Misrepresentation and gross misuses of words....?

Question

what do you feel is the most misused word in todays language?
What other words used in the todays world,riles you because of what you believe the word truly means?.....

Answer 1

Misused has got to be "moot", which does NOT mean "irrelevant", which is how it is most often used.

The one that riles me most is when people say, e.g. "that begs the question of why they were there to begin with." No, it doesn't, it RAISES the question. To "beg the question" is a logical fallacy meaning to assume the desired conclusion as one of your premises while constructing an argument. It does NOT mean "it makes you wonder".

Answer 2

Some of the simple words like " I am not lying" or words like " this celebrity is great" Great in what ways. It could mean many things. When they say on the news research shows. That word research does it really show the real answers. The word real. Or in REality. These words are more of symbols when communicated in few line or stories can create many or no meaning at all.

Answer 3

"affect" and "effect"

I constantly hear and read where these two words are interchanged. People don't seem to realize the difference, mainly that Affect is a verb, effect is a noun.

as an afterthought,,,the use of "like" I hear it used all of the time as a filler rather than its correct use. Whenever I hear it, I think the person who is using it is trying to buy time until he/she can think of the correct phase or word.

Answer 4

When a woman says I love (this person) but I'm not "in love" with (him/her).

What the hell is the distinction exactly? There is no set rule, so the speaker gets to make up what she means when she says this.

Also, when people say "actually" and/or "basically" six times in one sentence.

When people pronounce 'nuclear' noo-kyoo-lar.

Answer 5

Homophobic.

I was told years ago that this means "fear of being the same". That makes sense to me because the root "homo-" means same (as in homosexual), and "phobic" means the fear of something.

However, in modern English, its come to mean someone who is afraid of "homos". I once criticised people for being homophobes...and what I meant was that they are so afraid to conform that they have to dress different and unusual. People I was talking to probably assumed I was gay for criticising people that dislike gays, so I've never used that phrase again.

Couldn't find it in the dictionary though.

Answer 6

None of it riles me because life is too short and precious to be upset by such things.

Answer 7

I cannot stand it when people take the word "For" and pronounce it FUR.FUR grows on animals.What did you do that FUR.AAAAAUUUUUGGGGG.Drives me insane.
I hear intelligent people on the evening news say it like that,what is going on.Everyone sounds like a country bumpkin.

Answer 8

the word "actually" has supplanted "like" IMHO as the most annoying ubiquitous term. people use it all the time to reinforce the obvious, and most sentences in which "actually" is used would be jim-dandy-fine without it.

Answer 9

gay. As evidenced on here, people use gay to stand for anything that they don't like. Do you think wearing these kind of shoes is gay? Do you think it is gay to want to go see movies. As is the word has changed drastically from its first meaning (happy).

Answer 10

when people say they are depressed or when people call those they just met, friends. the word love is another one. or when speaking in regards to an individual, people tend to make generalizations instead.