It's not just great... it's PENULTIMATE!

[Frostmarrow]

I usually say peninsula when I mean continent. -Cuz thats badass.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

For me, the word is decimate. I almost never hear it used properly (ie, to reduce by 10%). Instead it's usually used for COMPLETE AND UTTER DESTRUCTION. Cuz it sounds cooler. It is a cool word. But for some reason it really boils my cabbage to hear it incorrectly. Especially in conjunction with literally.

He literally decimated the other team's chances of winning when he hit that ball (which brought the stands down. Literally.).

I'd say it's the Creative Writing major in me coming out, but I don't think that's it. I have a lot of tolerance for grammatical errors in casual contexts (like speaking with friends, e-mail, or message boards) but there are a handful of things that just get to me.

Another is saying ex-cape for escape.

 

[Dingleberry]

For me, the word is decimate. I almost never hear it used properly (ie, to reduce by 10%). Instead it's usually used for COMPLETE AND UTTER DESTRUCTION. Cuz it sounds cooler. It is a cool word. But for some reason it really boils my cabbage to hear it incorrectly. Especially in conjunction with literally.

He literally decimated the other team's chances of winning when he hit that ball (which brought the stands down. Literally.).

I'd say it's the Creative Writing major in me coming out, but I don't think that's it. I have a lot of tolerance for grammatical errors in casual contexts (like speaking with friends, e-mail, or message boards) but there are a handful of things that just get to me.

Another is saying ex-cape for escape.

Interesting. My dictionary lists a secondary definition of "to destroy or kill a large part of."

 

[glass]

I don't like the missues of penultimate, because it is part of a larger trend in English where any word that sound anything like any other word has to have its meaning changed to that it is the same. Another example is 'horrid' (spiky), which seems to be mutating into a synonym for 'horrible'. At least the Ecs got that one right.

English is already rich with 5 different words for everything, but if things continue the way they are we'll have 10 different words for half of the things and none at all for anything else!


glass.

 

[Dingleberry]

I don't like the missues of penultimate, because it is part of a larger trend in English where any word that sound anything like any other word has to have its meaning changed to that it is the same. Another example is 'horrid' (spiky), which seems to be mutating into a synonym for 'horrible'. At least the Ecs got that one right.

English is already rich with 5 different words for everything, but if things continue the way they are we'll have 10 different words for half of the things and none at all for anything else!

As above, my dictionary lists additional definitions: "causing a feeling of horror; terrible; revolting" and "very bad, ugly, unpleasant, etc." It's worth noting that my dictionary is more than 25 years old (copyright 1980), so this isn't really a recent mutation.

That said, I agree wholeheartedly that far too many people choose their words based on how cool they'll sound instead of how accurate they are.

 

[glass]

As above, my dictionary lists additional definitions: "causing a feeling of horror; terrible; revolting" and "very bad, ugly, unpleasant, etc." It's worth noting that my dictionary is more than 25 years old (copyright 1980), so this isn't really a recent mutation.

That is exactly the problem. If enough people do it, it becomes 'right'. That makes it more annoying, not less.


glass.

 

[Dingleberry]

That is exactly the problem. If enough people do it, it becomes 'right'. That makes it more annoying, not less.

To each his own, I guess. Personally, I'm happy to be called a geek based on the "mutated" definition, even though I've never bitten the head off of a live chicken.

Literally, anyway.

 

[Pbartender]

Another example is 'horrid' (spiky), which seems to be mutating into a synonym for 'horrible'.

That definition of horrid has been in use for at least the last 150 years or so...

"There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead,
When she was good
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad she was horrid."

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (1807-1882).

 

[Fieari]

I'd always thought that "Decimate" meant "Reduce TO 10%" not "Reduce BY 10%"

That's certainly more closely how it's actually used. If you have 100 men, and 90 are slaughtered, your forces have been decimated. If you have 100 men, and 10 are killed, then you're still pretty strong.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The word ultimate has come to mean greatest due to the concept of something so great that nothing could ever follow it.

Right. As an additional definition to 'last'.

Penultimate then is something that is near this great, but not entirely.

Not in English.

Penultimate comes from paen ultima, meaning almost the last. Obviously penultimate means almost ultimate.

In ultimate's sense of 'last', yes.

As ultimate can have many meanings, one of which is "not to be improved upon or surpassed; greatest; unsurpassed", then using penultimate in this manner is perfectly valid.

Not in English.

The phrase you're looking for in English is 'almost ultimate'. In English, 'penultimate' is defined; the Latin words it derived from meant "almost the last", and in English, it means "next-to-last".

Our word 'ferrous' - pertaining to iron, made of iron - comes from the Latin 'ferrum'. In Latin, the word meant 'iron', or 'sword', or 'force of arms'. In English, 'ferrous' does not mean 'swordlike', or 'relating to military might'; it means 'of iron'. The word it is derived from had multiple meanings, but not all of those meanings fit the English word.

Using 'penultimate' to mean 'nearly the greatest' in English is not a definition, it is a pun. And I have no problem with it being used to witty effect in that fashion.

The problem is, that's not how it gets used.

-Hyp.