'Confused'

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 17, 2004, at 11:42 AM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: 'Confused'
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>
>  Geoff Nathan:
>
>>>>
> <font size=3>Something I've noticed over the past year or so (maybe a
> little longer) is a subtle shift in the meaning of the word 'confused',
> which, to me, means 'mixed up, jumbled', but seems often to be used
> nowadays, particularly by the younger set to mean just 'puzzled' or
> 'uncertain'.  For example, in the local student newspaper, the
> 'Southender', yesterday there was an article about FERPA, with the
>  <<<
>
> I'm startled by this observation. As far as I can remember, the
> human-subject "puzzled/uncertain" sense was the first sense I learned
> (suburban NYC, 1950s); the inanimate sense of "mixed up, jumbled" came
> later.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
>

Well, maybe it has to do with the fact that Geoff's a Canadian, eh?;-)

-Wilson Gray