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Unfortunately, common misuse of a word is allowed to eventually be allowed to change it's actual definition. Here's two that grind me. . . and I'm afraid they'll both be acceptable in their misuse before long because they have incredible momentum.

1. "Beg the question" does NOT mean "that brings up the next question" or "that leads me to this next question."

"Begging the question" is a logical fallacy in which the a question is asked that presumes the answer to another question that may still be in contention.

2. "Peruse" means to read something deeply and thoroughly, not to simply skim over something. This word is in danger of becoming it's own antonym.

My favorites:

Discrete for discreet, as in discreet carry.

Roll for role, as in role-playing (although I suppose if the course is sufficiently tactical you may do a lot of roll-playing too! )

I sometimes wonder about flammable and inflammable both meaning the same thing, but frankly I could care less.

rdhetrick wrote:I have a few, but I usually don't comment on them irregardless of who their from....

Very nice....

The continued misuse of "unprecedented" and "literally" drive me insane.

My head literally explodes.....

Overused word that irritates me: literally...my 18yo daughter literally uses it all the time...lol

The misused word or phrase that ranks at the top of my list is "I could care less" when they clearly mean that they "couldn't care less"..."I could care less" really means that you care some..."I couldn't care less" means that you don't care at all...lol

and BTW, when my daughter says 'literally', there is no 't' in it...kids nowadays do not enunciate for diddly...lol

RogueUSMC wrote:and BTW, when my daughter says 'literally', there is no 't' in it...kids nowadays do not enunciate for diddly...lol

Prolly.

Anygunanywhere

"Selfie"

anygunanywhere wrote:

RogueUSMC wrote:and BTW, when my daughter says 'literally', there is no 't' in it...kids nowadays do not enunciate for diddly...lol

Prolly.

Anygunanywhere

I'm guilty of that one...lol

sjfcontrol wrote:I sometimes wonder about flammable and inflammable both meaning the same thing, but frankly I could care less.

Interestingly, flammable isn't a real word at all. . . it grew out of dangerous and unfortunate misunderstandings of inflammable where people assumed it meant the opposite of what it actually does.

Another one that gets me is "ironic". Few understand this word; most of the time they actually mean "coincidentally" instead of "ironically".

AndyC wrote: Misuse of "literally" makes me groan. You literally died? Really?

'Actually'

I hate when the word unique has a modifier. very unique, somewhat unique, pretty unique, etc. the word is like dead, either you are or you aren't

"Orientated." The original correct word when I was in high school was "Oriented," and one might have an "Orientation." As in...."he was oriented to place and time," or "I had to attend a campus orientation lecture before starting classes." People, places and things had "orientation" relative to one another, a status they arrived at by becoming oriented to one another. Misuse of the word used to drive my dad crazy, and he had two Literature PhDs and taught at a prestigious university. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he probably knew more about the proper use of the language than 99,999 out of any 100,000 people. As the educational system gradually dumbed us down, "orientated" became so commonly used that it finally officially entered the lexicon. I'll bet that you would not have found the word "orientated" in a mid 1960s dictionary.

MORE: http://english.stackexchange.com/questi ... orientated