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Bryan Garner, author of an excellent and well-regarded dictionary of English usage (famously reviewed at great length by DFW in Harper's), coined a term for suc
by mturmon 11y ago
Bryan Garner, author of an excellent and well-regarded dictionary of English usage (famously reviewed at great length by DFW in Harper's), coined a term for such transitional constructions: "skunked words".
The idea is that there are two groups of people, one holding to an original meaning, and one with a new usage. Sometimes the new meaning can be directly opposite the original meaning (e.g.: nonplussed), or just different (e.g., hopefully).
So, writers who wish to be understood cannot use "nonplussed," because readers will not know what is meant. A skunked term.
A longer explanation: http://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2014/11/skunked-terms.html http://englishcowpath.blogspot.com/2014/11/skunked-terms.htm...
- Nadya 11y agoAnother example: "That's so bad!" meaning "That's awesome!" If I can go on a tangent about poor terms...contranyms will throw people for a loop if they are unaware of one of the meanings. Or worse, if the sentence is constructed in a way meant to cause confusion. "I would be bound for Chicago if I wasn't bound to this chair." [0] "It is transparent that the transparent man cannot be seen." [1] "Three people are left after five left." [2] "If we go back two weeks, when Tom came back, we decided to push the date back three weeks." [3] [0] I would be moving towards Chicago if I wasn't unable to move from this chair. [1] It's visible to anyone that the invisible man cannot be seen. [2] Three people remain after five departed. [3] If you go into the past two weeks, when Tom returned, we decided then to push the date further by 3 weeks. I had fun writing those.