• reliv3@lemmy.world
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    2 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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      2 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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        2 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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          2 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€