Restoring the Meanings of Misused Words
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Restoring the Meanings of Misused Words
Words give us an array of ways to express what we’re thinking or feeling with boldness or nuance. The more we use them in the proper context according to their definitions, the more settled they become in our eloquence.
Within American English, some words continue to operate as people wearing another’s attire. One can ponder whether this is due to their misuse being comfortably accepted or their concepts remaining unstitched. Either way, we can still spot their masquerade with the aim of returning them to their own wardrobes.
The following are misused words that we might read or hear with regularity.
Ironic. Its original meaning concerns incongruence between expectation and outcome. For example, a civil engineer admiring a bridge she designed that suddenly collapses would be ironic. Another example would be a hospital running out of aspirin.
Conversely, a situation such as “rain on your wedding day” in Alanis Morissette’s 1990s hit single “Ironic” would be a coincidence (or just plain bad luck). However, the applications of ironic that her song uses have only gained traction; dictionary.com includes “coincidental; unexpected” within its entry.
It’s possible that popular use will continue to blur the distinction between irony and coincidence. Careful writers can remain aware of and uphold their difference.
Infamous. Some might still use this word to mean “incredibly famous.” While it does convey being famous, it is typically for the wrong reasons. Infamous implies having a bad reputation. An infamous celebrity might be one who has trouble with the law.
Peruse. On occasion we might express that we “perused” the selections at the airport newsstand. We would be correct if we meant that we observed them with attention to detail. If all we did was glance at what was available, we would more succinctly say we “browsed” or “skimmed” the display.
Similar to splitting ironic‘s definitions, using peruse to mean “to browse” or “to skim” has become so pervasive that dictionaries are acceding. The entry at dictionary.com includes both “to read with thoroughness and care” and “to scan or browse.” This dichotomy does not favor precision, and resolution will arrive only by fully changing or restoring the definition. Careful writers can favor the original meaning.
Misuse Driven by Sound
Other common misuses arise from words that sound like they should mean one thing when in fact they represent the opposite. When you read or hear the following words, there’s often a chance they’re appearing in the wrong sentence.
| Word | enervate |
| Mistaken Meaning | to energize |
| Correct Meaning | to weaken or sap |
| Correct Example | Standing in the ticket line for six hours enervated us. |
| Word | enormity* |
| Mistaken Meaning | enormousness, great size |
| Correct Meaning | something outrageous or heinous |
| Correct Example | The enormity of the bank scandal was even worse than they thought. |
| Word | fulsome* |
| Mistaken Meaning | full, abundant, copious |
| Correct Meaning | offensive to good taste, improperly or insincerely excessive |
| Correct Example | She didn’t believe his fulsome apology for staying away all weekend. |
| Word | noisome |
| Mistaken Meaning | noisy |
| Correct Meaning | noxious, offensive, disgusting (especially an odor) |
| Correct Example | The smell from the trashcan was noisome. |
| Word | proscribe |
| Mistaken Meaning | to prescribe, recommend, direct |
| Correct Meaning | to condemn, forbid |
| Correct Example | The village proscribes alcohol sales on Sundays. |
*The entries at dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster online include the disparate meanings.
As with any great movement involving the masses, the juggernaut of popular opinion will likely prevail over time as it concerns the usage of words. In the meantime, we can keep the lamps of precision and eloquence lit by maintaining proper distinctions of meanings.
Pop Quiz
Using what you’ve learned in this article, answer Yes or No to whether each italicized word is used correctly in its sentence.
1. Patricia has fulsome management experience on her resume. [Yes / No]
2. I don’t have much time so I’ll just peruse the notes from the meeting. [Yes / No]
3. Company policy now proscribes wearing sandals at work. [Yes / No]
4. Last night there was a fire at the fire station—ironic, isn’t it? [Yes / No]
Pop Quiz Answers
1. No
2. No
3. Yes
4. Yes
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
That’s a good list. My pet peeve–one I seem to hear more frequently from news commentators of late–is using “hone in” instead of “home in.”
Of course, “hone” means to sharpen or refine. “Home in” means to zero in, or come closer to something, as a homing pigeon does.
Sadly, Merriam-Webster allows “hone in” to mean “home in.”
That is very sad indeed. You might be interested in our post A House Is Not a Hone for more discussion on this expression.
The use of the phrase “comprised of” instead of “composed of” in modern media irks me. The word “comprises” means “includes,” such as, “The United States comprises the fifty states, territories, and . . . .” Or, “The United States is composed of . . . .” Perhaps this is just another “great movement involving the masses.”
Yes, the word comprise is commonly misused, and we hereby welcome you as an official word nerd. We railed against this misuse in our post The Word Nerd: Six Pitfalls Writers (and Others) Should Avoid, and we discuss it further on our Confusing Words and Homonyms page.
The issues enumerated above ensue from the lack of prescriptive dictionaries, as well as substandard English-language curricula. Most dictionaries readily available, whether online or hardcopy, are of the descriptive variety; hence, their practice of listing “disparate meanings,” which apparently is a euphemistically pretty way of saying “WRONG”!
My current pet hate is use of epicenter for any concentration of interest. What is wrong with center?
In addition to the geological term, American dictionaries list these definitions for epicenter:
– a point, area, person, or thing that is most important or pivotal in relation to an indicated activity, interest, or condition
– the focal point of a usually harmful or unpleasant phenomenon or event; the center
Our view is that, for some people, epicenter is more emphatic than what we agree is the more economical center.
There seems to be a problem with a couple of sentences written in this article that appear to use fused-participle, so I thought I will bring it to your attention.
“For example, a civil engineer admiring a bridge she designed that suddenly collapses would be ironic. ” – Well what is ironic? The civil engineer or her admiring the bridge…
It seems it should be “a civil engineer’s admiring a bridge she designed that suddenly collapses would be ironic”
“Another example would be a hospital running out of aspirin.” Is running a past participle or a gerund?
The entire phrase “a civil engineer admiring a bridge she designed that suddenly collapses” is the complete subject of the sentence; it is the full concept expressed in that subject that is ironic. The phrase “a hospital running out of aspirin” is similarly an ironic concept. In that phrase, running is a gerund. Please see our posts Securing the Subject of Subjects and Expressing Possession of Gerunds for more information.
Why do most grammar books ignore the horrible phrase, “The fact that”?
“The fact that” is not a misused phrase, but it is a wordy one. In concise writing, we can achieve the same end by simply using “that.”
One of my pet peeves has been the rampant misuse of “acronym” to define any abbreviation when we know that all acronyms are abbreviations, while all abbreviations are not acronyms. In addition, recent times have produced the misuse of “narcissist” to describe an array of unrelated personality disorders.
I think, especially with the growth of (anti)social media, a lot of folks are parroting words like buzzwords without fully understanding their meaning because they think it gives them more intellectual credibility.