What misused terms bug you the most?

[Kevlar]

It seems like almost every book I read or game I play uses some terms inccorrectly, especially in weaponry. The most common ones I see, and the ones that bug me the most, are:

Using morningstar to refer to a flail
Using longsword to refer to an 'arming sword'
Using broadsword to refer to any wide swords, when in fact they were basket-hilted swords broader than others of the type.
Using rapier to refer to what should be a sidesword or smallsword

I even remember playing one game that had falchions as huge two-handers.

What misused words and terms bug you the most in literature, games, or film?

 

[The Blue Lotus]

"Friends with benefits"
Sorry but Sex is not a fringe benefit of being friends with someone... However Aids is a fringe Benefit of having sex with random people... (I'm just sayin') It is over used by far and imho it is incorrect.
That term to me says, If I give Tiffany a ride, maybe she will spring for a creamsickle.

 

[JCFarnham]

Something that really gets me is the amount of so-called "serious writers" who use drug and the past tense of drag. Surely Drug is a completely different word altogether! There are a number of other examples of this that annoy me.

Saying that though I heard from a friend I was discussing this kind of thing with just yesterday that "sneaked" is more acceptable than "snuck"! Honestly, English just plain confuses me sometimes. I makes me wonder if we young people are so used to writing things in the wrong way that we can no longer recognise the correct usage of a whole slew of terms. I like to think I'm alright in this field, but maybe I haven't a clue? [I don't however excuse my tendency to make stupid typos haha]

Then again we all know that the English language is a bit of a freak and wonderful freak mind you, but a freak none-the-less.

 

[Map the Dragon]

I or me. Many get it wrong. I am sure me is among that number.

 

[Kevlar]

Then again we all know that the English language is a bit of a freak and wonderful freak mind you, but a freak none-the-less.

That's because it's the mutt of languages. Honestly, it has roots in latin, germanic languages, celtic languages and probably other ones I don't know about.

I tend to make those kind of mistakes too, like drug and dragged, snuck and sneaked and so on. But sometimes both ways are technically correct ,and each sounds better in different situations, for instance: spun and span. Though I read something about Rowling using span being controversial.

Another interesting thing, though it doesn't bug me, is that there are tons of words spelled incorrectly by most authors everyday. Cooperation, if you are sticking to traditional conventions, should be spelled coöperation, like seer or see-er should be spelled seeër, elite should be spelled élite and melee should be spelled mêlée.

 

[Philip Overby]

Something that bugs me is when people spell or name something different in an attempt to make it "new." Like "vampyr" (yes, I know what that is, but I still think it's goofy) or "lupin" (for werewolf). Why not just use the commonly perceived name? Or come up with a different creature?

Something else that's annoying? Dungeons and Dragons allowing PCs to be "fae-touched" or have "demon/angel blood." The demon/angel thing is so 1997. I miss the human fighter with the broadsword, medium shield, and splint mail (2nd Edition anyone?) Minmax to the rescue!

 

[Donny Bruso]

This isn't technically a misused term, but it sort of falls into the same category:

People who can't/won't proofread.

Whether it's a manuscript you're submitting to a publisher, a short piece you're putting up in the showcase, or just a quick note in one of the threads, everything should be re-read before hitting 'send.' You're trying to convince the world that your writing is good enough to sell, but you're so lazy you can't even check it over to make yourself look good? Really? REALLY? Grrr....

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

The demon/angel thing is so 1997

1997? I believe that some of my books date back to the early 80's...Don't think I ever bought deities and demigods, but it was around in the early to mid 80's at least.

My personal thing, and I am for public lashings to correct it, but the use of 'like' every other word. There is nothing more obnoxious than being near someone who has no idea how to describe anything, so they fill in the blanks with 'like'...ok, and every other word they throw in an extra one or ten for good measure.

That and the overuse of the word 'awesome'. Very few things in life have the ability to inspire true awe, but if I had a dollar for every time someone says that word referring to average things...

Ok, I'll stop while it's still brief.

 

[Ravana]

"Literally" and "virtually"–which, it seems, have both come to mean what the other one used to, in spite of the fact that they represent mutually exclusive domains.

I've also developed a major antipathy recently for the phrase "It is what it is." No, really, is it? Have you ever heard someone say "It is what it ain't"?

 

[UnionJane]

My personal pet peeve is the abuse of "metaphor," which I believe is much maligned because of its application in academia. At its base, it usually defined (denotatively) as a comparison of two unlike things. In the hands of some my fellow English majors, that means that every piece of figurative language is mostly easily identified as a metaphor--whether it is or it isn't. Abuse of the label is followed by a long-winded, often erroneous explanation. I'm beginning to feel that when reading literature, identifying/explaining metaphors is often best left to the experts, especially if it's supposed to be tied up to an essential theme of a work.

 

[Leuco]

Something that bugs me is when people spell or name something different in an attempt to make it "new." Like "vampyr" (yes, I know what that is, but I still think it's goofy) or "lupin" (for werewolf). Why not just use the commonly perceived name? Or come up with a different creature?

It's not really a misused term, but personally I don't like the deamon or daemon spelling of demon. The old school spelling throws me off. My biggest complaint of a misused term is "french benefits" instead of fringe benefits. And yes, bad past tense verbs always leave me scratching my head. Those are probably the worst. In real life, I make a conscious effort to correct people politely that way they don't have to look like a fool in front of someone else. It's kind of like having a piece of parsley between your teeth, and no one saying anything. You'd want someone to tell you, wouldn't you?

 

[JCFarnham]

Don't think I've ever heard french benefits before? I'm surprised people make that mistake. Really surprised!

 

[Digital_Fey]

Something that bugs me is when people spell or name something different in an attempt to make it "new." Like "vampyr" (yes, I know what that is, but I still think it's goofy) or "lupin" (for werewolf). Why not just use the commonly perceived name? Or come up with a different creature?

Argh, yes. It makes me cringe with embarrassment when writers do that without a *very* good reason. Changing a few letters does not make your brand of vampire any more unique.

Something else that drives me crazy is writers using the word 'okay' in medieval fantasy settings. All the characters are 'my lord'-ing each other and suddenly this complete anachronism gets dropped into the dialogue. It just looks sloppy, and it ruins the atmosphere. To get back to the weapons thing, it's extremely irritating when foreign weapon names (like wakizashi, katana, etc.) are used frequently in a fantasy world with no explanation of how these things came to be used alongside zweihanders and claymores. It's a tricky issue admittedly, but to me it undermines the believability of the world.

 

[Shadoe]

...."french benefits".... I got a good laugh out of that one. My ex husband used to say "It's a doggie dog world out there." I couldn't stand it anymore and finally asked him what he thought it meant. He had no idea.

"Okay" in fantasy drives me nuts too. I used to edit a fanzine that took place in Anne McCaffrey's Pern, and that was one of the words I banned from use.

The use of "alot" and "alright" bug me too. These are not words. Is it really that annoying to press the space bar?

The thing that annoys me most is this idiotic texting spelling that seems to have taken over the world. I see some pieces on fanfiction.net or fictionpress.com where people actually use them in a story. It's insane. What can they be thinking?

 

[JCFarnham]

They're not thinking.

 

[Leuco]

The use of "alot" and "alright" bug me too. These are not words. Is it really that annoying to press the space bar?

I once had someone correct me at work. She was trying to be polite about it, too. "You know a lot is one word." I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't but she made this strange argument about her friend who was an English graduate or something. I finally just said whatever. I hope she figured it out. But you know, with all the texting language spreading into the dictionary, one day, she may be right! "Bum Bum BUM!"

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

So they put stupidity in the dictionary, it doesn't mean I have to use any of those acronyms in my writing. Unless I was putting a direct quote of a test message into the story, then maybe....but I'd have to really think hard about it.

The english language does change all the time. Not a lot D) but it does. Some words I'm not upset have gone away from common usage.

 

[Kevlar]

Vampyr bugs me, but vampyre is pretty much fine by me. Why? Because vampyre was the traditional spelling. Plus vampyr would sound like vamp-ear, which is just stupid.

As for daemon/demon, they're actually two different things. Daemons were actually supernatural Greek entities, and while I don't know much about them I know they were never explicitly stated to be evil.

I've thought of a few more misused words that sometimes bug me.

Fail - When did it become a noun?
Irony - Even today's teachers are taught it incorrectly. What they teach us to be irony I believe is actually called dramatic irony. Wouldn't bug me so much if English teachers could explain what's ironic about someone saying 'Hey, nice shirt.'
Epic - used to refer to inconsequencial (sp?) or small things. Since when is peeing for five minutes straight epic? (Don't ask, please, don't.)

And on a side-note:

Anyone else notice Sam calling Gollum a douchebag in the movies?

 

[Philip Overby]

I seems I remember Gollum calling him "douche-y" or something.

The internet happened to a lot of these words like fail, epic, and owned. Even now when I think of pawn shops I think of the word "pwned." Just makes me think someone pawned something. Sometimes I wish the internet would die, but then I wouldn't have cool places to find other writers (except coffee shops)!

 

[Hëradïn]

I hate the phrase "He all but blah blah blah" as in "when they beheaded his father he all but threw up" what he is trying to say is that the boy threw up when his father's head fell, but how it is written it sounds like he did everything except toss his lunch!