[ SECRET POST #2792 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2792 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 047 secrets from Secret Submission Post #399.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

When do original meanings fall away?

[(Anonymous)]

At what point does it seem fair to say a word's original meaning has fallen out of relevance today? There are two (technically three) big ones for me.

Gay: I don't think anyone who hears "gay" goes to "happy" anymore, unless they're watching Flintstones re-runs.

Hysterical/Histrionic: The first time I got dissed and dismissed for talking about somebody's histrionics, I was like WTF does that have to do with women? If I didn't know what a hysterectomy, I still wouldn't know why the fuck anyone gets butthurt on that one.

What are yours?

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[peablossom]

'Literally' is the only thing springing to mind offhand.

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[diet_poison]

I definitely don't think the original meaning of "literally" has fallen away.

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[peablossom]

You're right. I wasn't paying attention. It's gained additional meaning, but the original is definitely still in effect.

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[sarillia]

For me it's when people are actually confused by the use of the word and don't understand the meaning of the sentence it's used in except through context cues. Otherwise the word is still being used effectively even if it sounds strange.

Decimate

[silverr]

..,. which has been discussed before.

Also, "discriminate" which used to mean simply "perceive subtle differences that are actually present" (in this denotation it was most often used regarding one's ability to make qualitative judgements about food and art). Now the word discriminate more often connotes bigoty -- which ironically is the inability to perceive the reality of an individual because you' just paint everyone with a prejudice-sodden brush."

Re: Decimate

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think the old version of discriminate is completely gone. You still have discriminatory palette, and I've seen people discriminate between options, etc. But you're right that it's not very common.

Re: Decimate

[silverr]

*nods* I think of it when I think of decimate because, like decimate, discriminate's most common usage is now the inverse of the word's original meaning.

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[(Anonymous)]

The other day one of my friends gave a shoutout of appreciation for people who used other words where most people would use "lame," because avoiding ableism is always good! And here I thought most people had given up convincing others that lame is still ableist. Unless you're actually using it for a person with a disability, which I never hear anyone do, I don't make the association when I hear that word at all.

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[(Anonymous)]

I always thought it was a term used exclusively for livestock, since the only time I heard it was in reference to horses or sheep.

Nonetheless, I appreciate it so much when people do this. I've managed to cycle "lame," "dumb," and "gyped" (which I thought was "jipped," and therefore had no association with transient clans -- the things you learn from House, M.D....) out of my vocabulary. Especially since "gay" picked up more speed, and "retard/ed" always made me uncomfortable, I've been much more aware of things like this.

...It may also have to do with growing out of elementary school, but who's to say!

Re: When do original meanings fall away?

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed on the hysteria. Nowadays it just means "irrational, excessively emotional behavior," without any particular gender bias.

Gross, gyp, moron...actually there's a LOT of words that had their origins in bigotry that's been all but forgotten now, and I say we should let it happen. The only reason many of them are considered offensive by anyone these days is because certain people have to open their big mouths and keep reminding everybody where they came from and what they used to mean, which for the most part I think is something that didn't used to happen much, and we were all better off for it.

Words mean what we collectively come to agree they mean, and if we collectively decide that a once-nasty word is now okay, there's nothing wrong with that.