3 ms·
overabuse is not really a word
by auggierose 3y ago
overabuse is not really a word
- yellowapple 3y agoEvery English word was at one point not yet a word.
- auggierose 3y agoThat one is never going to be one, as it doesn't make sense. Decide whether you want to say overuse, or abuse.
- kitd 3y agoIf "abuse" means "use badly", it's not too difficult to imagine contexts where "overabuse" makes sense.
- vidarh 3y agoA newspaper archive searchs finds it's been in use since the 1850's at least, and though common it has had brief surges in popularity. To the extent you're "right" that it's not going to be one, it's because its use appears to have faded away in recent years, not because it's not been in use.
- vidarh 3y agoThat should have been "though uncommon"; past the edit window
- xanderlewis 3y agoIf some but not any level of abuse is permissible, then ‘overabuse’ might have some meaning. For example, in mathematical notation this is the case.
- Y-bar 3y ago"Word X is just made up, stop using it!" is an overabused sentiment, one I would say is overabundant among internet pedants. Maybe you are feeling an overwhelming urge to overcorrect grammar? Get over it.
- DinaCoder99 3y agoWell it certainly represents a failure to communicate coherent semantics to people who don't recognize acceptable forms of abuse.
- vidarh 3y ago"Overabuse" in this case represents a recognition of levels of "abuse", not a moral judgement of whether abuse is ever acceptable. Further, the term "abuse" is used both about transgressions against a person, where I agree that this concept would be offensive as well as to indicate going beyond a perceived normative use of something in a way that does not imply harm to anyone and that may or may not be acceptable to a given person in a given context. E.g. "I abused this API to do X" implies I recognize that what I'm doing isn't the clean or intended use of it, but doesn't in itself imply that it's not acceptable (it could be unacceptable use, but it could also just not be the "proper" way of doing something). "Overabuse" is a rarely used word, so I probably wouldn't use it myself, but anyone who quibbles over it because they "don't recognize acceptable forms of abuse" will already struggle with well-established long-standing use of "abuse" in English that is covered by primary dictionary definitions.
- DinaCoder99 3y agoThe "over" prefix does actually imply a level of acceptable abuse, regardless of whether or not you consider this a moral judgement. Otherwise what would the prefix imply? It's inherently a comparison to some implicit degree of abuse.
- yellowapple 3y agoJust because there are degrees of murder doesn't mean any level of murder is acceptable.
- DinaCoder99 3y agoOk but "overmurder" isn't a thing, so how is murder relevant?
- bregma 3y agoI think you misunderestimate the dynamicisity of the living English language.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]