Folks, you’re in the news biz. Words are supposed to be your stock in trade. So you should use them correctly.
When you say (on your news squibs for radio stations) that the White House refuted former Treasury Secretary O’Neill’s allegations, that means they’ve proven him wrong. But that’s clearly not what you meant; you meant the WH rebutted his claims, which means they contested the accuracy of those claims, but not in a manner that conclusively ended the debate.
You’ve made this mistake on a few other recent occasions. Please stop it.
Don’t carry on with this. When I was in high school my English teacher caught me counting how often he said ‘ummm’ or ‘errrr’ or ‘ahhhhh’. He asked me whether I was inferring that he was stupid. I replied that I was implying that he was stupid but only he could infer it. I spent many weeks in the corridor.
Using disinterested when they really mean uninterested. Disinterested means “impartial”; uninterested means “bored, uncaring”.
Using restive when they really mean restless. Restive means “stubborn, unyielding”, and restless means “lacking or denying rest, always moving.”
Those two have been misused so much, mostly by journalists trying to use a fancier (albeit) incorrect word, when a simpler one would do, that the dictionaries, I believe, have actually added the incorrect usage to the definition, to retroactively make it correct.
Oops, after reading the usage notes under “disinterested” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, I take back what I said about “disinterested”; it seems I’m one of those “who may not fully appreciate the history of this word or the subtleties of its present use.”
I didn’t see anything to take back my opinion on “restive”, though.
Use of ‘discrete’ (“consisting of distinct or unconnected elements” according to my dictionary) in place of ‘discreet’ gets under my skin. As in “John and Mary were carrying on a discrete affair”.
And the occasional op-ed columnist will refer to Mad’s Alfred E. Neuman. But they usually spell it Newman. Saw an instance of that just this morning.
I had a teacher who did this as well. He was my band director. In the summer I helped move all the band equipment to a new band room. I discovered that all his ‘ahhhs’, ‘ummms’ and ‘errrrs’ were swear words being edited out of his normal speach.
I always thought a rebuttal was a logical ‘special case’.
A claim is a claim is a claim, but then you have an objection. When the person who made the original claim objects to that objection, it’s called a rebuttal. Usage isn’t anywhere near as broad as you’d think.
As for ‘disinteresting, uninterested’ etc… WRONG. muahaha. No, actually these usages seem to have been pretty much accepted, simply because people have been getting them wrong for so long. Used to be there were no such words as ‘disinteresting’ or ‘uninterested’.
disinterested applies to the person who feels the disinterest
uninteresting describes the object/event that causes the feeling
I think it’s all in the prefix. The ‘dis’ applies to something that originates in the person, ‘un’ is for naming what causes it. (eg: a person who’s lost the use of his legs doesn’t suffer from an ‘unability’. I suspect that even ‘unable’ is new usage that’s come about due to this confusion. Commonly it’s ‘not able’
Of course, depends on which dictionary you use. Mine’s the Oxford English…
Renman’s right, dictionaries always change definitions to match current usage. It’s called ‘semiotics’ or something. Words mean what they are used to mean, and if enough people get things wrong, soon enough the language is reevaluated and they are made correct. Then the few who actually bothered paying attention in English class wind up being outcasts, doubly victimised for their hard work: bullied in school, then royally shafted by linguists. Shit! (NB: this is personal).
Oh and yeah. ‘might’ expresses chance/likelihood; ‘may’ expresses permission. Just had to get that off my chest.
