I didn’t realize this. But I did look it up and it looks like the dictionary has adapted a bit to include a definition that includes someone returning:
someone who returns to a place, organization, team, etc. after previously leaving it:
They greeted him with the warmth of a returning prodigal.
There have been a significant return of prodigals to the church.
From PRODIGAL | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
…or Fahrvergnügen for that matter.
I tried to visit a website today that was having some server overload issues and instead of the usual 502 error page, I got “this site has suffered an existential problem.”
Virtually. It is literally awesome irregardless of your reality.
Actually
It’s all over the damn place, and maybe one out of a thousand occurrences can justify its miserable existence. It’s become empty and meaningless.
In particular, I’m casting a very stern stink-eye at you, writers of The Mindy Project.
We really need two different but related things:
Even better, maybe we could exchange the two meanings (or the two words). So when you say either word, you now mean what the other word used to mean. That’ll help everybody get on board with the change, and keep straight what we all mean. Simple is good. The word we pick should be short and sharp & memorable. Also well-known, but not have too many vague or disparate definitions.
Given this challenge, I propose the following:
I propose we exchange “trump” with “shart”.
When you have the good suit in cards, you have a shart, or the sharts, or maybe a three-shart.
Conversely, when you inadvertently poop in your pants after too much coffee or greasy jalapeno poppers with cheez-whiz or whatever, you’ve trumped yourself. Oh no! I just trumped! Where’s the bathroom! The mess you need to clean up is a trump. If it’s extra big or stinky it’s a two-trump.
I look forward to reading other’s ideas on this topic.
The misuse of “literally” drives me figuratively insane. (Regardless)
When it’s liquid and running down your leg, is it unpleasantly guiliani?
That one was wearing on me … slowly, but undeniably. But when I first Googled it …
https://digitalcultures.net/slang/pop-culture/farfegnugen/
So, yeah, we bastardized the snot out of that one. Es tut mir leid.
When you’re sliding into first, and you’re feeling something burst…GUILIANI!!! GUILIANI!!!
I’m reminded of Rick … Santorum.
But I’ll say no more about that, and would caution anybody who doesn’t understand the reference and deigns to look into it.
Ah, yes, Santorum. Both the person and the substance. One of the finer take-downs of a pompous ass in many years.
I’m drawing a blank on the name of the columnist (or his column) behind that work of genius, but I totally remember his style & area of expertise. Used to read it every week in our local alternative newspaper. Good stuff.
Of course I could look up that info right now, but instead I’ll let it … percolate … in there a bit and perhaps it’ll … come back … to me.
See, “figuratively” just sucks in that kind of usage. Just deflates the whole point. Hence, go “literally” go! I will forever defend “literally” in its hyperbolic sense. It’s not a misuse. It’s a perfectly cromulent idiomatic use. The literalists can go suck an egg.
Now using “backslash” in URLs drives me freaking up a wall. I still hear commercials to this day where they give an address as “www.whatever.com backslash moreinformation.” IT’S JUST A NORMAL SLASH! URLS ARE NOT MS-DOS PATHS.
Agreed on all points. “Existential” is used a lot because it’s a very versatile word with a wide range of meanings, though they all stem from its fundamental meaning of “related to existence”. But it has acquired a formal meaning in philosophy, a related one in psychology, a different one in logic, as well as its original basic meaning, as in the common expression “existential threat”.
And yes, “penultimate” is frequently misused. The misuse of “literally” is a more nuanced issue which has been thrashed to death here many, many times. Its careless use as an all-purpose intensifier is on about the same level of sloppiness as “I could care less”.
More than “a bit”, I’d say, though not all dictionaries endorse that second meaning. The word “prodigal” has its origins in the Latin prodigalis and prodigus which mean “wasteful” and “extravagant” so it’s certainly true that it has nothing to do with anyone returning. But the return of the prodigal son is such an important and familiar part of the parable that I’d cheerfully give a pass to someone using the term in that sense. Mainly because I’m pretty sure I’ve done it myself! 
Unless you are going to amend Hoyle then that’s a non-starter.
I fail to see why the members of my 500 & Euchre club need to make any gameplay adjustment because merkins can’t elect a functionable government. 
Somewhere here is a thread on a replacement, “fukengruven”
Isn’t that the book you use to look up the proper dosage of an e-pipen?