What word did you discover you misused or misunderstood for a long time?
I know you're all smarty pants who got A's in English, but I'm hoping some of you at least have one word from some point in your lives!
My examples;
I came to realise 'notwithstanding' meant the exact opposite of what I assumed it did.
Also, I recently discovered my definition of 'contrite' was a long way from Webster's!
12 comments:
myriad
It was only about five years ago that I discovered you were supposed to say "myriad things" instead of "a myriad of things." Dumb me.
I have always been confused by usage of the phrase "could care less" or "couldn't care less". Many people say "could care less" which confuses me, becuase it definitely seems like it should be "couldn't care less." this issues still confuses me. I'm sure there's a vocabulary thing that would apply to this question as well, but I can't think of any right now...
cassie, you just opened a whole can of worms. that phrase is kent's biggest pet peeve. It drives him insane when people don't use it correctly.
im sure i use words incorrectly all the time. i know that i used to say "oriented" wrong, which would get me lectures. i would say it as orientated. which because i wasnt sure how to spell it, i looked it up on dictionary.com and both are listed for the same word...no i am even more confused.
that's actually great! I feel very validated now. I thought I was the only one who struggled with that.
"Suspending disbelief" as related to movies and tv was always a problem phrase for me.
Laura just explained "myriad"... Thanks!
Danielle - orientated is the british way i believe :)
If we're slipping into phrases people use wrong then I have to throw in when people say "deja vu all over again" the most redundant thing ever!
sorry - i have clearly caused this post to veer off point.
She gave an example and everything. Pfft. Everyone at once, in Cassie's general direction... "Booooooo! Hissssss!"
WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. I can't even count on both hands the number of times that other people have not only incorrectly answered, but have completely misunderstood/misinterpreted/misread the question. I clearly understood, and apologized in my answer for going slightly off track. I didn't ask anyone to follow me off said track.
Translation... Mistakes will be made, others will be blamed.
And to think, I've shared snacks with you.
Growing up, whenever I heard someone say "for all intents and purposes" I thought they were saying "for all intensive purposes" which I always thought sounded nice and informed. So I used it until one time in 9th grade I used it in a presentation and my horrible witch spinster of an English teacher asked me to repeat what I said. I did and then she laughed at me and said "It's actually 'for all intents and purposes'" and the whole class laughed at me. I still am haunted by that day whenever I hear someone say "for all intents and purposes."
what a horrible teacher! i want to kick her ass!
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