Methinks 'yes': https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/methinks
Methinks
Argh! Is it even really a word?
Methinks 'yes': https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/methinks
That probably depends on your definition of "many".
I would imagine the people who
A) Don't notice
B) Notice but don't care
C) Think pronouncing the 't' is correct
is a larger group than those who take issue with the pronunciation.
I can't help but feel like part of the emergence of pronouncing it that way has to do with the presence of "off'n" in regional dialect, with a need/desire to differentiate. My guess is this gradually becomes the dominant pronunciation (it may have already).
My wife and I are watching season 3 of "Unforgotten" on PBS. It is a series about solving cold case murders and it is set in England. This has provided me with two words to add to the list of words I really like.
1) Knackered. This word means "exhausted," "dog-tired," etc., and is commonly used in England. I never hear it in the U.S., although I am sure there are some people who use it.
2) Hoovering. This is perhaps a slang term for vacuuming, derived from the famous company that has been producing vacuum cleaners for a long, long time. I'd never heard it before. I found it immediately amusing. This is a word I have already started using.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
"Infrared-quadorfilater" hasn't become a word; yet, but when it ever does, I won't like it! TT
nonplussed
...meh
I made a joke involving 'nonplussed' upthread (here). I remain nonplussed that this word is used so wrongly by so many.
Merriam-Webster definition of 'nonplus' is "a state of bafflement or perplexity."
Yet, because it is mistakenly used to mean the opposite, Merriam-Websters 'Recent Examples on the Web' section has examples antithetical to the actual meaning, lol
The first example offered:
To be fair, I've never met Alicia Vikander. So, maybe Harper's BAZAAR is accurately saying that she is confused/perplexed dailyRemaining nonplussed in the face of extreme bodily risk is all in a day’s work for Vikander, who has made a career out of shape-shifting seamlessly into radically strong female characters in thoughtful indie films and commercial blockbusters alike. — Harper's BAZAAR, "Alicia Vikander Leaps to New Heights—in Life and Fashion," 13 Mar. 2019
A director (regional stage production) once asked me what my motivation was to another character's first appearance on stage (yes (bad) directors do ask about motivation) and being a complete wiseass because I was the unquestioned star of the production, I answered "nonplussed." What followed was a titanic battle of pedantic snobbery, which is completely beside the point, but rather than the word's opposite, the director misinterpreted the word to mean "indifferent". You now frequently see "indifference" or synonyms of indifference such as "disinterested" listed as 2nd definitions for nonplus.
Which brings me to my point: if you're a purist you may detest and resist the idea that language is organic or that its misuse in popular culture leads to connotations that bear no connection to a word's linguistic roots . I believe that this phenomenon is the beauty of language, to a point. On one point I'm with the purists, a word that is misused so frequently that it acquires an entirely new definition, is not an artistic application of language but simply a stupid one. There's nothing organic about stupidity.
Indifference doesn't play on a proper stage, but apparently, it slays in Peoria.
Last edited by CameronBlue; 05-03-2019 at 04:16 PM. Reason: It's obvious isn't it?
I don't like "pretermit" b/c I had to look it up.
"Blockchain"
And to a slightly lesser degree..."cryptocurrency".
Came across this word today, and thought it was sooooo appropriate for this forum:
Paronomasia
I am often afflicted with it myself: punning.
Heard the word "squalid" on the radio on the way to work today. I had forgotten about this amazing word. "Squalor" is nice, too, but its adjectival form is even more satisfying.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
The adverbial "squalorly" is also an extremely pleasingly sounded word!
No one should ever say that they are waiting on "deliverables" from a vendor. Never never ever.
"Food desert." Stop.