1y ago

What's a word you've spent a long time not using right?

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.

255 comments

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.
- So did you table your use of table or was it tabled and therefore, still on the table?
- 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.)
  
  Verbing weirds language.
  
  Yea, and the Cambridge dictionary backs me up here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/tabled

every word i use is right, its the english language that is wrong
- literally
  
  literally
- One could say language is what we make of it.
- 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. ' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things. ' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.”

I was homeschooled and was basically educated by books, so I have a massively large vocabulary and I mostly use it correctly.
But pronunciation? I'm fucked.
- You have "a massively large vocabulary" and couldn't think of anything other than "massively large"? 🤔
  
  I was raised by dyslexic wolves in a dixie cup full of turds and was basically educated by punches, so naturally my encyclopedic repertoire of words is aptly humbled by the plentiful platitude of my somewhat planar pronunciation.
  
  Come on, that's still super better than all the super unimaginative kids who super use super as a superlative every super single sentence
  
  I take your point, but pleaser consider: People who like show off their checks thesaurus prodigious vocabularies are generally insufferable to be around.
  
  My vocabulary is big huge!
  
  Doesn't mean he needs to put on airs.
- My wife is the same. Very well read, but never learned the pronounciation of her fancy words.
  Imagine the look on her face when I explained that the "hors d'oeuvres" she read about in books are the same thing as the "or durves" she was serving at the party.
  I had the opposite, I always thought the word "grandiose" I saw in books was the word "grandeur" that I hear people say, so I always read "grandiose" as "grandeur" and thought "grandeur" was spelled that way. Whenever I heard people say "gran-di-ose" I would pipe up "uh, actually, it's pronounced grandeur, the s is silent".
  
  Very similar to this, on multiple occasions I'd try to make macarons and accidentally make macaroons and vice versa.
- My son is a voracious reader, and he has the same thing. He's 15 now but still, every so often, he'll say a word and it'll take me a minute to figure out what he means.
- With my accent I'm told this is a common issue for me. Not that I notice, even when pointed out.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  pointed out.
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
- I don't really value pronunciation as much as some do. If you understand what you're talking about, that matters more than being exposed and remembering the right pronunciation.
  So many words we never hear people say, but we read them and have to know them.

Encephalitis is caused by viral infections. Our immune system usually suppresses said viruses, and HIV takes away the ability to suppress them.
This happens with a lot of illnesses... thrush, Tuberculosis, fungal infections. HIV allows a lot of stuff to have far worse impact than it normally would.
That's not quite the same as HIV causing them... Pedantic maybe, but since we're talking about words meaning things... ;)
- Encephalitis literally just means "in the brain inflammation".
  https://www.etymonline.com/word/encephalitis
  This brain inflammation can be caused by many things. Quote from Mayo Clinic:
  Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others.
  https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/encephalitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356136
- It can also be caused by prions. Mad cow disease is aka bovine spongiform encephalitis. I believe the word just indicates cell death in the brain which leaves regions of dead tissue.
- True, but in the context of talking about someone's child in my local culture, it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn't associate the two conditions.
  
  it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn’t associate the two conditions.
  I don’t get it. It raises an eyebrow if you don’t link encephalitis and HIV? I’m about 90% sure I must be misunderstanding you...

Freedom.
Apparently where I live it means torture people till they off themselves.
- Either you're being edgy or you live somewhere truly horrendous.
  
  USA
- Its doublespeak then or something
- Curious now to know where you live. That sounds like a rough culture.
  
  Sounds like a yank. Poor sod.

How about " till " in English vs " 'til " ?
In English, a till is a cash drawer or a plough. The abbreviation for "until" is " 'til ".
I see it in subtitles. I worry for society.
- TIL
  
  🤣🤣
- Wiktionary says it's the other way around (until originates from til) and both til and till are correct: https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/till#Etymology_1
- Haha, sorry to confuse things further but this is not true .
  Tldr, "till" is its own word and is actually older than the word until, and they've been used synonymously for centuries. 'Til with an apostrophe is acceptable but has been less common, and til without an apostrophe is even less common.
- Even happened in the comments here
  https://lemmy.ml/comment/6785769
- "Shop till you drop" now has a whole new meaning.

Oh in English -- I used to say renumerate (numerate a second time) instead of remunerate (pay someone for a thing).
- Me too!! I'm Italian and I used to say "renumerare" instead of "remunerare".
  If you're curious, the verb comes from Latin "munus" = service/duty/tax
  
  Yup, that makes sense!
  I've cornered the market on Latin-Vietnamese cross-language humor though. Stay off my turf :P
- holy... well, blow me.
- I have never heard nor saw it spelled "remunerate".
  
  Yup, that was the case for me too. I think I only figured it out when I was like 30.
- I've never had this problem in English nor Spanish but you made me realize those two words are very similar in Spanish too (reenumerar, remunerar)

I thought phallic (fálico) meant flawed (falho) and used it so much. I cringe when I remember this 😭
- Local news anchor once ended a segment saying something was “a phallus” instead of a “fallacy. Understandably but hilarious.
  
  'Sir you have comitted a logical penis.'
- Hey go easy on yourself, we're all phallic.

I used the term 'pursuant' incorrectly for a long time. I thought it meant something like 'things you do in order to achieve something', like sweeping the floor is pursuant to getting the kitchen clean, vs the correct usage, which is either 'in accordance with', or 'in a manner conformable to'. So a correct usage would be 'sweeping the floor is pursuant to the procedure we set up to clean the kitchen'. Nice word, though. I like it.
- As a foreigner I would have made that same mistake, since it sounds like it’s related to pursuit. Educational comments in this
- sweeping the floor is persuant to the procedure...
  Its more often used in formal and legal stuff. I'd kinda perceive you were being an ass or condescending if you were to use it that way. Like its just an annoying word generally.
  You might want to simply say "please do x like I showed you" or somethi ng like that. I would honestly never use persuant unless I was a prosecutor even though I'm intimately familiar with its use in legal and other academic writing.
  Just don't use it
  
  I cooked my poptart perfectly pursuant to the packaged directions?
  
  “As per my previous emails…”

I thought penultimate meant ...basically ultimate
Am doofus
Edit: to clarify, I thought it meant it in a good way, as in best. It actually means next to 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.
- One of my professors would regularly use the word antepenultimate, "before before last".
  
  when you're reading linguistics literature & forums you'll see variations all the way up to "propreantepenultimate" (fifth last) commonly
  meanwhile in Italian you'd just see "quintultimo" but fuck those guys amirite
- Well you were close. Some might say you were right next to it n
- It's the word's fault, not yours.
- Binge watch all of Taskmaster, you’ll never use it wrong again
- 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.

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.

I didn't realize "effect" and "affect" were different words for a long time.
- It's freeing to just use whatever one you want with zero effect.
  
  What about æffect?
  
  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".
- 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.
- 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)

Is encephalitis caused only by HIV, though?
I seem to think it was a thing before HIV.
- You are correct. -itis just means inflammation or infection, encephalon just means brain. You can have encephalitis caused by multiple things, viruses, bacteria, fungal, auto immune diseases and so forth
- No, but its largest association is with it.
  
  Stop saying that.

literally, apparently.
- Literal has been used as a non-literal exaggeration for centuries.
  
  It literally murders me when people falsely argue that literally can't be used figuratively.
- If kids could learn a second adverb that'd be great.

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.
- And here I thought it meant quirky, fuck
  
  If I’ve literally learned anything, it’s that if a bunch of us keep using it as a compliment to mean quirky, we can shift the meaning!
- And what does it actually mean?
- I thought something similar about the word "campy", as in something so dry it becomes its own style.

For decades I pronounced albeit like "al-bayt", instead of "all-be-it". I only ever saw it in writing, and never hears anyone say it. Meaning made also so much more sense when I finally heard it being said out loud. Eye opener.
- Well TIL, guess I'm one of today's lucky 10,000
- Shit, I use it the same way.
- Oh.
- Huh? I pronounce it 'al-bite' because idk it sounds German.

Nothing too big or embarrassing, but for a while I thought "nepotism" just meant the same as "narcissism" when it's actually about favoritism towards one's family.
- I mean they are technically related.

I thought "long COVID" meant "lung COVID" because in dutch long = lung
- Neither would be wrong.

I used poignant wrong for a long time, when it came to describing memories. I thought it meant the memories were strong, clear sensory ones but it meant sad ones.
- I think both uses are correct. It can mean any strong/intense feeling:
- TIL. I've been making the same mistake and had to look it up as a result of this comment.
- When I was younger I actually thought "poignant" was how some accents say "pregnant". Cue unnecessary congratulations.
- I would say it means strong but with an implied sadness, but you can have positive poignant memories too - you’d just have to state they were positive. The day I graduated from University was poignant because it was the end of an era and the start of another, but it doesn’t mean it is a sad memory.

Not a super long time but I conflated apocryphal with like sagely or scholarly
- I still use catharsis in the way one might use "recieving one's just punishment"
  (Cathartic: It's the feeling of excrement. A bowl movement. Cleansing yourself after eating a bunch of chilli dogs and coming out the other side fresh.)
  
  For people wanting to know about the word catharsis: Catharsis: the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. "music is a means of catharsis for them"
  Also, you may want to look into your "bowl movement" XD
  
  What is the word you’re looking for that isn’t catharsis?

Can I submit an expression? "Have the work cut out for you". My thinking was "there was a lot of work, but my boss said I'll have the work cut out for me. Phew, now there's less work after some of it being cut out!"
- Yes you can submit an expression. I have a history of mistaking those as well.

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."
- Honestly, I would just see you saying two different things without context.
  Unless as part of a sentence, like "it's worth nothing that it will be extremely hot during the picnic" at which point I'd probably ask you to rephrase the sentence

I don't use it wrong because I don't use it but to me "mirth" feels like it has a negative connotation even though I know it means joyful.

I lived for the better part of a decade in Vietnam thinking "đại lý" was a loan word from English meaning "daily".
It actually indicates an agent (like a reseller) -- e.g. a lottery ticket seller, news stand, and so on. "Daily" just worked in all those contexts by coincidence.
I also mix up "in stock" (in a warehouse) and "available". So an analogy is I often ask people if they have "a clock in their warehouse" instead of if they "have the time".
Also probably two dozen equally weird things I'm not even aware of. People are pretty chill about it, mostly because the number of people without Vietnamese heritage that speak the language in any capacity, rounds down to zero.
- In Germany, it's really popular to call each other "Digga" as a way of saying "Dude" or "Man". Its origins come from the word "Dicka" (read: hey fatty, hey thicko), but the Hamburg dialect changed the k to a g.
  I, uh, thought it came from a different route via the US. I was wrong...
  
  I made a... similar mistake due to Sonic Allstars.
- Similarly, I saw "fija" in the Spanish description on so many bottles of hairspray that I thought it meant "spray" in English. No. It's "hold" in that context.

When I was a kid, it was Yosemite.
I was obsessed with GTA San Andreas, and that was the big truck in the game, and it was my favorite. I was pronouncing it like "yosa might" for a while until somebody pointed it out, and then I connected the dots
- I'm actually learning this now. I thought it was pronounced like the "semite" in "anti-semite" but with a "yo" in front instead of an "anti".
  
  I'd always read it the same way. Watching Looney Tunes and realising one of the characters was called Yosemite Sam was what made it click for me somehow. I still say yoss-em-ite in my head though.

Turns out pseudo is not spelled like sudo.
- Of course, sudo means "superuser do"
  
  "Substitute user do" actually. You don't have to be superuser
  
  What got me was the Pokemon sudowoodo and having heard the word pseudo in some kind of media and figuring out what it meant but not how it was spelled. It's name is probably a nod to superuser do, but that's not how I first encountered it as a kid.

In German we use the English term 'understatement' in some occasions, e.g. 'his dressing style is a clear understatement...'. My brain somehow tied the meaning to something like 'understanding', maybe due to the similarities of both words. For decades it was clear to me that someone dressing like that were dressed to the point and 'making a clear statement'. Now that I've checked the real meaning, I'm completely puzzled when and how to use the term and what I've misinterpreted all the years...
- You might have been looking for the term understated.
  As in, to dress in an understated style. Which relates to simplicity, elegance, and versatility.
- Understatement would be like “it’s just sprinkling” when it’s actually raining really bad. Typically used sarcastically when someone tries to compare the situation to something that is normally comparable but to a lesser degree.
  Unless I am unclear on what you’re misunderstanding :)

Nonce. I've always used it just like Dunce. Turns out it does in fact not mean the same and instead means pedo.
- In cryptography, a "nonce" is a number used only once. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographic_nonce
  
  In linguistics and psychology “nonce” words are fake words invented for a specific purpose (like to use as stimuli in an experiment). They have no meaning but should sound like plausible words for the language phonetically. In English some commonly used ones are “blicket” and “wug.” Ironically “wug” is so commonly used there’s actually a formalized “wug test” for morphological development.
  I actually used to use this wrong, thinking “nonce” was a variation on “nonsense,” but it’s actually from the same origin as the cryptographic nonce: it’s a one-time-use word. So while they are often nonsensical (like basically all of the Jabberwocky poem) they can also be perfectly sensible and comprehensible, just with a one-time specific context of use.
  (Also I’ve never heard nonce used as an insult of any kind. Is it a British thing?)
- I'm learning this too. I feel like a ~~nonce~~ dunce.
- It can be a more general term for sex offender. But yeah, primarily it's a pedo.

The word Segue meaning transition.
Always used Segway instead which was incorrect.
- Michael!
- I have, for a long time, used the phrase "speaking of segues" to change the subject in a conversation.

Encephalitis (en-sef-uh-LIE-tis) is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others.

Proscribe and prescribe.
- Proscribe
  I've never heard this word.

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

Penultimate. I used it as though it referred to the last thing rather than the second to last thing.

Since OP is in the UK, I can pull out “nonplussed.” Current American usage of the word is a lack of surprise or general acceptance. I am nonplussed when news arrives that another politician was caught in a sex scandal. Non-American usage is complete surprise and an inability to act. The Scot was nonplussed when the drunk American vomited noisily on his shoes.
Edit: I am firmly in the “general acceptance” camp and usually have to process for a second or two when someone uses it in its traditional sense.
- I have never heard it used as general acceptance. That really drives me nuts! What good is a word that's self contradictory 😨
  
  Likewise, only ever known it as the total surprise meaning.
  I wonder if the American meaning has any relation to the seemingly common use of the phrase "I could care less", which is similarly opposite to its (to me) correct meaning.
  Oh and don't get me started on uninterested/disinterested...
  
  What good is a word that’s self contradictory
  Words like those are common enough, and there's normally no problem in understanding them. When's the last time you misunderstood the word clip or dust?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contronym?useskin=vector
- Not in the UK itself (hence I distinguish them with "mainlanders"), just someone who has lived a commonwealth/territorial upbringing and has moved around a few times. The debate with said mainlanders sticks out because people within the physical UK differ largely in how they say things, and when you emulate them and fail from the perspective of someone from a lesser part of the anglosphere, you can't make the case as well that it's just a matter of different equally valid uses for the same vocabulary.
  
  Ahhhhhh good clarification! Sorry for missing the location point.

When I was younger I thought concur meant disagree.

"Sorry."
- I found the Canadian.
- Can relate.
  
  Canada relates.

ages ago, i spent something like half a year thinking there was a word "appericate". it was an odd one, since i only ever saw it in print, and from context it was clear that it meant the same thing as "appreciate", which, oddly enough, i only ever heard in speech.
and then one day i stopped at an "appericate" in a book and re-read it 9 times, very slowly.
- I bet you apericated that decision.

Terrence Thatcher, T. May, Terroris, Ttruss;
Terry-Tories, Terry-Tories, make a fuss!
It also gives a different meaning to the citizens of British Overseas Tories!

Man, I'm learning some weird stuff about British people. I've never heard of encephalitis being associated with HIV or a nonce being any kind of person.
- Fortunately the encephalitis part didn't happen in the UK but abroad.

It took me until graduate school to learn that "mortified" is not another word for "scared"/"fearful"
It still looks that way to me what with mort in there!
It also took me a long time to realize that the word "awry", which I read often in books and inferred its meaning, and "ah-rai" were the same thing. I thought awry was pronounced "aw-ree" and it was just a synonym for "ah-rai".

With English as my second language, the difference between terrible and terrific has always confused me.

Callow. It just means immature but I somehow got it in my head that it meant cowardly.
- For a long time I just thought of it as "callous", like cold and indifferent.
  
  I actually did until now. Never bothered to look it up. Thanks, Lemmy!
  It is a very rare word, though.

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".

Not a word but I thought the idiom toe the line meant basically the same as push the envelope. As in you're testing the boundaries of something by walking right up to the line and nudging it with your toe to move it further.
Turns out it means pretty much the opposite, essentially the same as fall in line.

I don't use it very often but I misuse the word "Gattaca" on purpose sometimes. In reality it's the title of the 1997 film that's named from the letters G,A,T, and C, referring to guanine, adenin, thymine and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.
But on the TV show The League, the character Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) screams it as his battle cry during paintball, completely oblivious to what it actually means or that it's the title of a movie. I urge you all to misuse this word at some point as well -- if you ever need to hype yourself up, try screaming "GATTACA!" as your battle cry!
- Does the character mean to cry "Attica"? Like people who yelled it in the 70s, referencing the prison revolt?
  
  Yep, but then Family Guy conflated it 20 years ago to "Gattica!" as a way for Peter to show his support for civil rights whilst highlighting that he's an idiot. I doubt Family Guy were the first to make that joke either
  
  It's never explicitly explained, with the most being the other characters saying that they don't think he's ever seen the movie Gattaca and doesn't know what it's about, and Rafi later confirming he had no idea it was a movie.
  Since Rafi's character is defined by being as uninformed, devoid of all decency, and chaotic as possible, I think that it completely fits though. Especially since most of his lines are improvised by Mantzoukas, who would be clever enough to use a similar-sounding movie title in place of an actual event for Rafi's character. Adding to that, there is another scene in later seasons where Rafi is getting kicked out of a store and he says that they'll have to call in the police and the FBI to get him out of there, again shouting "Gattaca" which definitely plays into your theory.
  If anyone gets the chance to ask Jason Mantzoukas a question, this is the one to ask about! Until then, I think this just became my headcanon. GATTACA!
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  the character Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) screams it as his battle cry during paintball, completely oblivious to what it actually means or that it's the title of a movie
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

The word "nauseous" is parallel to "noxious" and means "causing nausea". If you're experiencing nausea, you're nauseated -- the thing that made you nauseated is nauseous.

Inconceivable!
- Impossibru!

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.
- Often I do see it used that way, many times a "remix" of a song will be labelled a "redux" on YouTube.

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)?

Depreciate.
I'm going to Depreciate this computer. That means to get its loss of value on taxes....not to shut it down. The word I meant was Deprecate

"just" was meant to indicate a recent position in time. As in "just now."
- If you just adjust your justice you might just make it just.
  
  If you just
  Yeah that's the one that gets me. People use it to say something without having to commit to having said it and/or attempt to reduce the weight of an action. Just make more money, just work harder, just work faster, just don't worry about it, just calm down. Pretty much minimizes the context the person they're talking to comes from like whatever they're suggesting is so easy no one should have to think about it.
  "Just don't use the word just!" lol
  Using it as a shortening for justice doesn't bother me for some reason xD

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