2 ms·

Stop telling me what words mean.

• sliverstorm 15y ago
  So long as you insist on using them incorrectly, no. :)
  • PakG1 15y ago
    Languages evolve to align with how people use words, not the other way around, in the long run. This is why gay today is not gay centuries ago. Why brand names like Kleenex and Xerox can be acceptably used in everyday language without actually referring to those products.
    • kelnos 15y ago
      Yes, languages evolve. But "gay", "kleenex", and "xerox" (still) mean specific things, even if not what they originally meant, or if their scope has trivially increased. Gay=homosexual, Kleenex=tissue, Xerox=copier.[1] The problem is when a word is diluted so much that it can mean any number of things, to the point where it's useless as a descriptor of anything because it's too ambiguous. disruptive=?? Something that displaces an incumbent by changing the game entirely? Something that steals market share? Something that's just done much better than what was done in the past? Useless. It would be as if "gay" was in as common usage for "happy and carefree" as it is for "homosexual". If you said "Bob is gay", it'd be entirely unclear what you meant. [1] Although, interestingly, I find the latter two falling out of favor. I much much more often hear "tissue" or "copier"/"copy machine".