From Slashdot

[Wilson Gray]

Q. If the rest of the world decided to start calling apples "oranges"
tomorrow and [someone] decided to go about correcting them, who, in
fact, would be more[?!] wrong?

A. What if 49% of the people started calling apples "oranges"? What if
10% did? What is the cut-off where something that started out as a
misunderstanding becomes the new understanding? These days, if you can
find a few other people who share your misapprehension, you can
declare it "the new usage."

When I hear someone trot out the "modern, popular usage" of "beg the
question" or, say, "enormity" or "irregardless," well, I know that
those things are sanctioned by more-populist dictionaries. But I
pretty much assume that the person is just using words he doesn't
understand, which gives me a negative impression of him. And, when
people defend those usages, I think, "Here is someone who can't stand
to find out that he was wrong about something."

I say, "Well, you never know." In the '50's, IIRC, "FOR-midable"
became "for-MIDable." Now, the word seems to have returned to
"FOR-midable." OTOH, the shift of "EX-quisite" to "ex-QUIsite," which
may have occurred around the same time - memory fails - appears to be
<sob!> permanent.

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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