291–300 of 337 posts
As a Brit, I don't think I've ever encountered the latter meaning. I've only ever heard it to mean 'perplexed'.
First they came for literally and I did nothing because I wasn't a pedant. Then they came for nonplussed and I still did nothing because I'm still not a pedant. I sure hope they don't come for pedant next.
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I think there are at least two forces that lead to words changing meaning: 1. We are looking to express a emotion but want to empathize it more. Existing words get "used up" because we tend to inflate the strength. This is how we get words like "sick!", "awesome" (which changed meaning quite a while ago). Either new words get created or existing ones get taken over. 2. Some people literally don't understand the origi…
I think what's happening today is almost all #2, but I'd argue it's not really that language is evolving, but just that people are continuously making mistakes, and somehow correcting them has become this weird taboo. You're a pedant or "grammar Nazi" for pointing out incorrect usage and grammar, so nobody learns and people keep making the same mistakes again and again. Language evolves, but it evolves very slowly. M…
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For the last several decades, every English speaking country has used the short billion (1e9).
Yep, even the BBC surrendered to the Americanism.
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What’s awesome about words is we can just say whatever bullshit we want and if anyone understands and repeats it, bam, new words! They don’t start off in the dictionary!
I love "anon" for that reason. "I will be there anon!" If anyone complains about me being there either too early or too late, or neither, I point them to the dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anon It can either mean "now", "soon", or "later".
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I take objection to the characterization of "begging the question" having a changed/incorrect meaning. I assert that the "original philosophical meaning" is the fad idiom, and the common usage is a true parsing of the words unrelated to the idiom. "This begs the question of why X Y Z" is just a shortening of "this [thing you said] begs [that] the question [be asked] of why X Y Z". I think the only reason there's any…
You might be correct, but it begs the question: where are your citations for that?
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That begs the question, what will you do about it?
I’m fairly nonplussed at what has happened to “begging the question” - its usage now is an inversion of its original philosophical meaning as a form of fallacy. It’s common usage is a way of saying “the question arises”.
It was a stupid translation, so I don't mind people retaking the words for their actual meaning.
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That begs the question, what will you do about it?
Explaining the joke: "Begging the question" is an expression that properly means "assuming the conclusion," i.e. circular reasoning. However, the comment above deliberately uses the incorrect meaning "raising the question."
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Wait… do Americans not say whom?
The Americans who know when to use whom and who and Americans who think they know when to use whom and who are those who use whom, while Americans whom the distiction between who and whom thouroughly confuses and Americans to whom whom is entirely unknown are those by whom who is solely used.