Inconceivable!

[Graustein]

Spurred by the Princess Bride quote in another thread, and the title to that one "I do not think it means what you think it means" would be very fitting to this one. But that one's taken, so I'm taking this one

Have you ever met someone who uses a word that does not mean what they think it means? With hilarious results?

... I haven't. Although I have met numerous people who misunderstand the word agnostic to mean undecided. It means "insufficient data, conclusion impossible", and you can be agnostic and still believe or disbelieve or whatever. But I'm sure you know of more interesting misunderstandings than a common misconception like mine.

Discuss

 

[karmapolizei]

I like mannerisms gone bad. You know, when people overuse a phrase to an extent it doesn't fit most things they're using it for. My girlfriend, for example, overuses the phrase "just hypothetically" so heavily that more or less every time she utters it, I feel the need to say "You mean practically, in which case you could just drop it and get rid of stupid filler words". Of course I don't give in.

Come to think of it, I say "more or less" far too often in contexts it doesn't belong.

But then again, both of these were off-topic. How about a "I don't think this topic means what you think it means"-topic?

 

[Ultrajoe]

The word 'literally'

Bastard's using it as an intensifier! Its... Just.. not.

I think i have said enough.

 

[Lord Krunk]

What about the word 'Epic'?

I mean, most people use it as if it means 'Awesome'.

Don't they realise that it's short for 'Episodic'?

 

[BlindTom]

Somebody once told me i was beneath their notice as i was pretentious. I asked them the meaning of the word (Out of genuine interest) with hillarious, and retrospectively ironic results.

 

[Graustein]

What about the word 'Epic'?

I mean, most people use it as if it means 'Awesome'.

Don't they realise that it's short for 'Episodic'?

I thought Epic was talking about the scale ie. Very Big.
As such, me and my friend joked about how Brawl had Epic loading times, with suitable tones of awe. And now I hear I'm wrong? *cries*

 

[Lord Krunk]

What about the word 'Epic'?

I mean, most people use it as if it means 'Awesome'.

Don't they realise that it's short for 'Episodic'?

I thought Epic was talking about the scale ie. Very Big.
As such, me and my friend joked about how Brawl had Epic loading times, with suitable tones of awe. And now I hear I'm wrong? *cries*

Might be. But I'll bet a lot of people who use that word don't actually mean that.

 

[Graustein]

Yeah, they mean awesome. I thought epic referred to scale, in the context of epic fantasy and epic adventures, so I used epic to mean that.

 

[BlindTom]

Sometimes when the majority comes to think of a word in a different way though, it can be inevitable that you have to just roll over and let language evolve, it's governed by the masses. And i'm sure if we were to only use all words in their 'proper' contexts there would be a lot of "Thee's" and "Thou's" floating about.

It's irritating, but if we stbbornly only use 'awesome' in the context of 'Awe-inspiring' rather than 'sort of quite good really' then we'll end up backward. Correct, but backward.

 

[Graustein]

Sometimes when the majority comes to think of a word in a different way though, it can be inevitable that you have to just roll over and let language evolve, it's governed by the masses. And i'm sure if we were to only use all words in their 'proper' contexts there would be a lot of "Thee's" and "Thou's" floating about.

It's irritating, but if we stbbornly only use 'awesome' in the context of 'Awe-inspiring' rather than 'sort of quite good really' then we'll end up backward. Correct, but backward.

This is true. However, some words, like agnostic and literally, just DON'T mean what some people seem to think they mean. Agnostic doesn't mean undecided, literally isn't an intensifier, and so on. These usages go beyond evolution of language, they're simply incorrect.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Sometimes when the majority comes to think of a word in a different way though, it can be inevitable that you have to just roll over and let language evolve, it's governed by the masses. And i'm sure if we were to only use all words in their 'proper' contexts there would be a lot of "Thee's" and "Thou's" floating about.

It's irritating, but if we stbbornly only use 'awesome' in the context of 'Awe-inspiring' rather than 'sort of quite good really' then we'll end up backward. Correct, but backward.

This is true. However, some words, like agnostic and literally, just DON'T mean what some people seem to think they mean. Agnostic doesn't mean undecided, literally isn't an intensifier, and so on. These usages go beyond evolution of language, they're simply incorrect.

A bit like the words "Lovechild" and "Bastard".

Correct, but backward, eh?

 

[Graustein]

Lol, I never got the meaning of Lovechild. Doesn't it imply that one generally doesn't love one's spouse?

 

[BlindTom]

Sometimes when the majority comes to think of a word in a different way though, it can be inevitable that you have to just roll over and let language evolve, it's governed by the masses. And i'm sure if we were to only use all words in their 'proper' contexts there would be a lot of "Thee's" and "Thou's" floating about.

It's irritating, but if we stbbornly only use 'awesome' in the context of 'Awe-inspiring' rather than 'sort of quite good really' then we'll end up backward. Correct, but backward.

This is true. However, some words, like agnostic and literally, just DON'T mean what some people seem to think they mean. Agnostic doesn't mean undecided, literally isn't an intensifier, and so on. These usages go beyond evolution of language, they're simply incorrect.

A bit like the words "Lovechild" and "Bastard".

Correct, but backward, eh?

Yes. You're totally right when you say a great deal of people just have the definitions of a lot of words completely wrong. And I'm not suggesting that the majority is always right, but it can become very hard to communicate with the majority when words have entirely different meanings to different people. An incorrect usage of a word like agnostic by a large group of people does not make it RIGHT by any means, but the fact that we become aware of it makes it a legitimate dimension of meaning that we just have to filter it, and replace it in our heads with the legitimate intended meaning.

 

[Mathew952]

The word literally has been bent over a table for quite some time now:
"He literally carried that team to victory!"
"I literally froze my balls off"
"He literally moved the world"

IT"S figurative!!! figurative!

 

[BlindTom]

The word literally has been bent over a table for quite some time now:
"He literally carried that team to victory!"
"I literally froze my balls off"
"He literally moved the world"

IT"S figurative!!! figurative!

Hahaha! You see what i mean? The television says literally is an intensifier! How can we compete with that?

 

[zen5887]

Irony

 

[curlycrouton]

someone I know once said:
"oh, how ironical".

 

[CasualZombie]

A friend of a friend kept mixing up "benevelent" with "melevelent". She kept saying how she is such a nice melevelent person, my friend couldn't get her alone to tell her the difference for quite a few hours...good times

 

[Graustein]

I say we stubbornly use the word literally to mean literally. Might not save the word, but I'm not going down without a fight.

...Damn. Wiktionary notes the widespread usage of Literally as an intensifier. It's a losing battle, this one.

 

[BlindTom]

I guess I'm just a pessimist when it comes to defending language. Gone are the days when speaking in acronyms got you funny looks.... =(