Words or phrases that have been twisted over the years.

KaJuN said:
Retarded. Once used to describe someone with a mental condition or describing a relatively slower motion. Now used as an adjective substitute for "stupid", "dumb" or one of the new meanings of "gay".
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Hell, the word "dumb" used to only refer to a mute person, it's interesting to see how pervasive its "stupid" meaning has prevailed today.
 
Spanish and Portuguese, while derivatives, are not Latin. Yet everything/everyone South of The US are considered "Latin".

Latin should only refer to the language and those born in Latium.
 
chaos386 said:
"I could care less"
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Pet bugbear of mine. Yes, I know, it's a US/UK English difference, but if you stopped for a moment and thought about what you are saying...

"your" used as a verb
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I'm not sure what you're talking about. Could you give an example please?

Peter3hg said:
Also Spastic.
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Yes. It was originally due to the "National Spastics Society", a charity. Then the word became a generic insult, so the charity changed it's name to Scope.

And so now "Scoper" is apparently a new insult in the playgrounds.
 
Crunk

According to the dictionary it originally meant "To cry like a crane". But now it means "To dance like an idiot".

Tight

Stopped meaning "not loose" and started meaning "cool"

Word

Changed from meaning "components of a sentence" or "utterance" to "piece of shit software"
 
LurkerPatrol said:
Word

Changed from meaning "components of a sentence" or "utterance" to "piece of shit software"
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You forgot the all-too-common use of "word" as an exclamation of agreement.

Reading a thread like this reminds me of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves...
 
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Word is so 20th century though. Now we use a much cooler expression. Space word!
 
Whappeh said:
lol that isn't what crunk means, my friend.
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:p I know what crunk means man, but I didn't want a serious new definition for it ;)
 
Crank Shank...My term for DSM's (eclipses, lasers, and talons notorious for severe crank walk)
 
I asked someone about the phrase I am going to mention in a topic awhile back. It seems that on the internet people are putting "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" which is very weird considering only 3 more characters are required to make it make more sense.
 
Flynn said:
I asked someone about the phrase I am going to mention in a topic awhile back. It seems that on the internet people are putting "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" which is very weird considering only 3 more characters are required to make it make more sense.
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It's an Americanism.

And, as we know, America is the internet, which is why you've been seeing it more.

Crap, now I need to think up some punchline as to why America is (or resembles) the internet, in case someone pulls me up on this
 
teeb said:
Crap, now I need to think up some punchline as to why America is (or resembles) the internet, in case someone pulls me up on this
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America, like the Internet, is a bunch of tubes, only these ones go straight into people's stomachs? I hath nill.
 
Watching macgyver, just remembered one. The phrase "something terrible" or "something awful" used as an adjective or adverb. For instance: "I miss you something awful." That's just plain wrong, period.
 
This one only applies to the US yet it's still noteworthy.

Liberal/Liberals

Broadly speaking, liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. Different forms of liberalism may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for a number of principles, including extensive freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market or mixed economy
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New meaning

Since approximately the Reagan era, the word liberal has been [..] used as a derogatory term
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Used as a word to slander those whose political views you disagree with. A coward, a fool. Someone to not trust in political matters.

To me as a European the usage as a derogatory term seems somehow schizophrenic. Especially since liberalism includes plenty of traditional Conservative values.
 
swek said:
This one only applies to the US yet it's still noteworthy.

Liberal/Liberals

New meaning

Used as a word to slander those whose political views you disagree with. A coward, a fool. Someone to not trust in political matters.

To me as a European the usage as a derogatory term seems somehow schizophrenic. Especially since liberalism includes plenty of traditional Conservative values.
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Both Conservatives and Liberals in the US are essentially Classical Liberals, and espouse those virtues (the US was founded by Enlightenment Era thinkers).

I might note that the term liberal originally meant giving generously (such as I drank a liberal amount of wine).
 
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