What's a word you've spent a long time not using right?

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what “tories” meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it’s not usual to use it as short for “territories” as I’ve used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I’m reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing “encephalitis” with “hydrocephalus” when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

aelwero,

Encephalitis is caused by viral infections. Our immune system usually suppresses said viruses, and HIV takes away the ability to suppress them.

This happens with a lot of illnesses… thrush, Tuberculosis, fungal infections. HIV allows a lot of stuff to have far worse impact than it normally would.

That’s not quite the same as HIV causing them… Pedantic maybe, but since we’re talking about words meaning things… ;)

zzzz,

It can also be caused by prions. Mad cow disease is aka bovine spongiform encephalitis. I believe the word just indicates cell death in the brain which leaves regions of dead tissue.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

True, but in the context of talking about someone’s child in my local culture, it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn’t associate the two conditions.

Therealgoodjanet,

it raises an eyebrow or two if the other person doesn’t associate the two conditions.

I don’t get it. It raises an eyebrow if you don’t link encephalitis and HIV? I’m about 90% sure I must be misunderstanding you…

spacecowboy,

Or they’re just doubling down on using it incorrectly.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

No it’s true.

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Encephalitis has many causes, yes, but HIV is the one that sticks out. If you go to someone and talk about it, they’re going to have the same “assume the worse” or “out of context” mindset as if you were to talk about mononucleosis (to give a distant analogy). Sure, mononucleosis can be caused by several things, such as sharing a toothbrush or having someone cry on you, but everyone associates it with what it’s famous for, being spread through liberal usage of intimacy. Same with encephalitis. So when you go to a random neighbor here and say “how is the kid with encephalitis” they’re not going to take it well. People here are prudish like that.

XTL,

You have a very exceptional bubble. Or a false impression.

LanternEverywhere,

Encephalitis literally just means "in the brain inflammation".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/encephalitis

This brain inflammation can be caused by many things. Quote from Mayo Clinic:

Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/encephalitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356136

sbv,

I didn’t realize “effect” and “affect” were different words for a long time.

xmunk,

Honestly, you can pretty much always use effect unless you’re affecting a fancy manner.

I am strongly in favor of depreciating affect.

haydng,

You may find you mean deprecating.

Depreciating is reducing in value due to time, deprecating is disapproving of (or in software, marking as obsolete)

xmunk,

Sigh, that one I can legitimately blame on autocorrect and adhd.

ULS, (edited )

It’s freeing to just use whatever one you want with zero effect.

sbv,

What about æffect?

CallumWells,

ÆØÅ

tetris11,
@tetris11@lemmy.ml avatar

You just summoned a dæmon.

sbv,

cræp

shinigamiookamiryuu,

I always used the two as different tenses of the same word except for the fact that “affect” can also be the verb form of “affectionate”.

PM_Your_Nudes_Please,

“Effect” is a noun, while “affect” is a verb. You can cause effects, by affecting something. “Affecting” is the act of causing effects, while “effects” are the actual causes of an affliction.

As an example, let’s say you get drunk. There are two different ways to phrase the same scenario: you are feeling the effects of the drinking, or you are being affected by the drinks. The end result is the same, but you need separate words for them.

In the former, you are feeling the effects. Feeling is the verb, effects is a noun. The same way you would feel the clothes against your skin, or the ground beneath your feet. But with the latter phrasing, the drink is acting upon you, so you need a verb; You are being affected by it. The same way you would be affected by someone else in the bar pushing you. Falling over is the effect, because you were affected by the push.

monotremata,

You know that the other two words also exist though, right? Like, you can effect change in an organization, and there can be something strange in the affect of a psychopath. So there's a verb "to effect" and a noun "affect" (although here the pronunciation is different--the accent is on the first syllable). It's true that the most common usages follow the rules you're laying out, but it genuinely is an oversimplification.

xantoxis,

Effect and affect are both verbs. They are also both nouns.

effect n. meaning as you described: “The effect of the potion was that I grew three sizes.”
affect v. meaning as you described: “The potion affected everyone the same way.”
effect v. meaning “to successfully cause”: “The potion I’m mixing will effect a revolution among the goblins.”
affect n. meaning face or appearance: “Realizing she was about to drink the life-changing potion, the goblin’s entire affect shifted to delight.”

8bitguy,

The arrow affected the aardvark.
The movie had great special effects.

Somewhat grim for the poor aardvark, I suppose. It's useful though.

sbv,

That’s a good way to remember it.

GreyShuck, (edited )
@GreyShuck@feddit.uk avatar

Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

From the NHS website:

Encephalitis is most often due to a virus, such as:

  • herpes simplex viruses, which cause cold sores (this is the most common cause of encephalitis)
  • the varicella zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles
  • measles, mumps and rubella viruses
  • viruses spread by animals, such as tick-borne encephalitis, Japanese encephalitis, rabies (and possibly Zika virus)

Encephalitis caused by a virus is known as “viral encephalitis”. In rare cases, encephalitis is caused by bacteria, fungi or parasites.

johnjamesautobahn,

Noisome means smelly, not noisy.

enormity means serious or grave, not very large.

terrific isn’t always great or amazing; it can be synonymous with terrifying.

verdigris,

The word “nauseous” is parallel to “noxious” and means “causing nausea”. If you’re experiencing nausea, you’re nauseated – the thing that made you nauseated is nauseous.

thomasloven,

With English as my second language, the difference between terrible and terrific has always confused me.

OrteilGenou,

Encephalitis (en-sef-uh-LIE-tis) is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others.

netburnr,
@netburnr@lemmy.world avatar

Depreciate.

I’m going to Depreciate this computer. That means to get its loss of value on taxes…not to shut it down. The word I meant was Deprecate

squeakycat,

It took me until graduate school to learn that “mortified” is not another word for “scared”/“fearful”

It still looks that way to me what with mort in there!

It also took me a long time to realize that the word “awry”, which I read often in books and inferred its meaning, and “ah-rai” were the same thing. I thought awry was pronounced “aw-ree” and it was just a synonym for “ah-rai”.

viralJ,

Can I submit an expression? “Have the work cut out for you”. My thinking was “there was a lot of work, but my boss said I’ll have the work cut out for me. Phew, now there’s less work after some of it being cut out!”

shinigamiookamiryuu,

Yes you can submit an expression. I have a history of mistaking those as well.

velox_vulnus,

The word “literally”. I know what it means, but I blame this on stereotypical mean girls in coming-of-age teen American movies. Also the word “apo-calypse”. I used to say “apoly-capse”.

viralJ,

Yup, meaning of a lot of words with similar meaning gets eroded like that these days. I remember a medium sized twitch streamer one day being inundated by his viewers with subscriptions, follows, gifts, and what not, and he kept saying “you guys are actually insane”. And I kept thinking “what would you say if someone actually insane turned up in your chat?”

ShittyBeatlesFCPres,

Callow. It just means immature but I somehow got it in my head that it meant cowardly.

verdigris,

For a long time I just thought of it as “callous”, like cold and indifferent.

XTL,

I actually did until now. Never bothered to look it up. Thanks, Lemmy!

It is a very rare word, though.

invo_rt,
@invo_rt@hexbear.net avatar

Penultimate. I used it as though it referred to the last thing rather than the second to last thing.

keepcarrot,

Apparently muted? I was using it like a muted yellow, so yellow but it’s been faded in some way. They thought I meant like a muted sound on the computer which meant turned off entirely.

Prostate and prostrate are close to each other in my brain and I don’t use either much.

Idk, there were a lot of words I apparently used wrong as a kid but it was never explained how. But also if you jump down someone’s throat for a definition right there and then I struggle to give one

sukhmel,

I think, you were right about muted all along. Muted in the sense of zero sound I can relate to but it didn’t make it into dictionary yet

alcoholicorn,

Proscribe and prescribe.

DogMuffins,

Proscribe

I’ve never heard this word.

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