The most misused words in the English language

[pamela]

posted by lemit

Thank you, Michaelangelica. That's an explanation even I can understand. Now let's get back to them misused words.

:hihi:

 

love, I think, is the most misused word of all, but this phrase does not make any sense to me, how about you?

 

"he/she did it out of love" this phrase is commonly used to refer to a loving, yet often hard action. When in fact it should be said " he/she did it because of or in love"

[alexander]

lets try some more words that are utterly misused, shall we :smilingsun:

 

sup - nobody uses this word's original meaning

at - especially when it's used at the end of the sentence, like "where you at?"

basis - another one, "weekly basis", "daily basis" are not at all the correct use of the word, "a search was performed on the basis of a weekly inspection"

irregardless

except - instead of accept. this is on par with

affect - instead of effect

e.g. and i.e. - people tend to use them interchangeably

imply - a lot of times when one should use infer

[freeztar]

Sorry to veer off-topic, but I feel this needs addressing.

 

The system is so arcane that only a few here really understand it. Something designed by a demented mathematician.

 

Almost every forum has some form of this system. So, to say it's arcane is probably a misuse of the word. :bouquet:

There used to be al little "user cp" word button you could press, that would take you to a page where all these little messages lived, happily for a short while before they were reincarnated into free disk space.

That seems to have disappeared so I don't know how you get to the page anymore

It's still there, but has been renamed "My Settings" in the top right.

This is also handy to see your subscribed threads or threads you have made posts in.

Equally you can hit the red-square button and say something nasty to the person without anyone knowing what you have said. But no-one here uses that button. Karma has a way of getting you back :smilingsun:

 

To be an effective system, it's prudent to give both good and bad rep as appropriate. I give out a lot of bad rep and have never had a retaliation rep sent to me.

 

When a user receives lots of bad rep, their rep bar appears as red boxes rather than green. This is an easy way for other members to quickly judge the poster's integrity.

 

Edit: More info here: http://hypography.com/forums/tutorials-and-how-tos/7215-reputation.html

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Hi y'all!

Sup?!?

 

We's infer sum moore linguistikal abusez ere:)

Less sea hear wear was we at?

Linguistikal....thaz it...yah:)

 

a few more, spellin errors and all;)

[lemit]

I'm always fascinated when I hear that someone lives outside of, say, Los Angeles. I can identify with that person. I live outside Los Angeles too--a thousand miles outside Los Angeles. In fact, all of us who do not live inside Los Angeles live outside Los Angeles. I know we're supposed to assume the word "just," but the language, in its infinite wisdom, has created the words "close to." I can't understand why anyone would not use those clear, simple words.

 

I think we notice misused language when we know of better language and often are anticipating that better language. I think we also notice misused language when it creates what seems to us to be a non sequitur.

 

For example, I, as a visual person, have trouble with people who use time to describe distance. When someone tells me how many minutes away something is, I sometimes ask if that's as the crow flies. (How fast does a crow fly?) Sometimes I ask how far it is in degrees. And sometimes I say I haven't been able to find a map that shows minutes. Any popularity I might enjoy does not derive from those conversations.

 

So, kids, what have we learned?

 

--lemit

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

When someone tells me how many minutes away something is, I sometimes ask if that's as the crow flies. (How fast does a crow fly?) Sometimes I ask how far it is in degrees. And sometimes I say I haven't been able to find a map that shows minutes. Any popularity I might enjoy does not derive from those conversations.

You just moved up several points in my book:hihi:

[pamela]

posted by lemit

For example, I, as a visual person, have trouble with people who use time to describe distance. When someone tells me how many minutes away something is, I sometimes ask if that's as the crow flies. (How fast does a crow fly?) Sometimes I ask how far it is in degrees. And sometimes I say I haven't been able to find a map that shows minutes. Any popularity I might enjoy does not derive from those conversations.

then i guess you wouldn't like" down the road a piece" or "over yonder";)

[freeztar]

then i guess you wouldn't like" down the road a piece" or "over yonder";)

 

Or, "it's a fir piece".

 

Btw, can someone explain to me how that saying came about? :)

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Or, "it's a fir piece".

 

Btw, can someone explain to me how that saying came about? :)

It is a fair piece

Fair -> beats me->possibly a substitute for good

 

Piece->bit->portion->of land or distance

 

So... A good bit of distance...mixed with hick pronounciation (most likely muffled by beard and or garbled by alcahol consumption and or by the lack of teeth or failure to put in dentures:hihi:) and voila:D

[pamela]

i reckon i can figure out the yonder;)

 

from dictionary.com

–adjective 1. being in that place or over there; being that or those over there: That road yonder is the one to take.

2. being the more distant or farther: yonder side.

 

–adverb 3. at, in, or to that place specified or more or less distant; over there.

as far as "the piece" goes maybe it originally referred to a tract or piece of land and hence a unit of measure- just a guess

[lemit]

I grew up in the Bible Belt, so I know "yonder" like I know the back of my hand--it's aged a lot since the last time I looked at it.

 

Hypography seems like a very clean place, but since "fur piece" has been introduced, what about the sport of weightlifting, which has the "Snatch" and the "Clean and Jerk?" And what do they call a tie-breaker in the "Clean and Jerk?"

 

Just wondering.

 

--lemit

[pamela]

weightlifting? is that like "carry your own weight"- like, why wouldn't you naturally;) the phrase refers to being responsible

 

Here is an odd one from my Yankee upbringing"save the dishes" which means "put then away", even as a young girl, I questioned saving from what. An even stranger one-"boughten"

"She had boughten it at the store today" I still occasionally say that word or lack there of and have to remind remind myself of my error:D

[Turtle]

Or, "it's a fir piece".

 

Btw, can someone explain to me how that saying came about? :shrug:

 

I think "fir" is a mispronunciation of "far". Piece is as a "leg" in a journey. Taken together, "fir piece" is a long way to go. :hihi:

[belovelife]

how about "itch a scratch"

instead of "scratch an itch"

 

one of my things

 

also why do we park on a driveway

and drive on a parkway

[lemit]

I was born on a piece of ground. I still own that piece of ground. I got it and a few more pieces of ground when my parents died.

 

When people walked across country, like I did to a one-room schoolhouse for two years, they would wade through fencerows, ditches, plowed fields, timber, and underbrush. They would cross cow pastures with one eye on the bull. They would get their clothes torn on barbed wire fences. They would collect cocleburrs and sandburrs in the socks they couldn't always afford to replace.

 

They would need to cross the near pieces to get to the far pieces (the "fer" pieces). My mother and her sisters--one of them a school teacher--used to joke about the fer pieces they had to walk to school or to pick up the mail or to get piano lessons, as opposed to the fur pieces worn by some of the wealthy women.

 

If you read "Huckleberry Finn," I think you'll find "fer piece." If you don't find it, at least you'll know a little more about the kind of world I grew up in, you'll have read one part of the mythical "great American novel," and you'll be much the better for it. And please read the note on language.

 

People talk about street creds. On this particular use of language, I have dirt road creds. But I have come a fer piece from there.

 

--lemit

[lemit]

For those of you who haven't looked at the Astronomy and Cosmology forum, this is something I promised those who have.

 

I hope this hasn't been mentioned here and I just missed it. (I missed "natural" on the first page, so my concern is legitimate.)

 

"Meteorite" seems to have cannibalized "meteor." I know that people who want to appear a smidgen more intelligent than they really are love syllables, but it seems that other people have started using the post-impact term for the pre-impact object.

 

Now, about "natural." My vague, childlike understanding of chemistry is that except for the radioactive rare-earth elements, everything is natural. I know that many things are manipulated (in the most precise meaning of the term), but I have the possibly pantheistic belief that even manipulated nature is still nature.

 

--lemit

[Turtle]

For those of you who haven't looked at the Astronomy and Cosmology forum, this is something I promised those who have.

 

I hope this hasn't been mentioned here and I just missed it. (I missed "natural" on the first page, so my concern is legitimate.)

 

"Meteorite" seems to have cannibalized "meteor." I know that people who want to appear a smidgen more intelligent than they really are love syllables, but it seems that other people have started using the post-impact term for the pre-impact object. ...

 

--lemit

 

Roger that rocky misuse. ;) Moreover, "before impact" we have 2 nominatives; meteoroid & meteor. In the case of meteoroid, we have rocks rushing around in space, and in the case of a meteor we have a meteoroid that is actively falling to Earth (or other space body) and burning brightly as it goes.

This concludes another unscheduled pedantic rant. :)