# Another misused word usage thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 29, 2005, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751 "2005-03-29T10:05:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751/101 "2005-04-05T08:40:50Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Fortunately for you, no prizes. You got the first two words right, but that’s not worth much. > > As for the irony of **you** , who started a thread to criticize people for using a word correctly, calling **me** a smug dick–thanks! I do enjoy me a good bit of irony. > > Daniel Sorry for the late response, but I’ve had a real life that cut down on my internet time. Yeah, I love irony. Kind of what I was aiming at by calling you a smug dick, since that’s exactly what you were accusing me of (yeah, yeah, not in those exact words). Much like my earlier pointing out that the poster calling me sanctimonious was being just as sanctimonious in his criticism of me. Nice of you to once again assume I was being “stupid”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751/102 "2005-04-05T12:49:21Z")
Good Lord. I thought that, during the middle of the night, you’d quietly climbed out of the hole you’d been digging and crept away. I had no idea you were just taking a breather before picking the shovel back up. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751/103 "2005-04-05T12:53:39Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > See my Twain quotation above. This whole “the audience understands the speaker” approach is an idealized philosophy that to me has little real world reference. Suppose I am speaking to a group of twenty. They are my audience. Half of them understand me when use the I word “imply”, the other half does not. Is that word used effectively? Or is my audience now just ten? It must be one or the other. Why must it be one or the other? I say it’s neither. In this example, you’ve used the word “imply” with a degree of effectiveness: half of your intended audience understands your meaning, and the other half does not. If you could have used another word or set of words such that your entire audience would have understood your meaning without sacrificing other concerns (mellifluity, for example), then you would have communicated more effectively by using that other set of words. As to your implication that this form of language criticism is new, I’d like to remind you that a rose by any other name smells as sweet. 🙂 Daniel ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751/104 "2005-04-05T16:22:01Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Good Lord. I thought that, during the middle of the night, you’d quietly climbed out of the hole you’d been digging and crept away. I had no idea you were just taking a breather before picking the shovel back up. > > Daniel Digging a hole? How’s that, exactly? Because you say so? Well, I say If I’m digging a hole, you’re digging your own a few feet over. Especially on the “smug” thing. And ignoring all aspects of my posts that don’t allow you to be contrarian. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751/105 "2005-04-05T19:24:15Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > It should be said as “how dare _they_” or “how dare _he_” or “how dare _she_.” And, to clarify why: he, she and they are doing the daring, not having it done to them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-misused-word-usage-thread/296751.md?page=5)