# Frequently misused words: Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 13, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586 "2019-08-13T01:09:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/21 "2019-08-13T12:42:32Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > (So I put in “fixin’” in the [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) and Merriam-Webster’s search boxes just to see what would come up. I’m surprised that both have “conversate”, but don’t have the most commonly meaning for “fixin’” from my region. So does that mean “fixin’” is not a word? I think not, because just about everyone within a 350-mile radius of me knows what “I’m fixin’ to go” means. What this tells me is that dictionaries have both a bias and a significant lag before they reflect contemporary lexicon. The fact that “conversate” exists in dictionaries but not a word that has more usage should thus tell you something about the “realness” of it.) Of course you didn’t find it. I’m not saying it is always obvious, but you have to look words up under the correct lemma, in your case, the verb “fix”. > [@](#): > > fix, v. > > 10.c To decide, determine _to_ (do something); also const. _for_ with gerund, or with subord. sentence. > > 1788 _Trifler_ 206 He fix’d to come with some eclat to Town. 1794 Miss Gunning _Packet_ IV. 35 They fixed for going to the parsonage early the next morning. 1813 Southey Nelson I. 132 It was immediately fixed that the brigadier should go. 1834 Keble in _Card. Newman’s Lett._ (1891) II. 23, I have fixed to go to London next week. 1866 _Times_ 29 Dec. 10/3 The lady had entirely fixed to lead a life of celibacy. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/22 "2019-08-13T13:03:46Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Its taking longer than we thought. It’s distinction is lost on me. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/23 "2019-08-13T15:22:11Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > And don’t get me started on “alternate” vs “alternative” because I can go on about that forever and still not manage to change anybody’s mind. You’ll have to explain. Obviously only alternate can be a verb. As nouns, an alternate has a much narrower meaning - a person with a formal role as a particular kind of alternative. As adjectives, alternate can mean alternating back and forth (“on alternate days”), or it can be a synonym for alternative. Have I missed anything? What is it that you object to? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/24 "2019-08-13T15:38:49Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > Of course you didn’t find it. I’m not saying it is always obvious, but you have to look words up under the correct lemma, in your case, the verb “fix”. Yay. Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/25 "2019-08-13T15:40:07Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Those are quite bad mistakes for college-level essays. Nah, they’re really not – those are pretty typical mistakes, even for good students. If you want to see what some of the bad mistakes look like, there’s an entertaining thread of them [here](https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php?ChronicleUser=kheiu7spt70kbir8m2fterg7m0&topic=206523.0). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/26 "2019-08-13T17:46:30Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > It’s distinction is lost on me. I blame greengrocer’s. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/27 "2019-08-13T19:30:18Z")
I was going to post something but now the point is mute. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/28 "2019-08-13T19:42:04Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Nobody gives a shit any more, basically So there’s some golden era during which some significant proportion of people cared more, basically? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/29 "2019-08-13T19:52:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s frustrating to me when someone uses a non-existent word when there is already one that does exist. I hear “conversate” too often, when they mean “converse”. > > And don’t get me started on “alternate” vs “alternative” because I can go on about that forever and still not manage to change anybody’s mind. There’s a lovely woman in my office who is always talking about “notating the file” inside of just “noting the file”. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/30 "2019-08-13T19:55:53Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s frustrating to me when someone uses a non-existent word when there is already one that does exist. I hear “conversate” too often, when they mean “converse”. Heh. Some of y’all haven’t read Frindle when you were a kid and it shows. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/31 "2019-08-13T19:58:14Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > There’s a lovely woman in my office who is always talking about “notating the file” inside of just “noting the file”. Maybe she said ‘annotating’, and you misheard. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/32 "2019-08-13T22:34:05Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > It is someone trying to sound smart by using a bigger word whose meaning is completely different from what they’re trying to say. The name for it is “malapropism”: “bad for its purpose”, the word itself exists but does not mean what the speaker thinks it means. Mala-what ism?? Oh. You mean Melon Prompts, don’t you? Yeah. A lot of folks get that wrong. Don’t feel bad. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/33 "2019-08-13T22:37:20Z")
If you look up **peruse** , the definition is given as “read (something), typically in a thorough or careful way.” And **browse** is “an act of casual looking or reading.” To me those sound like antonyms, but multiple sources list them as synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/34 "2019-08-13T22:42:53Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > I was going to post something but now the point is mute. That doesn’t jive with my thoughts on the matter but… oh well. ETA: “Jibe/Jive” is cromu-lint because it pops up here on the SDMB so often. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/35 "2019-08-14T00:45:07Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I think the more interesting question might be the social phenomenon of why language errors (real or imagined) stir strong emotions for so many people. It’s rare that language errors result in any significant failure to communicate intended meaning. I doubt anyone has ever come to harm because of an its/it’s error. So it’s really just a questions of aesthetics - similar to valuing good music over bad music. > > I share OP’s appreciation for precise and elegant use of language. But conversely I don’t usually find it a cause for any great concern if some people have different priorities (although obviously is somebody has a professional responsibility to use or teach language that’s a different matter). But in general there are much more significant ways in which large swathes of humanity disappoint me… Language errors may or may not affect comprehension a great deal, and if they don’t it’s only because context and the intrinsic structure of language provides redundancy. But it often does affect it. I don’t know how many times I’ve misread something the first time, or struggled to understand it, because of mistakes as simple as bad punctuation, and worse errors can make comprehensibility correspondingly worse. But even if comprehension isn’t affected, language errors come across as rude, lazy, uncaring, and ignorant, which is indeed annoying. Sometimes when confronted with their mistakes, the writers themselves claim they don’t care, so why should anyone else? But to me it’s like serving someone dinner in a slovenly heap on a dirty dinner plate unwashed from last night, with the excuse that it’s rare that such practice has ever actually prevented anyone from eating. > [@Riemann](#): > > I blame greengrocer’s. Exactly. Dave Barry blames the sign’s posted in grocery store’s and bar’s and the like for a novel form of punctuation that seems to have made it into the language, mostly involving spurious quotation mark’s and apostophe’s, like 'TRY “OUR” TASTY BURRITO’S". If you haven’t yet come across Dave Barry’s “Ask Mr Language Person” columns, Google “Ask Mr Language Person” and enjoy some samples! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/36 "2019-08-14T00:49:03Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s frustrating to me when someone uses a non-existent word when there is already one that does exist. I hear “conversate” too often, when they mean “converse”. One reason I cannot stand Dan Brown’s novels is his fabrication of an academic field from whole cloth. His hero, the books assert, is a professor of “symbology,” which is not actually a thing that people study. This wouldn’t irk me so except that semiotics _is_ a thing that people study. I presume that Brown’s fabrication of “symbology”—in flagrant disregard for both reality and the field of semiotics—was an effort to make his main character more accessible and relatable. I know people don’t want to look up the word “semiotics” as they inhale the first chapter of a Dan Brown book in all its pulpy glory. But he could easily explain it, even using the pseudo-word “symbology.” That would be accessible; no one would have to look up a thing. But: nah. Learning is hard, amirite? I’m not fully serious, except that I’m deadly serious. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/37 "2019-08-14T01:01:03Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > There’s a lovely woman in my office who is always talking about “notating the file” inside of just “noting the file”. “Noting the file” means “acknowledging or taking note of the file’s existence”. “_Annotating_ the file” means adding a note to the file. The OED has “notate” as (among other things) a now-obsolete variant of “annotate”. So perhaps your colleague is just old-fashioned in her speech? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/38 "2019-08-14T01:31:14Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Heh. Some of y’all haven’t read Frindle when you were a kid and it shows. I was 28 years old when this Canadian book was published, so… you got me, I did not read this as a child. Well spotted. > [@Riemann](#): > > You’ll have to explain. Obviously only alternate can be a verb. As nouns, an alternate has a much narrower meaning - a person with a formal role as a particular kind of alternative. As adjectives, alternate can mean alternating back and forth (“on alternate days”), **or** it can be a synonym for alternative. Have I missed anything? What is it that you object to? Alternating is a thing. That is what the word “alternate” is for. Using it for another term that already has the almost exactly similar spelling is therefore foolish and unnecessary. Use the word “alternative” when you mean a second option, do not use the world “alternate”. As I said, that is my argument that nobody seems willing to agree with me on. I have yet to change anyone’s mind. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/39 "2019-08-14T01:36:27Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I was 28 years old when this Canadian book was published, so… you got me, I did not read this as a child. Well spotted. > Alternating is a thing. That is what the word “alternate” is for. Using it for another term that already has the almost exactly similar spelling is therefore foolish and unnecessary. Use the word “alternative” when you mean a second option, do not use the world “alternate”. > > As I said, that is my argument that nobody seems willing to agree with me on. I have yet to change anyone’s mind. I follow the same rule you do. An alternative is not an alternate. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586/40 "2019-08-14T02:51:42Z")
I’ve never seen a group of smart people argue about the difference between affect and effect as I did in my last job. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frequently-misused-words-why/838586.md?page=3)