*Effete *- means lacking in vigour, exhausted, sterile. The “effeminate” meaning is a modern nuisance.
Noisome - means disgusting or harmful (typically, as an odour). Not loud.
My favourite word of the moment, however, is pleonasm. It pretty much means redundant. It’s just that we already have a word for redundant…
Not always. There are some situations where the deictic aspects of words are used for affective (or psychological) reasons. Ex:
A: Gramma’s in the hospital again.
B: Oh no! Are you going to visit her?
A: Yeah.
B: I’ll go with you. And let’s bring her some flowers.
Why does B choose bring instead of take? To show empathy with the hospitalized grandmother; to “put herself in her grandmother’s place.” It’s not about physical location, but rather feeling.
In addition to what guizot has pointed out about using “bring” to emphasize the importance of the object instead of the subject, “bring” actually is a word with many definitions, quite a few of which are not limited to causing things to come towards you.
Actually, it means both. There are a few words that have completely contradictory meanings, and ‘perused’ is one of them. ‘Cleave’ is another; it can mean to split apart or to join together. You can use either sense and be correct.
And wrong. People have been using it in the ‘incorrect’ sense for centuries.
Oh, come on. Going by the meanings of the individual parts of the word, yes, it does mean ‘inspiring awe’. But to say that it doesn’t also mean ‘really cool*’ is to ignore the fact that language changes. Like it or not, the word has at least two meanings.
*And yes, I am aware that the word ‘cool’ itself has had several shifts in meaning. However, right now it does mean ‘of or applying to something I think is really good or impressive’.
Redoubtable.
Most people think it means the opposite of what it actually means.
Firmament.
Pulchritude.
What people misuse “pulchritude,” and what do they think it means?
But DEFCON 5 isn’t even tension—that would be DEFCON 2 or 3. DEFCON 5 is everything is nice and cheery. For most of the Cold War silos were always at DEFCON 4.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
vagina
“mitigate” if you’ve written “mitigate against” then you almost certainly meant “militate against”. In some respects these two words are verging on opposites.
“surreal” doesn’t mean unusual or weird or strange or remarkable or even bizarre.
“hoi polloi” doesn’t mean the same as hoity-toity (which, I suspect, might be where the confusion comes from).
“docile” doesn’t mean dopey
and “random” doesn’t mean whatever it’s being used to mean these days; or is this random usage an Australian-only phenomenon?
Yeah, I’ve heard people using ‘random’ to describe something that’s actually just strange and somewhat unusual.
My ex-husband was a colossal dumbass and got a lot of words wrong, but “ignorant” was one of the most cringe-worthy. He thought it meant “belligerent” as in “If they give me any crap I’ll have to get ignorant with them!” I was embarrassed for him, but secretly amused. “My, won’t they be impressed THEN!”
What’s worse is the people who not only don’t know what it means, but who say “mute”, instead of “moot”.
I think there is a cultural difference here. “Penultimate” is a common word in the UK (is the IoM in the UK?) and pretty much everyone knows what it means. In the US it is a much less used word and many people have no idea what it means. What mistaken meaning they might ascribe, I know not.
While you may have etymology on your side, you are going to lose this one. You will find dictionaries that do give “ugly” or “repulsive” as meanings. Example.
I think the assumption behind saying something like “and then he said X, which was totally random” is that X is a non sequitur, and/or was a brainfart. As if the speaker had a long mental list of phrases ranging from “my name is Phil” to “whales are blue” and picked one at random.
Or was that not what you were referring to ?
@Captain Carrot : so that’s why we always say “cleaved in two”. The apparent pleonasm had always puzzled me. Color my ignorance fought.
Healthy.
I get so tired of people saying they’re eating “healthy vegetables” or “healthy fish.” Those fish and vegetables, people, are DEAD. How can they be healthy if they’re DEAD? They are healthful. You hope to remain healthy by eating them.
Not quite. It means redundant speech (as opposed to I dunno, redundant measures taken in case one of them fails), and furthermore denotes purposeless redundancy, whereas plain ol’ redundancy can have a point. “It’s a free gift” is a pleonasm, while “I saw it with my very eyes !” isn’t. In the same vein, “If we don’t succeed, we will fail” while it is undeniably a redundant statement, isn’t a pleonasm either but a truism.
Sorry, this is still not correct. “Take” is the only correct word in your example; “bring” may feel warmer to you, but it’s incorrect.
As long as we’re having a prescriptivist orgy here…
whence
Many use it interchangeably with “where” when they wish to sound smart: “From whence did you get this case of Pabst Blue Ribbon?” However, strictly speaking, it means “from what source/place,” so including the word “from” is redundant.
“Whence derives this government’s mandate?”
“We must return whence we came.”
“Whence did you pull that vibrator?”
However, I really came into this thread to mention “disinterested,” and I will disagree with the previous poster who said it is synonymous with “unbiased.”
Compare: [ul][li]Even though I own a 10% stake in the company, I feel I can remain unbiased during the trial.[]Even though I own a 10% stake in the company, I feel I can remain disinterested during the trial.*[/ul]The first sentence is logical, if dubious, while the second sentence is impossible, or at least has a totally different meaning. The speaker would have to sell his share in the company before becoming disinterested, but it’s possible he’s a really good judge, and can remain unbiased throughout the proceeding.[/li]
This is why it ticks me off that the previously non-standard definition of “disinterested” has become the standard. There is no totally equivalent word, and when I want to communicate the concept to someone, I now have to use 10 words instead of one to ensure that the listener understands.