Slow on the uptake here; when the young woman was murdered in Wyoming while documenting her travels with her boyfriend, the term ‘influencer’ came up on my radar. What a terrible introduction.
I was actually angry when Merriam-Webster added “irregardless” to their dictionary. In my venting at coffee that day, one of my ‘wiser’ colleagues interrupted me mid-rant to ask: “Who is Miriam Webster?”
You’re kidding, right? RIGHT??? Also that’s hilarious about your colleague.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
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I’m actually the same way. I’ve always loved the history of words (have several books on etymology) and know usage evolves over time, but I have a negative reaction to them evolving in my time. Not saying that this position is internally consistent, just that this is how it is for me.
Things like “comprise” should only be used as in “the book comprises 20 chapters” not “the 20 chapters comprise the book” were pounded into my head in grammar school and then further solidified by the patent laws and regulations, so it bugs me that the latter usage is now seen as fully acceptable…
The pedant in me (who, quite honestly, tends to dominate my personality) is frustrated at this general rule, and I find myself well down the path of “if everybody else jumped over the cliff, would you, too?” When my own personal echo chamber starts to sound like my mom, I think of my dad: “Don’t be a dumbass, even if everybody else is.”
Usage may make it correct (eventually), but ‘irregardless’ is a hill on which I will die. Another one: to “beg the question” does NOT mean to “raise/suggest/imply/lead to the question.” [That’s a rant for another day.]
Almost everyone I know uses “I” and “me” wrongly. I yell at the tv when it happens, but obviously not my friends or other grown-ass adults bc that would be uncouth.
Oh, man…don’t get me started on subjective vs objective! I used to watch Elementary devotedly, but when Jonny Lee Miller’s character misspoke and said “Watson and I’s” (to indicate possessive of some sort), I nearly shat my pants. Sherlock was supposed to be smart. A sixth grader should have known better!
I think it might make a difference whether one learns a language as a native or non-native speaker. I’ve never had to diagram a sentence in my life, but my handle on grammar is tight. I blame five years of Latin in high school for that, and generally just a good knack for languages.
It’s fine to think that some new usage or meaning shift sounds funny to you, and not to use it.
The big problem with prescriptivism is it leads to the idea that there is a ‘correct’ version of any given language (irregardless of what the Académie Fraçaise says. ) which leads to all sorts of biases and excuses for those biases (“They’re clearly stupid. They don’t even speak correctly!”).
I recognize and own my pedantry. I abhor split infinitives all because of 7th grade English (thanks, Mrs. Tremain). Even after I learned, decades later, that the rule is arbitrary and really serves no purpose, a split infinitive is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.