annoys me is that while pedants quibble over trivialities, they--and most of us--ignore so much of the language (including a steady stream of neologisms and portmanteaus, which also seem to annoy) and generally refuse to have much fun with it. I'm all for standards, but if you're not stretching and/or breaking things, you're doing it wrong.
@joelmw To be honest I use nauseous and my sis-in-law kept using nauseated and I was going to send her a link to "set her straight" and found out I was wrong and she was right. I've tried using nauseated once or twice since but find I still don't like it.
@chellemonkey I like you better already. ;-) But, really, I tend to disagree with people about a lot of shit--especially when it comes to grammar and diction and whatnot. I'm definitely in the minority, for instance, among my overly educated, too-well-read (and, yet, still, somehow stupider than me) friends on the Oxford Comma. Maybe we should see how @cengland0 feels about the Ox. IMO, it's unnecessary, redundant and confusing--just to mention a few of its more irritating qualities.
@chellemonkey BTW, You're not wrong. She's just persnickety. And you can tell her I said so. Or, please, I don't need any credit: just call her that; I want to be the cause for someone calling someone else persnickety.
@joelmw Oxford comma, that is "milk, bread, and cheese" instead of "milk, bread and cheese", right? You can go back to liking me less because I prefer oxford commas
@chellemonkey@Thumperchick@JonT@cengland0 Yeah, blah blah blah. The same tired old examples, uncommon (mostly contrived) and managed easily enough without a big clumsy Ox. I don't like y'all any less; you're free to clutter up your writing with ugly and unnecessary commas. I just don't feel any obligation to join you. As much as anything, I'm annoyed that so much passion, errant self-righteousness and delusion of superiority are wasted on such an utterly disposable blot of punctuation. And, kids, I'm old enough to have endured decades of grammar nazis making self-important noise about supposedly misplaced prepositions and split infinitives--meanwhile saying "I" when they should have said "me" and "whom" when they should have said "who." I care about language and grammar, and that's exactly why I don't care much about serial commas.
@joelmw You mention being annoyed at how much "errant self-rightousness..." there is, but you are the one using paragraphs of emotion to defend your laughable position. I don't mind if you're misunderstood when you write lists. Why are you so frustrated about a silly comma?
@Thumperchick Ah, but the point is that my lists aren't misunderstood. And I'm content to ignore the whole thing, except the serial comma-ists bring it up all dogmatic and whatnot. But, yeah, I'll own that I get emotional about it. And you're right, it does make me laugh. It's probably also true that I'm so passionate about it because it annoys people who are so sure that they're categorically right, when, well, they're not.
@chellemonkey@Thumperchick@JonT@cengland0@editorkid All kidding (and soapboxing) aside, I heartily recommend to you June Casagrande, whose breakout book was Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies. She writes a column and a blog and pretends to be my friend on Facebook and Twitter. All-around, I'd say she's a swell human, and I like what she has to say about all of this stuff. She might even disagree with me about the serial and I'd still recommend her. ;-) http://www.grammarunderground.com/about-june
Also, a very gay fellow's pronunciation of "sluice":
"Why, I had a simply fab-ulous time at the orange orchard, until I dropped my juith in the sluith."
I had a sleuth once.. Very tasty on the barbee.. I had no idea it was a bloodhound or bears.. Go figure. Tasted a little like bison.
@unkabob Maybe that's why those world leaders were so fidgety: they were thinking of lunch.
@joelmw ... Always.. Along with raises and retiement benefits.
Three other useless words.
Anxious - I'm anxious to go on vacation tomorrow. It's used as if they are eager but the word anxious is closer to nervous (like the word anxiety). When someone uses this word, it's usually the opposite meaning and is confusing. Don't use it at all if you cannot use it correctly.
Literally - I literally died laughing. Said as if they really did die but usually used in situations where they mean figuratively. Again, don't use it if you're not sure about the meaning. It has become acceptable in our language to use the word as its opposite meaning and has been done so often that the dictionary now lists this as an appropriate use of the word.
Moot - It's a moot point. Used when the discussion has been finalized and resolved. Actually, the word moot means that something is ready to debate. Again, this is used the exact opposite of how it was intended adding more confusion in our language.
Perhaps this bothers me more than it should.
@cengland0 Personally I like my language to be confusing! It keeps all those nasty foreigners away :)
@kadagan I have several friends that can speak multiple languages and they said that English was the hardest to learn. There are so many idioms like "It's raining cats and dogs" that those of us born here know exactly what that means but they take it literally and it is confusing.
@cengland0 Mis-use of the word Literally, while not literally the worst common transgression of English usage, is one of my favorite peeves.
@cengland0 I mostly sorta disagree with the rest of your assessment, but I'm still mourning the loss of my friend, "literally." I sometimes literally get nauseous just thinking about it. And I mean oldschool "literally."
@cengland0 And you know of course that it's all your fault.
@joelmw You can disagree all you want but then I would suggest you refer to a dictionary.
@cengland0 I didn't know about moot! I learned something new today. I've always used it as "unimportant" or not worth discussing...
@Gurkie And the problem is that people have used "moot" incorrectly so long that it has become common place to use it wrong. If you tell someone it is a non-moot point, they will be totally confused. Best to completely wipe that word out of our language to avoid conflict.
@cengland0 It's fun to annoy people by deliberately mistaking moot for mute or (for advanced hilarity) mood.
"It's a mute point, nothing else needs to be said."
"It's a mood point, I'm not in the mood to discuss it."
White-hot fury usually ensues.
@joelmw You mean nauseated? http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/011606NauseatedNauseous.htm
@cengland0 @joelmw http://imgur.com/JtfJDxn
@jqubed Like someone else commented on the photo, "Dictionaries not only give a word’s meaning, but also describe its use." The way people use it is wrong.
@cengland0 I'm blaming you for not following the theme of only one useless word per day. This is the equivalent of the 6 for 1 deal today :)
@PWiddy Consider the 3 that I posted advance notice for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
@cengland0 While I understand the frustration, language is a living thing. It evolves with the culture, attitudes, literacy, and even the mistakes of the people who use it. The definition of several words has changed over hundreds of years. This is completely normal. Watching it happen, though? That is disconcerting.
@cengland0 Me to you, buddy:
@cengland0 "You can disagree all you want but then I would suggest you refer to a dictionary." Which will tell me that I'm right. Yeah, I knew that already. ;-p
@cengland0 On moot, there's some excellent discussion right off of the top here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:moot_point And ironically (yeah, go ahead, language pedants, and jump on me for that one too), the statement that its "misuse" is the exact opposite of its "intended" meaning (wait, who determines and how do they, what the "intended," let alone authoritative, meaning of a word is?) is not only presumptuous, but the sort of imprecision that you ostensibly oppose. Speaking of "intended," I'll grant that if the intent of the speaker is to specifically indicate that the issue is resolved, the usage is sloppy arguably to the point of being incorrect. But I suspect that you make the judgment of misuse when the actual intent is that further debate is unwarranted or useless, which isn't much of a shift from "disputed." The point of a thing being debatable isn't so much that it's "ready to be debated," but typically that it's unlikely to be resolved by debate. BTW, here's a dictionary making my case for me: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moot
@Starblind Mute/mood is brilliant. If the discussants are angry instead of amused, they have several serious problems.
@chellemonkey I knew someone would be bothered--nauseated perhaps (literally or not). The usage is well established and seems fine to me (and, perhaps merely coincidentally, many dictionaries). Be assured that I meant to annoy you and your ilk. :-)
@jqubed Yup
@cengland0 Irregardlessly, people will continue to disuse the lang.
@Thumperchick What you said.
@joelmw Part of what annoys me is that while pedants quibble over trivialities, they--and most of us--ignore so much of the language (including a steady stream of neologisms and portmanteaus, which also seem to annoy) and generally refuse to have much fun with it. I'm all for standards, but if you're not stretching and/or breaking things, you're doing it wrong.
@cengland0 What do you think about the phrase "academic distinction"?
@joelmw To be honest I use nauseous and my sis-in-law kept using nauseated and I was going to send her a link to "set her straight" and found out I was wrong and she was right. I've tried using nauseated once or twice since but find I still don't like it.
@chellemonkey I like you better already. ;-) But, really, I tend to disagree with people about a lot of shit--especially when it comes to grammar and diction and whatnot. I'm definitely in the minority, for instance, among my overly educated, too-well-read (and, yet, still, somehow stupider than me) friends on the Oxford Comma. Maybe we should see how @cengland0 feels about the Ox. IMO, it's unnecessary, redundant and confusing--just to mention a few of its more irritating qualities.
@chellemonkey BTW, You're not wrong. She's just persnickety. And you can tell her I said so. Or, please, I don't need any credit: just call her that; I want to be the cause for someone calling someone else persnickety.
@joelmw Oxford comma, that is "milk, bread, and cheese" instead of "milk, bread and cheese", right? You can go back to liking me less because I prefer oxford commas
@joelmw
@cengland0 ... Word Nazis are needed on all forums.. Now soup Nazis? That's debatable.
@Thumperchick @joelmw
@cengland0 I used to shop on moot.com all the time, but now I stay here on weh.com mostly.
(edit: please don't actually click those links)
@Thumperchick Oxford commas all the way. How many sandwiches in this list: egg salad, baloney, grilled cheese, BLT, peanut butter and jelly.
@chellemonkey @Thumperchick @JonT @cengland0 Yeah, blah blah blah. The same tired old examples, uncommon (mostly contrived) and managed easily enough without a big clumsy Ox. I don't like y'all any less; you're free to clutter up your writing with ugly and unnecessary commas. I just don't feel any obligation to join you. As much as anything, I'm annoyed that so much passion, errant self-righteousness and delusion of superiority are wasted on such an utterly disposable blot of punctuation. And, kids, I'm old enough to have endured decades of grammar nazis making self-important noise about supposedly misplaced prepositions and split infinitives--meanwhile saying "I" when they should have said "me" and "whom" when they should have said "who." I care about language and grammar, and that's exactly why I don't care much about serial commas.
@joelmw You mention being annoyed at how much "errant self-rightousness..." there is, but you are the one using paragraphs of emotion to defend your laughable position. I don't mind if you're misunderstood when you write lists. Why are you so frustrated about a silly comma?
@Thumperchick Ah, but the point is that my lists aren't misunderstood. And I'm content to ignore the whole thing, except the serial comma-ists bring it up all dogmatic and whatnot. But, yeah, I'll own that I get emotional about it. And you're right, it does make me laugh. It's probably also true that I'm so passionate about it because it annoys people who are so sure that they're categorically right, when, well, they're not.
@Thumperchick Honestly, I'm not even opposed to using the serial comma on those rare occasions when it might be useful.
While this is seemingly intended for editors, it's meant for self-appointed editors. Also, calling it the "Oxford comma" is worse than using it or not using it. Here in America, it's the serial comma. http://katymcdevitteditorial.com.au/2012/11/22/editors-would-you-do-me-this-tiny-favour/
@editorkid I very much agree.
@chellemonkey @Thumperchick @JonT @cengland0 @editorkid All kidding (and soapboxing) aside, I heartily recommend to you June Casagrande, whose breakout book was Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies. She writes a column and a blog and pretends to be my friend on Facebook and Twitter. All-around, I'd say she's a swell human, and I like what she has to say about all of this stuff. She might even disagree with me about the serial and I'd still recommend her. ;-) http://www.grammarunderground.com/about-june
@cengland0
@cengland0 @thumperchick
@lisaviolet I see this was already added. Need more coffee. Sorry for the repeat, it's all my fault. For reals this time.
@lisaviolet and yours was censored. pfft
@Thumperchick I hadn't even noticed. Now, that's funny.
@lisaviolet a "moo" point coming from a goat.
@cengland0 You caught that. I guess with goathood comes a quicker ability to catch the little nuances of wittiness. I look forward to this.
Imagine the fun I have teaching ESL students....
@kc5rbq No no, I don't mean literally break your leg... it's just... it's an old... aw screw it.
As long as we're using "useless" sarcastically, I'm all for this. Aw, fuckit, I can enjoy it either way. Thanks, @JasonKim.
Strewth! Sleuth?
I spent the day sleuthing a sleuth with my sleuth.