Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what “tories” meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it’s not usual to use it as short for “territories” as I’ve used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I’m reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.
More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing “encephalitis” with “hydrocephalus” when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.
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“Alternately” when I meant “alternatively”.
Still don’t know the difference.
“Alternately” means “switching back and forth” like “She spoke rapidly, alternately English and Spanish, whichever came more readily to her tongue.”
“Alternatively” means “as another option”, like “We usually go with Bob in this situation; alternatively, I think Rudi is ready to try this solo.”
Thank you for the explanation!
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Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.
From the NHS website:
Encephalitis is most often due to a virus, such as:
- herpes simplex viruses, which cause cold sores (this is the most common cause of encephalitis)
- the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles <* measles, mumps and rubella viruses
- viruses spread by animals, such as tick-borne encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis, rabies (and possibly Zika virus)
Encephalitis caused by a virus is known as “viral encephalitis”. In rare cases, encephalitis is caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites.
Freedom.
Apparently where I live it means torture people till they off themselves.
Curious now to know where you live. That sounds like a rough culture.
Sounds like a yank. Poor sod.
Either you’re being edgy or you live somewhere truly horrendous.
USA
The why not both option.
Table might count for me here.
I grew up in America and “a bill was tabled” means that a bill was removed from consideration there… while as in Canada it means the precise opposite “a bill was tabled” means it was introduced for debate.
I don’t use the term often in common speech, but I was really confused reading political news when I first arrived.
in America and “a bill was tabled” means that a bill was removed from consideration
Really?
In Canada to remove from consideration the term is “shelved”, just in case that’s different. Tables and shelves, what’s with these terms? (probably what happened with the physical paper it was written on.)
Yea, and the Cambridge dictionary backs me up here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tabled
UK
to suggest something for discussion:
An amendment to the proposal was tabled by Mrs James.
US
to delay discussion of a subject:
The suggestion was tabled for discussion at a later date.
US doesn’t make any sense to me. The table is where things are discussed. You bring it to the table.
Just because it has been brought to the table doesn’t mean it will go anywhere else. “Tabling” a discussion suggests that we are stepping away from the table for now. We are taking away any deal we have struck, but leaving behind any issue still under contention. Maybe we will bring it up when we come back, maybe not.
We use “tabling” in much the same sense as the idiom “leaving money on the table”, meaning “concluding a transaction without demanding all consideration owed to you”.
Then it is shelved. Basically for a later dated. Tabled is where the discussions take place.
I used to say “worth nothing” while, obviously, the correct way is “worth noting”.
However, given how many Google results are there about the wrong spelling, I’m clearly not the only one.
“Congratulations, you won the lottery!”
“Worth nothing.”
“Uhm… alright.”
Redux. I’ve always just used it as a fancier ‘re-do’. Still going to keep using it as such. I like the word too much.
Who knows, maybe your continued use of it may, uhh, revive it.
I will become a modern day frindle.
Inflammable means flammable? What a country
Inflammable means it catches fire and flammable means it starts fires. Maybe. I guess. I’m not a chemist
You have those backwards, flammable means it can easily catch fire in the presence of an ignition source. Inflammable means it can easily catch fire even without an ignition source. I remember the different because inflammable is Immediately flammable without help.
Yep, they mean the same thing irregardless.
Ha
I happily described a nice coffee shop as “kitschy” to the guy behind the counter and quickly learned from his reaction that it isn’t the synonym for “artsy” that I thought it was.
It means “a naive imitation” for anyone who’s ears are turning red now. Puts on a wool cap.
I thought something similar about the word “campy”, as in something so dry it becomes its own style.
I didn’t realize “effect” and “affect” were different words for a long time.
The arrow affected the aardvark.
The movie had great special effects.Somewhat grim for the poor aardvark, I suppose. It’s useful though.
That’s a good way to remember it.
It’s freeing to just use whatever one you want with zero effect.
I always used the two as different tenses of the same word except for the fact that “affect” can also be the verb form of “affectionate”.
What about æffect?
You just summoned a dæmon.
cræp
Honestly, you can pretty much always use effect unless you’re affecting a fancy manner.
I am strongly in favor of depreciating affect.
You may find you mean deprecating.
Depreciating is reducing in value due to time, deprecating is disapproving of (or in software, marking as obsolete)
Sigh, that one I can legitimately blame on autocorrect and adhd.
Portuguese ⟨bisonho⟩. I always used it as “needy”, “demanding excessive attention” (like a child). Until someone informed me that it was supposed to be “weird”.
I mean, homonyms exist, confusing them/not knowing a word has one doesn’t make it “wrong”. Surely you (e: plural, not having a go at you op lol) could tell tories and Tories apart by context (if not capitalisation)?
every word i use is right, its the english language that is wrong
One could say language is what we make of it.
I thought penultimate meant …basically ultimate
Am doofus
One of my professors would regularly use the word antepenultimate, “before before last”.
Penultimate is a mightier word, even mightier some might say, than the swordultimate.
Touché
As they say, live by the swordultimate, die by the swordultimate.
Well you were close. Some might say you were right next to it n
I just learned! Thanks! That’s what I thought it meant as well!
I mean I do see it used that way more often than not.
It’s the word’s fault, not yours.
