3 ms·

It does mean that now, because most people don't know the "correct" definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonplussed https://www.merriam-webste

It does mean that now, because most people don't know the "correct" definition: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonplussed https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonplussed Similarly, the definition of blasé has changed since Lord Byron first used it in 1819, since most people don't speak French and don't know exactly what it meant.

Spivak 3y ago
Here's Webster talking about it https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed My guess at why would be that US high schools pretty much universally teach 1984 with 'plusgood' and 'doubleplusgood' which is the only use of the plus- prefix in the novel. And since it's a nonstandard prefix people associate the word with plus. Newspeak slang would absolutely use plussed to mean "feeling plusgood" and when you encounter the word in the wild you just assume that's what it means. Non- is perfectly logical extension of newspeak because neither anteplusgood nor unplusgood quite capture absence.
- burkaman 3y ago
  I think it's just because it's a relatively rare word (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nonplussed%2Cbewildered%2Cconfused&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nonplussed%2Cb...), and it's often extremely difficult to figure out what it means from context ("He looked nonplussed"), so people just try to guess based on the word itself. Plus means like more of something, so not more, not a lot, something like that. "He looked not a lot", I guess not very interested. Plus might mean more of a reaction, so nonplussed is no reaction. Simple as that. I don't think most people paid as much attention to their high school reading as you're imagining. Also note that two of Merriam's examples are from before 1984 came out.
gadders 3y ago
I wish people would stop getting words wrong.
- burkaman 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure "getting something wrong" is an idiom that started with people using the verb "to get" wrong.
  - gadders 3y ago
    How so?
    - burkaman 3y ago
      It just doesn't match any dictionary definition of "get" I can find (but it is defined as an idiom https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/get%20right https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/get%20right), and idioms generally come from colloquial non-standard usage. I mean it's kind of dumb argument, we might as well say that all of English is "wrong" because it didn't exist when the first dictionaries were published.
      - gadders 3y ago
        >>I mean it's kind of dumb argument, we might as well say that all of English is "wrong" because it didn't exist when the first dictionaries were published. But surely there has to be some agreed meaning of words? Otherwise in mathematics you might as well just claim that "addition" is the same as "division" because a bunch of people just defined it that way. This redefining of words based on errors and ignorance just seems like one more example of the pernicious influence of post-modernism.
        burkaman 3y ago
        > But surely there has to be some agreed meaning of words? Yes you're right, and the dictionary documents that agreed meaning, but some of those meanings will gradually change over time. It's not new, and it certainly isn't post-modern. You can easily find examples, here's a short list: https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/ https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-ver.... I think the first three here ("nice", "silly", "awful") are particularly noteworthy. > redefining of words based on errors and ignorance How else could they be redefined? Occasionally someone invents a word on purpose, but that's relatively rare, and none of the languages people actually speak were intentionally designed. For all of history, people just spoke to each other and sometimes they got a word wrong or said it a little weird. That's where all languages and almost all words came from. There's nothing wrong with feeling annoyed by a particular word or usage, we all feel that sometimes, I just think it's useful to recognize that basically every word was in that transition phase at some point in the past. https://www.etymonline.com/ https://www.etymonline.com/ is fun to explore this stuff, it is often surprising. More examples from this very comment: - We make a distinction between "inventing" and "discovering", but "invention" used to mean "discovery" - "phase" only referred to phases of the moon until the mid 19th century - "weird" used to be a lot cooler, and mean something like powerful, magical, fate-determining - "document" used to mean "to teach with authority" etc.

Spivak 3y ago

Here's Webster talking about it https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed My guess at why would be that US high schools pretty much universally teach 1984 with 'plusgood' and 'doubleplusgood' which is the only use of the plus- prefix in the novel. And since it's a nonstandard prefix people associate the word with plus. Newspeak slang would absolutely use plussed to mean "feeling plusgood" and when you encounter the word in the wild you just assume that's what it means. Non- is perfectly logical extension of newspeak because neither anteplusgood nor unplusgood quite capture absence.

burkaman 3y ago
I think it's just because it's a relatively rare word (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nonplussed%2Cbewildered%2Cconfused&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nonplussed%2Cb...), and it's often extremely difficult to figure out what it means from context ("He looked nonplussed"), so people just try to guess based on the word itself. Plus means like more of something, so not more, not a lot, something like that. "He looked not a lot", I guess not very interested. Plus might mean more of a reaction, so nonplussed is no reaction. Simple as that. I don't think most people paid as much attention to their high school reading as you're imagining. Also note that two of Merriam's examples are from before 1984 came out.

gadders 3y ago

I wish people would stop getting words wrong.

burkaman 3y ago
I'm pretty sure "getting something wrong" is an idiom that started with people using the verb "to get" wrong.
- gadders 3y ago
  How so?
  - burkaman 3y ago
    It just doesn't match any dictionary definition of "get" I can find (but it is defined as an idiom https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/get%20right https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/get%20right), and idioms generally come from colloquial non-standard usage. I mean it's kind of dumb argument, we might as well say that all of English is "wrong" because it didn't exist when the first dictionaries were published.
    - gadders 3y ago
      >>I mean it's kind of dumb argument, we might as well say that all of English is "wrong" because it didn't exist when the first dictionaries were published. But surely there has to be some agreed meaning of words? Otherwise in mathematics you might as well just claim that "addition" is the same as "division" because a bunch of people just defined it that way. This redefining of words based on errors and ignorance just seems like one more example of the pernicious influence of post-modernism.
      - burkaman 3y ago
        > But surely there has to be some agreed meaning of words? Yes you're right, and the dictionary documents that agreed meaning, but some of those meanings will gradually change over time. It's not new, and it certainly isn't post-modern. You can easily find examples, here's a short list: https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/ https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-ver.... I think the first three here ("nice", "silly", "awful") are particularly noteworthy. > redefining of words based on errors and ignorance How else could they be redefined? Occasionally someone invents a word on purpose, but that's relatively rare, and none of the languages people actually speak were intentionally designed. For all of history, people just spoke to each other and sometimes they got a word wrong or said it a little weird. That's where all languages and almost all words came from. There's nothing wrong with feeling annoyed by a particular word or usage, we all feel that sometimes, I just think it's useful to recognize that basically every word was in that transition phase at some point in the past. https://www.etymonline.com/ https://www.etymonline.com/ is fun to explore this stuff, it is often surprising. More examples from this very comment: - We make a distinction between "inventing" and "discovering", but "invention" used to mean "discovery" - "phase" only referred to phases of the moon until the mid 19th century - "weird" used to be a lot cooler, and mean something like powerful, magical, fate-determining - "document" used to mean "to teach with authority" etc.