• reliv3@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      By this metric, one can argue that we currently ā€œmisuseā€ a lot of words in the English language, but the reality is language evolves. Think about how the definition of ā€œniceā€ has evolved from meaning ā€œignorant or stupidā€ in the 1300s to itā€™s current meaning.

      • ravhall@discuss.online
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        3 months ago

        So gaslighting should change to what? Telling someone they are doing something that they feel they arenā€™t?

        Youā€™re nice.

        • nomous@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Iā€™ve noticed this a lot the last 5-10 years. Nobody uses words wrong anymore itā€™s all ā€œlanguage evolvesā€ and ā€œlanguage is descriptive not prescriptive.ā€

          People are just using the word wrong.

          • ravhall@discuss.online
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            3 months ago

            Itā€™s just crappy education mixed with ā€œdonā€™t tell me what to doā€ mentality. A lot of it is probably social media, where a popular person starts using a word wrong and that quickly spreads and is often used assuming the listener knows about the inside joke.

            I was talking with someone IRL who was a very big Twitter and TikTok user. They are also (diagnosed) autistic. It was difficult to follow them because most of what they would say sounded almost meme-like, very accusatory, and rude. I would ask them not to talk to me like that and it was dismissed a ā€œobviously a jokeā€ or ā€œsarcasmā€ or ā€œdeadpan.ā€