Words that often get misused

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I’ll start.

Enormity.

I’ve seen this used incorrectly in books, articles etc! It doesn’t mean huge!

I saw "whoa is me" on someone's Facebook page

I also read a CV once where someone listed one of their hobbies as "exorcising the family dog"
(I actually loved that!)

Melt and dissolve.
People who tell you that you won't melt if you go out in the rain.

Worse still, devolved and dissolved. “The money was dissolved to…”
No, it really wasn't.

Bare and bear. Almost always used wrongly on here.

'Bare with me' means get naked with me, which I'm sure the writer didn't intend. As in bare feet. The cupboard was bare. Bare-faced robbery.
it should be 'bear with me'. Put up with me. Basic meaning is carry. Bearing gifts.

Viscous used instead of vicious. (I think this might be an autocorrect.) Viscous means a liquid with an oily texture.

Discrete means separate from, distinct from. Discreet is the spelling for keeping something private, doing something unobtrusively.

Per se is two words. Latin. Not persay, a word that doesn't exist.

I think people feeling they need to spell out the difference between bear and bare etc here are as bad in their own ways as those who don't know the difference.

@Maireas

Damp squid instead of damp squib

Damp squid is kinda funny tho :-)

It is funny, and I suppose squids are naturally damp!

@Candleabra

I also read a CV once where someone listed one of their hobbies as "exorcising the family dog" (I actually loved that!)

Did you ask if it was the hound from hell ?!

The family dog Satan!

@RosieLemonade

Jealous. Rarely ever see it used correctly.

This is one of my DF's pet peeves, which has been passed on to me and DS2 - who is even more of a pedant than his Grandpa

'Low and behold' is what a cow does, staring over a gate. Lo and behold!

Another I have seen several times recently is 'adverse' where 'averse' is what is meant: 'I am not adverse to the occasional cream cake.'

Phased, when the speaker means fazed.

The use of "taylor" instead of "tailor" eg you can taylor the home school curriculum.
Don't look at the one about autumn duvet covers, the pedant in me can't cope!

To help with less vs fewer:
If you could use "not as much" it should be less.
If you can use it with "not as many" it should be fewer.

Fewer adults confuse much and many but my kids do so frequently! I correct them.

I work for a global organisation with a significant number of employees from North America.

I loathe the word 'obligated' (although I know it's not technically incorrect).

However, the phrase 'to reach out / I reached out to XXX / thank you for reaching out' can get in the fucking sea, unless you are actually a member of the Four Tops.

@LadyJaye

I have a real concern for the word fewer in every day language though, it's on the critically endangered list for sure.
I agree. As an English teacher I know the rules but I dont always apply them. It's on its way out!

@LadyJaye hilarious! I've now got that song in my head now tho...

Choice.
eg. "You have three choices".
No you don't. You have a choice, three options.

Not strictly a word, but ect. instead of etc.

@LadyJaye

I work for a global organisation with a significant number of employees from North America.

I loathe the word 'obligated' (although I know it's not technically incorrect).

However, the phrase 'to reach out / I reached out to XXX / thank you for reaching out' can get in the fucking sea, unless you are actually a member of the Four Tops.

There’s an actual flow chart for that

I have a friend who uses 'atypical' when she means 'typical".

She does so because she thinks it sounds pretty sophisticated and assumes it's a more intellectual way of saying typical rather than knowing that atypical is a word in its own right.

Like PPs, lose and loose irritates me - when you lose weight your jeans are looser.

Queue and cue being misused is very annoying, as is just Q (usually instead of cue).

@SnowdaySewday I reckon the melt in rain thingy could be because of the Wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz melting after having water thrown on her.
Well, it's why my family use the phrase anyway

'over-exaggerate'
'comprises of'
revert back'
'almost unique'
'continue on'.

All of the above are WRONG and examples of tautology (or tortology if you cannot spell ) and / or pleonasm.

And btw there is a bit of a barney going on on another thread today when a poster pointed out that 'irregardless' is NOT a proper word. I tried to explain that it combines a negative prefix AND suffix simultaneously and therefore becomes a self contained double negative, effectively cancelling itself out.

Grrr.

These make my teeth itch