LSSU Banished Words list, 2008

[Chris F Waigl]

One of my teachers once warned us not to use "annihilate" in the place
of "kill", as "nihil" means "nothing", and killing usually leaves a dead
body, or at least some sort of matter, behind. I forget if this was in
German or English, but it works equally well for either.

Also, during my short and sadly unglorious time as an English teacher in
France I was criticised by the senior colleague who was supposed to be
mentoring me for including "adore" in the list of ways to express one's
like/dislike (classical beginners' lesson topic.... like/love/be keen
on/not mind/dislike/hate/etc. + V-ING, usually). (Well, it *was* in the
textbook, along with all the others.) But she tersely reminded me of
it's primary religious meaning "worship".

Cheers,

Chris

Laurence Horn wrote:
> My favorite comment is the one below, on "decimate" (topic of a
> recent thread here).  I'll try to remember to trot it out next time I
> teach the etymological fallacy.  Take any semantic change, e.g. that
> for SILLY:  "It's so bad that now there are two definitions, the real
> one [= 'blessed'] and the one that has taken over like a weed
> ['foolish']."  But maybe if we really wanted to make a point with the
> Danes of the world (no, I'm not talking about inhabitants of
> Denmark), we could suggest they think of new senses not as weeds but
> as wildflowers...
>
> LH
>
> At 11:33 AM -0500 1/2/08, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>> http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php
>>
>>
>> DECIMATE - Word-watchers have been calling for the annihilation of
>> this one for several years.
>>
>> ...
>> "The word is so overused and misused, people use it when they should
>> be saying 'annihilate.' It's so bad that now there are two
>> definitions, the real one and the one that has taken over like a weed.
>> - Dane, Flowery Branch, Georgia.
>>
>>
>
>

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