12 "smart" words that are often misused

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Wanting to enrich their speech and more lucidly describe someone's quality or an ongoing event, many use "beautiful" and "smart" words. These words are so well-known and familiar that, it would seem, there can be no questions here. However, in fact, many of these words are often misused. Sometimes even the opposite. And this can lead to a whole host of problems. A spoken or written phrase can be perceived ambiguously, it can offend someone or just sound stupid.

For some reason, many are convinced that the word "congeniality" is the highest degree of "genius". However, in fact, this word has a completely different meaning. Conganial is kindred, close in spirit. So if someone's solution is close to you, it's congenial. But this does not mean at all that the person has done or invented something super-outstanding.

It is not worth saying to yourself “I am ambitious”, because the interlocutor may turn out to be a highly educated person and know that “ambition” is not at all a desire for victory and purposefulness, as is often believed, but a heightened, painful vanity, arrogance. Agree, no one wants to look like a person with pretensions and excessive conceit in front of a new acquaintance or employer.

"Dilemma" is another word that is sometimes misused. For example, if a person talks about a problem or task that he needs to solve, you cannot call it a “dilemma”. This term comes from two Greek components - dis (twice) and lemma (assumption) and it is used only when a person has to choose one of the two available options. Moreover, as a rule, this choice is difficult and the options are opposite. For example, spending a vacation in a foreign resort spending a lot of money, or sitting in a country house and saving money at the same time is a dilemma.

Mentioning that someone was new or behaved with pathos, they often mean falsity and pretense. In fact, translated from Greek, the word “pathos” means “passion”. So to speak with pathos is to speak with enthusiasm. This is an emotional climax, and it is wrong to use this word with a negative or derisive connotation.

The word "asexual" is often used as the opposite of the adjective "sexual." However, the real meaning of this word is quite different: asexual is someone who is not sexually attracted. By the way, representatives of the asexual movement clarify that it is also wrong to call them "anti-sex". Antisexuals are those who are against sex, and asexuals are simply indifferent to it. In any case, calling an ugly, unattractive person asexual is wrong.

You can often hear the expression “I somehow don’t comme il faut”, which is used when they want to say that a person is uncomfortable or uncomfortable. In fact, the obsolete word "comme il faut" means "decent, in accordance with the rules of good form." Translated from French, comme il faut means “as it should be”, “decent”, “elegant”. So "not comme il faut" means "indecent for this situation." In other words, it is not comme il faut if someone behaves inappropriately.

Whoever is called marginal - beggars, homeless people, people who challenged society, and even bohemians. However, this word must be handled carefully. According to explanatory dictionaries, a marginal person is a person who is on the verge of social groups (for example, a representative of a national minority or a migrant). He has lost his former social norms of behavior, and has not yet had time to adapt to the new ones. Also, a marginal can be called someone who consciously does not recognize generally accepted rules of behavior. So a beggar or a person who has lost his home is not a marginal.

Some believe that the words "signature" and "signature" are synonyms, and in organizations when signing documents, you can often hear: "Put your signature." However, the word "painting" has a different meaning - it is painting on walls or objects (painting the walls of the temple, Gorodets painting, etc.). This word also has one more meaning - a written list of objects. But when a citizen needs to sign a document or an artist, fans ask to leave an autograph, this is a signature.

A very typical mistake is when, when speaking of any alliance of people or organizations, the word "misalliance" is used. Most likely, it is confused with the word "alliance", which really translates as "union". The noun "misalliance" (by the way, this is an outdated word) in pre-revolutionary times meant "unequal marriage with a person of lower social status." So, if a girl says “we have an excellent misalliance with him”, it will be funny and, moreover, offensive for her boyfriend.

The word "a priori" is usually used when it comes to something generally known and not subject to doubt. For example, "a priori, water at sub-zero temperatures turns into ice." However, this term came from philosophy and originally had a different meaning. "A priori" is something that has not been tested empirically, in practice. Some dictionaries allow the use of this term as a synonym for the word "axiom", but most authoritative dictionaries record only one meaning - "philosophical".

Very often the word "sociopath" is confused with the word "socialophobe" or they are considered synonymous. However, these are completely different and even somewhat opposite concepts. A sociophobe is a person who is afraid of communication and feels uncomfortable in society. Many people have certain phobias, and this does not mean that a person is mentally ill. But sociopathy is a personality disorder of a mental nature in which a person ignores social norms of behavior. This can often be accompanied by self-centeredness, irresponsibility, irritability and even aggression. So if you are a shy person who avoids communication, you shouldn't say, "I'm a sociopath."

Sometimes the word "aegis" is used as a synonym for the word "preposition". For example: “under the auspices of nature protection” or “under the auspices of improvement”. This is absolutely wrong. According to the dictionaries, the expression "under the auspices" means that a certain event or event takes place under someone's protection, with someone's patronage or support. In ancient Greek mythology, the shield of Zeus was called "aegis". Therefore, if a journalist writes “under the auspices of the improvement, trees were cut down,” it turns out nonsense.