# Yet another "improper word usages that drive me nuts" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495 "2008-11-25T23:41:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/21 "2008-11-26T14:00:16Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > It does really; the fox in Aesop’s fable from which the expression is derived, justifies his inability in getting the grapes (why a fox would be hankering for grapes I don’t know) by saying that they are sour anyway. He pretends he didn’t want them all along - sore loser. It depends. The “I hate you, you cheated, you all suck, and I’m taking my ball and going home” sore loser is not demonstrating “sour grapes” behavior. The “It doesn’t matter that you won because it’s a stupid game anyway” sore loser is. Interestingly\*, the common dismissive usage of “Whatever” has a “sour grapes” connotation, in that it implies “It doesn’t matter what you’re talking about or whether you’re right and I’m wrong because the topic is fundamentally worthless and you’re stupid for even caring about it”. As for “no love lost between them”, it means that there was no love to lose in the first place - i.e., they hate each other and have for a long time. - May not actually be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/22 "2008-11-26T14:03:35Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Penultimate does not mean “super ultimate”. Irritates me every time. Especially since it’s a very good, useful word in its own right that you can’t use because people will misunderstand. This always confuses the hell out of me. I can sympathize with people who insist that as long as you understand what people are trying to say we shouldn’t complain that they’re using words completely wrong, but with penultimate I can never tell if people are using it correctly or not. I mean, why would anybody use the word penultimate if they don’t know what it means? There’s so many good words that actually means what they think penultimate means. ---
**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:** [November 26, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/23 "2008-11-26T14:34:09Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I’m sure someone is going to come in here and tell me that this is actually OK, and that people have been saying it this way since the time of Chaucer, but it still annoys me: “Bob is **suppose** to fax the TPS memo.” Suppose **d** , people. It’s one of those past participle thingies. If you suppose that I am doing something, then I am the one who _is supposed_ to be doing it. Oh God, yes. Also, “weary” for “wary” and “where” for “were” drive me straight up the wall. They are a dead giveaway that the person not only does not read, but does not understand basic phonics. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/24 "2008-11-26T14:38:18Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I had a supervisor (at a newspaper!) who always ended announcements with something like “and if you have any questions, you can come see John or myself.” So we would come into her office and say, “Yourself said we could ask yourself if we had any questions, and I have a question.” > > She never. got. it. I’ll up the ante with a letter I once saw that my boss was writing to a person he’d interviewed for a job: “Myself and Bob enjoyed meeting you . . .” Man, that guy was a pompous twit. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/25 "2008-11-26T14:40:28Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > Using adjectives when you should use adverbs. I really train my students on this. You’d be surprised at how many people are utterly confused by the grammatically correct answer to the question “How are you?” “I’m well.” “Huh?” ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/26 "2008-11-26T14:41:09Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > But can’t we agree it’s beyond ridiculous, and is literally the exact opposite of the real meaning of the word? Sorry, let me edit my post. :%s/kind of/beyond/g [QUOTE=seodoa] I agree that it’s _beyond_ ridiculous. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/27 "2008-11-26T15:17:51Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > What’s wrong with using “figuratively”? “Literally” means something else. Figuratively isn’t an intensifier. In fact, by pointing out that it is only figurative, it, IMHO, deflates the figure of speech. Who would say “I figuratively ate a boatload of cheese?” What person would honestly and _in all seriousness_ reply to “I literally ate a boatload of cheese,” with, “How large of a boat was it? Did you have a yacht worth of cheese or was it just a canoe’s worth?” I am sure plenty of people would reply that way _as a joke_. But then, that joke itself is based on the assumption that one would have to be very dense to not understand that a figure of speech was just used. For that matter, why do we use the verb “dust” to mean “remove a fine powdery substance from a surface” AND “cover a surface with a fine powdery substance?” Or “cleave” to mean “cut something in two” AND “stick to, adhere to.” Plenty of words have seemingly contradictory meanings. In these cases, as well as with “literally,” context is generally enough to tell you what is really meant. The same context that clues you into any idiom, hyperbole, etc is at work here. Taken from the American Heritage Dictionary (sorry, the OED is at school, but I know for a fact that it agrees with the intensifier definition as well): > [@](#): > > For more than a hundred years, critics have remarked on the incoherency of using literally in a way that suggests the exact opposite of its primary sense of “in a manner that accords with the literal sense of the words.” In 1926, for example, H.W. Fowler cited the example “The 300,000 Unionists … will be literally thrown to the wolves.” The practice does not stem from a change in the meaning of literally itself—if it did, the word would long since have come to mean “virtually” or “figuratively”—but from a natural tendency to use the word as a general intensive, as in They had literally no help from the government on the project, where no contrast with the figurative sense of the words is intended. So, basically, “literally” has been used as a general intensifier for quite a while. Prescriptivists have clucked and clacked, waggled and whined, and after all these years, it’s still as common as ever. It may be a ridiculous usage, but isn’t any less ridiculous to get bent out of shape over it. Anyways irks me a little, but I’m not going to argue with anybody over it. If people want to say “anyways,” they’re more than welcome. That being said, I already conceded that this is ridiculous. I _agree_ that it is ridiculous. Lots of things about languages are ridiculous. But it’s still a common and acceptable use of the word. Oh! Overlook is another good contranym. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/28 "2008-11-26T15:29:44Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Sour grapes (does not mean ‘bad loser’) > Quantum leap (quantum means smallest possible, not large) Sorry, but I disagree. “Sour grapes” comes from one of Aesop’s fables, the fox and the green grapes. Out of memory: > [@](#): > > A fox was walking around and saw some grapes hanging on the vine. The fox thought “oh, what delicious-looking grapes!” and jumped at them, trying to get some. The grapes were too high for her to reach, though. After several tries, the fox gave up, saying “bah, they were sour anyway!” The fox doesn’t want to accept that it’s her shortcomings that caused her to not eat the grapes, that she’s been beaten by a bunch of grapes by the simple method of growing up a good distance from the floor. Oh, no, she was never interested in the grapes in the first place. Quantum means “amount.” It does not mean “tiny amount.” In can mean “the smallest possible, undivisible, unit” in a quantum physics/quantum chemistry setting, but not in general (and even in QPh/QCh it doesn’t always mean that). The word “quantum” meant “amount” for several thousand years before QPh got invented. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/29 "2008-11-26T15:34:16Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > You’d be surprised at how many people are utterly confused by the grammatically correct answer to the question “How are you?” > > “I’m well.” > > “Huh?” My mom would answer “How are you?” with “Well”. …leaves the person thinking “Well, what?” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/30 "2008-11-26T15:38:36Z")
**sedoa** , I’m going to keep right on clucking and waggling about that one anyway. Also, I see I’d be in over my head to argue with you (figuratively, that is). Anyway, welcome to the boards! I think you’ll fit right in. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/31 "2008-11-26T15:48:45Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > Figuratively isn’t an intensifier. In fact, by pointing out that it is only figurative, it, IMHO, deflates the figure of speech. Exactly. Even though I tend to avoid it in my own speech, I fully defend _literally_’s usage as an intensifier. _Figuratively_ doesn’t function the same way and, like you said, doesn’t intensify at all, but creates psychological distance from the description. In a way, it’s like the difference between a simile (which comes out and tells you two objects are similar, but not the same as each other) and a metaphor (which equates two things directly.) My only objection to “literally” is it’s a boring, overused word. I don’t have too many usage peeves, but “penultimate” is one of them. I actually don’t see it misused _that_ often, but when I do, it really sticks out. ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/32 "2008-11-26T16:02:19Z")
Enormity and penultimate have already been addressed. I was saddened when the local paper (San Jose Mercury-News) had an article with flaunt when flout was called for. Saddened that both the writer and the editor let that one through. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/33 "2008-11-26T16:10:28Z")
“Relish in.” I think I heard this misuse for the first time five or six years ago. Now it’s freaking everywhere. “We relished in the victory.” “I relished in the praise.” No. If you’re doing something _in_, you are _revelling_ in. If you are relishing, you are doing it directly. “We revelled in the victory.” “We relished the victory.” Your use of relish does not cut the mustard. Catch up, would you? ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/34 "2008-11-26T16:19:25Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I had a supervisor (at a newspaper!) who always ended announcements with something like “and if you have any questions, you can come see John or myself.” So we would come into her office and say, “Yourself said we could ask yourself if we had any questions, and I have a question.” > > She never. got. it. I kind of feel sorry for the word “me.” It’s a perfectly good word, when used properly, but for some reason people have become so afraid that if they use it they will sound improper, so they use these tortured language gyrations to avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/35 "2008-11-26T16:44:08Z")
2 things. People need to understand that the word “loose” sounds like “moose”… it doesn’t hold the same meaning as “lose” which is pronounced like “snooze”… The words to and too. The word “too” simply means also when used at the end of a sentence. If not at the end of a sentence it puts emphasis on the following word. And just because a sentence ends with the word to, it doesn’t mean you must end it with “too”. Some people misunderstand that rule. Okay, 3. And people who overuse “…”, mis-use parenthesis, and begin their sentences inappropriately. Err, I do that, hehe… ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/36 "2008-11-26T17:16:07Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > You’d be surprised at how many people are utterly confused by the grammatically correct answer to the question “How are you?” > > “I’m well.” > > “Huh?” Y’know, I’ve been “corrected” on that point often enough that I’ve actually started responding this way, but I still hold that “good” and its variants are perfectly sensible and grammatical responses to this question. You ask me how I am, and I answer “I am ”. If X is an adverb, that means that it modifies the verb “am”, a form of “to be”, suggesting that I am commenting on a quality of my _act of being_. Responding with “I am well”, then, implies that I am particularly skilled at existing (eg, I dance well; I write well; I am well). Clearly, this is not the idea I’m trying to get across. If X is an adjective, that means that it’s referring to the pronoun “I”, which means that I’m describing a quality of _myself_. Responding with “I am good” means that I attribute goodness to myself. “Goodness” is a rather mutable quality defined largely by context (good food _tastes_ good; good perfume _smells_ good; a good book could have any number of positive traits), and when attributed to a person in the context of this question, it is understood to imply good health or good spirits. Therefore, “I’m good”, while it may grate to certain ears, actually communicates the intended notion more logically and directly. All of this, of course, is without considering the fact that answering this question with “well” results as often as not in blank stares, which ought to be reason enough to dispense with doing it. ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/37 "2008-11-26T17:22:40Z")
Another one, which is not really related is when I approach someone and say “Hey, how’s it going?” and they reply “Hey, how’s it going?”… They don’t respond to my question and flip the question. Also works when saying "What’s up?.. the response alot of times will be “What’s up?”… I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/38 "2008-11-26T18:18:00Z")
> [@EpicNonsense](#): > > Another one, which is not really related is when I approach someone and say “Hey, how’s it going?” and they reply “Hey, how’s it going?”… They don’t respond to my question and flip the question. Also works when saying "What’s up?.. the response alot of times will be “What’s up?”… I just don’t get it. I always thought that behavior was an offshoot of “How Do you Do?”, which I was raised to understand is not a question requiring an answer, but merely a greeting for when you’re introduced to someone. Along the same lines, although it’s admittedly not a usage issue, I love it when someone says hello, I say hello back, and they respond with “good, thanks”. Especially when they continue walking away from me without realizing it. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/39 "2008-11-26T18:24:06Z")
“Unique” means “one of a kind.” Only one. Not more than one. Not just a very few. Things cannot be “very unique.” They could be “almost unique.” ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/40 "2008-11-26T18:26:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > What’s wrong with using “figuratively”? “Literally” means something else. Or leave it out entirely. We know a metaphor when we hear one. There’s no need to say “I metaphorically died laughing.” Even worse to say “I died laughing, and it wasn’t a metaphor.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495.md?page=3)