# 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:** 3
**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, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/41 "2008-11-26T18:51:00Z")
> [@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. It’s a social nicety and communicates that we know to greet one another as fellow human beings. It’s not like everyone who does answer is “fine”. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/42 "2008-11-26T19:38:14Z")
I’m surprised by how many people think “infamous” means “super famous,” and I’ve been seeing that word misused more often as of late. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/43 "2008-11-26T20:26:11Z")
> [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#): > > I’m surprised by how many people think “infamous” means “super famous,” and I’ve been seeing that word misused more often as of late. That explains Paris Hilton. **MLS** , I’m with you on “unique.” Something is either unique, or it isn’t. There are no degrees of uniqueness. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/44 "2008-11-26T20:29:15Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > …If the unwashed masses all decide that bananas should now be called cucumbers and cucumbers should now be called monkey penises, then, well, them’s the shakes… Start a new thread for that, would you? 😛 Another pet peeve of mine: John Roberts is actually “Chief Justice of the United States,” not “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.” Lots of people around here use “anymore” when they mean “nowadays,” as in “Gas is really expensive anymore.” Still bothers me. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/45 "2008-11-26T20:34:25Z")
Misuse of momentarily. It means _for_ a moment, not _in_ a moment. So: Airline pilot, over the intercom: Wrong: We’ll be in the air momentarily. Right: We’ll be taking off momentarily because, after the wheels leave the ground what you want to be doing is FLYING, not taking off. A regionalism, from growing up in California, home of a gold rush: Panning out, to me, means you’ve taken all the gold out of your claim, and now you have to go prospecting. Prospecting means not making gold, it means wandering onto other prospectors claims, it means mountain lions and risky falls and you can DIE as a result of panning out. Everybody else I’ve ever heard seems to think of panning out as a GOOD THING, because it means you’ve got gold out of your pan. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/46 "2008-11-26T20:40:18Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > 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. Yes, this is the penultimate answer in this thread. _runs_ ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/47 "2008-11-26T20:46:39Z")
Speaking of airline-speak, the one that annoys me is _deplane_. “After you deplane, you may collect your bags…”. This is common usage, and I’m sure it’s in the dictionary and everything, but I just haaate it. We didn’t “plane” when we got on the airplane. We don’t “detrain” when we get off the subway. WTF is up with “deplane”? And it’s even worse when they say, “As you deplane the aircraft…” Even if I didn’t hate “deplane”, even if “deplane” were a perfectly cromulent word, what could we possibly deplane _except_ for the aircraft? You’ve taken a stupid word and added a redundancy to it. Knock it off! Airline people, try this word out: “exit”. “As you exit the aircraft, please watch your step.” See, like that. If you want to drop a few syllables, you can even drop “the aircraft”, leaving you with a brisk, “As you exit, please watch your step.” I guarantee you, we won’t become confused and suddenly think we’re aboard a cruise ship. We do not need the extra precision of “deplane”. Really. ---
**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, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/48 "2008-11-26T21:05:44Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > We didn’t “plane” when we got on the airplane. Technically, you [_enplaned_](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enplane). And while I sympathize with your George-Carlin-robbing rant, the terms do have centuries-old counterparts from sea-going passenger vessels: _embark_ and _disembark_. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/49 "2008-11-26T21:21:34Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Technically, you [_enplaned_](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enplane). And while I sympathize with your George-Carlin-robbing rant, the terms do have centuries-old counterparts from sea-going passenger vessels: _embark_ and _disembark_. \ I didn’t realize I was robbing George Carlin. I’m not really a Carlin fan. As I said, I’m sure it’s common enough usage and has found its way into the dictionary. I still hate it. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/50 "2008-11-26T22:00:10Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > 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. I use good, because fuck it, but if you want to get technical about it, it is wrong. “I’m doing good” means you’re fighting crime or putting out fires or something. The confusion comes, partly, I think, from English only having one way to say “to be.” Confusions like this don’t come up in Spanish with the verbs _ser_ and _estar_. If someone asked, “what are you like, intrinsically?” Then good might be ok, but if someone asks How are you [doing]? Then you’re well. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/51 "2008-11-26T23:09:38Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Panning out, to me, means you’ve taken all the gold out of your claim… Everybody else I’ve ever heard seems to think of panning out as a GOOD THING, because it means you’ve got gold out of your pan. I’ve always taken this to mean that something was successful, with the origin being the concept of a prospector who stakes a claim and then finds gold in his pan, so the claim has “panned out.” The sense you mention would be conveyed by “played out”. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/52 "2008-11-27T00:25:13Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > 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. No it doesn’t. It means they love each other so much that there is no love missing or lacking (lost). It comes from the original “Babes in the Woods” poem and describes how close the children’s parents were to each other: > [@](#): > > A gentleman of good account > In Norfolke dwelt of late. > Who did in honour far surmount > Most men of his estate. > > Sore sicke he was, and like to dye, > No helpe his life could save; > His wife by him as sicke did lye, > And both possest one grave. > > **No love between these two was lost, > Each was to other kinde;** > **In love they liv’d, in love they dyed,** > And left two babes behinde: ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/53 "2008-11-27T00:48:33Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > 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. [nitpick] In the sentence “I am well.” The word _well_ is not, an adverb. Adverbs simply are not used in the structure. The “I am well” vs “I am good” is not a syntactic issue, it’s a semantic one. For example, you would never say “I am happily.” Rather, you say “I am happy.” “Well,” as it turns out, is defined as both adverb and adjective. In the adjective form, it means, according to my Oxford dictionary: > [@](#): > > 1. [not usually before a noun] in good health > 2. [not before a noun] in a satisfactory state or position > 3. [not before a noun] sensible; a good idea It is this meaning of well that is meant by “I am well.” You are saying, “I’m in good health” or “I am in a satisfactory state.” Good, on the other hand, has a basic meaning of, again, quoting the Oxford, “of high quality or an acceptable standard.” A good job, for example. Saying, “I am good” is like saying “I am an acceptable human being.” That being said, languages are descriptive and not prescriptive, so, again, if people want to say “I am good” to mean “I am well” they are free to do so. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/54 "2008-11-27T02:25:22Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > A regionalism, from growing up in California, home of a gold rush: Panning out, to me, means you’ve taken all the gold out of your claim, and now you have to go prospecting. Prospecting means not making gold, it means wandering onto other prospectors claims, it means mountain lions and risky falls and you can DIE as a result of panning out. Everybody else I’ve ever heard seems to think of panning out as a GOOD THING, because it means you’ve got gold out of your pan. Actually, as I have always heard “pan out” used (and, for that matter, defined), it is intrinsically neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It merely means, again quoting my little Oxford pocket dictionary, “(_informal_) (of events or a situtation) to develop in a particular way.” The example given is also the context in which is often used: “I’m happy with the way things have panned out.” The “good” is not intrinsic to the phrasal verb “pan out,” rather, we infer that it was good from the fact that the speaker is happy. You could also use it in the sentence, “I was disappointed with the way things panned out.” In this instance, we can infer that something bad happened. It could even be relatively neutral like, “Things panned out surprisingly.” This could be good, bad, or neutral. That being said, although it is not in my pocket dictionary, a check on Merriam-Webster Online gives an additional definition of “to succeed.” It also states that this usage dates to 1868, after the Gold Rush, of the late 40s and early 50s, but not long after. The oldest written record found may not be the oldest written record, and it doesn’t cover the fact that many colloquialisms, by their very nature, don’t get used in writing until long after they are coined. I would WAG that “pan out” is in reference to the fact that you **pan** gold **out** of water and soil. So panning out, in this sense, means to bear fruit; succeed. If you pan out, you just panned some gold out of that thar muck. ETA: Sorry for the double post ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/55 "2008-11-27T02:33:30Z")
> [@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. Because saying “Generic Greeting, not requiring a detailed response” followed by “I acknowledge your Generic Greeting and I will respond with my own Generic Greeting which, in turn, indicates a convenient end to our exchange” sounds silly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/56 "2008-11-27T03:56:47Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Because saying “Generic Greeting, not requiring a detailed response” followed by “I acknowledge your Generic Greeting and I will respond with my own Generic Greeting which, in turn, indicates a convenient end to our exchange” sounds silly. Zacally. If you want more info, or are genuinely curious/concerned, you say, “No, _really_…” ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/57 "2008-11-27T04:07:57Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Zacally. If you want more info, or are genuinely curious/concerned, you say, “No, _really_…” At my school, both the textbook and the curriculum insists that we teach “I’m sleepy/happy/sad/crazy/whatever” as responses to the greeting “How are you?” This has always bugged me a little bit, since, in normal English usage, we don’t expect an honest reply. It always makes me cringe when I say a quick “How are you” to a student and get an “I’m sleepy, thank you, and you?” :smack: But I’m just a cog in the system. They want me to teach awkward English, I’ll keep my head down, with my tail _LITERALLY_ between my legs, and teach it. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/58 "2008-11-27T04:09:57Z")
> [@seodoa](#): > > with my tail between my legs. At least you avoided the word literally 😉 ---
**Author:** ![seodoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@seodoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seodoa)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/59 "2008-11-27T04:14:17Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > At least you avoided the word literally 😉 At least you forgot to wait 5 minutes after a post before quoting it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-improper-word-usages-that-drive-me-nuts-thread/474495/60 "2008-11-27T04:18:55Z")
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