Do you know people who use words and don’t know the meaning of them?! *lighthearted*

[PoshestPaws]

I have a friend and work colleague who do this all the time and I would love to point it out and correct them or ask if they know what the words mean.
It would feel rude and patronising to mention it, especially when I’m not perfect and make my own mistakes!

I sometimes pretend I don’t understand (and sometimes I genuinely don’t) when it’s just a sentence of random words that don’t make sense.

I wondered if anyone else knows someone who acts in such a billowing way and if you feel pensive towards them when they are being perpendicular? Do you take a collateral response or just decide it’s not worth being kinetic over it?

I did overhear my colleague once saying she reads a lot which has increased her vocabulary, I wonder if I should buy her a dictionary and thesaurus for Christmas? 😂

An example from earlier today that inspired this thread was my friend saying “I feel a bit convoluted about seeing Ben tonight, I’m not sure if I want to go out or not”
I just replied “that’s understandable” it really isn’t though!

Literally. As I “I literally died from embarrassment”. No you didn’t because you’re talking to me 🙄

Corporate jargon. When people use buzz words / phrases not knowing what they mean but thinking they have to because it makes them fit in.

Not on topic but one I just hate with a passion and need to vent out is pacific when meaning specific. I would love for a pedant to explain to me WHY it’s so common please.

People always get entomology and etymology confused. It bugs me in a way I can't put into words.

Haaaaa!

My boss once said "interrupted" when he meant "interpreted"
I gave him another chance - I asked if he meant I should sort out which figures meant what? He said "yes, you need to interrupt them"
Gave up.

😂Seriously? How can you have read the thread title and not understand that the OP was doing an impression of the people she had described?!

I had a friend who frequently did this. He'd throw words into a conversation because he thought they sounded impressive, when obviously he had no idea what they meant. One example was when I was talking about finding my paternal grandmother's grave. I said I knew that she'd been buried,not cremated as I could remember visiting her grave with my dad when I was about 7 years old. He said 'Maybe she was interred?'. Another example was when he was talking about writing down the lyrics of a song he liked. He said he 'transposed' the lyrics of this song.

Nonplussed. It means confused or taken aback not any of the other strange meanings that people keep trying to give it. I get quite nonplussed when people toss it into conversation wrongly.

15 years ago in the early days of Instant Messenger at work, I sent a message intended for my mate Carol who was sat next to me saying “it’s fricking SPECIFIC, not PACIFIC!!!” after hearing our coworker who was sat opposite us mispronounce it for the nth time that day. Needless to say I accidentally sent it to the coworker 🫣. He was a decent bloke and made it very easy for me to try and pretend that I’d meant to send it to him as a jokey message and brush off my awkward attempt to style it out - not helped by Carol absolutely wetting herself with laughter next to me. Thankfully I haven’t mis-sent a missive since!! Gary, if you’re on here, I’m sorry 😂

Oh dear. Another one.

Did he not mean “abundantly”? As in “it’s abundantly clear that xyz”

Perhaps his usage was still wrong in the given context (abundantly doesn’t mean apparently), but it is a real word.

Mange tout Rodney, mange tout.

Work colleague gets words wrong l the time-

without further adieu

advice/advise constantly used incorrectly in emails. Very teeth gnashing for me.

Also she misuses loads of exclamation points in her correspondence.

My ex pronounced albeit "all-bite" and charcuterie "caricature".

Please tell me you made that up, I think my brain is about to implode! 😬

"Unprecedented"
(Before big presentation)
Me: You can't say that's unprecedented because it has happened before
Him: But it was ten years ago so I can say it!
Me: But that's not what unprecedented means
(During presentation)
Him: We are doing this unpopular thing because this is an unprecedented situation
Ten hands shoot up to challenge him...

Your friend saying that reading has increased her vocabulary is fine? Why do you think this is wrong?

When people say that they will keep me appraised (of developments). I don’t need appraised thank you. I shall appraise you and then apprise you of my findings.

Can't remember where it was but I read "one foul swoop" the other day.

I read too much as a child and had to be careful about using the words because I knew (more or less) what they meant but not how they were pronounced. I remember being particularly surprised when I first heard 'ennui' in my teens and 'segue' sometime in my 30s.

I was once very confused by a friend we were staying with who announced that we were having takeoffs for dinner.

All became clear later that day when she served up... tacos.

I have a senior colleague who says Pacific instead of specific, I've assumed a speech impediment as she tries to get it correct and then just gives up and says Pacific after a couple of goes at specific.
And there was a whole team who were using mute instead of moot because they didn't want to draw attention to the boss getting it wrong all the time. I eventually told him because it was making my brain itch.

My Director genuinely used the word "discrete" (or maybe discreet) this afternoon in a meeting when he meant "distinct". I think he just had a brain fart as I could almost see the question marks floating round his head, but it changed the meaning of his sentence so much I genuinely didn't know what he meant!

I know someone who calls tupperware ‘tubbaware’.

Discrete does mean distinct, separate or independent. I used the word a lot when I worked as a data analyst to describe data that didn't overlap.