DEBASING THE CURRENCY OF LANGUAGE

I see no reason to object to gadget.

Thanks Set but one thinks of a gadget usu as having moving parts

If you look up the definition it's a small machine or tool. That gives a lot of lattitude (longitudinally speaking).

Not me~~~ a whisk, a bottle opener, a wide flat spoon with lots of holes, a gravy ladle which pours from its bottom, a grapefruit knife and an apple peeler are all good gadgets to my mind and not a moving part on any of them.

Joe(pass the egg separator)Nation

Hero. Don't you have to do something, and doesn't it have to be voluntary?

You tried this nonsense some time back regarding iconic, Setanta. Words frequently have more than one meaning and in many cases they have many meanings.

Stop your pedantry already.



Gee, all you would have do is check a dictionary to find out that you don't know your ass from a sinkhole.


M-W

2. well-known, famous

At this, Thomas, he sucks, big time. He often is a professional language snake oil salesman.

He can, like any native speaker, teach folks how to write. Of course there are always some who are more able than others to teach whatever.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally


M-W

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hopefully

Usage Discussion of HOPEFULLY
In the 1960s the second sense of hopefully, which dates to the early 18th century and had been in fairly widespread use since at least the 1930s, underwent a surge in popularity. A surge of criticism followed in reaction, but the criticism took no account of the grammar of adverbs. Hopefully in its second sense is a member of a class of adverbs known as disjuncts. Disjuncts serve as a means by which the author or speaker can comment directly to the reader or hearer usually on the content of the sentence to which they are attached. Many other adverbs (as interestingly, frankly, clearly, luckily, unfortunately) are similarly used; most are so ordinary as to excite no comment or interest whatsoever. The second sense of hopefully is entirely standard.

For the same silly reasons that kept the peeves threads alive for so long, Set. Damn silly prescriptions, products that have made the Strunk & White generations grammatical [in a conscious sense] incompetents.

But you already knew that.

How about: "insensitive" ?





David

Over used for sure, but maybe not debased. Maybe. . . .

Oscar Wilde used that word back in the late 19th century. More than once, too. Nuttin' rawng with it.

Yeah, but it's not commonly used. My point in this thread is that there are words that are overused to the point of becoming meaningless. So, for example, one guy used "awesome." That was very much to the point--awesome ceased to have any real force as a word forty years ago.

Like totally!!

This guy meant it literally. Talking to you is a bit like talking to God, you're both bloody miserable, and you never get the answer you want.

Nowadays isn't commonly used?

I'll have to let the folks at work know they're doing something unusual.

I doubt you'll see it very often in print--at any event, it still means what it has always meant, and usage hasn't changed that.

I guess i gave you credit for an ironic sense off humor you don't actually possess.

More bullshit from Setanta.



Yeah, he is overused and is - what about is? And while we're on the be verb, that god damn are is so overused, people don't know what it means.

Good thing we've got a sage here at A2K like you, Set. Otherwise we wouldn't know anything about language.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States. ... nurtured by the false notion that what you have been taught about language has any relevance to reality.