Annoyingly misused words/phrases

[Echobelly]

I saw a listicle about 'Nepo babies' of famous people who looked just like their parents, when what they meant is 'child of a famous parent'. Not all of them were in the public eye or attempting to break into the entertainment or sports industry. Nepo baby specifically means someone using their parents' clout or connections to get a career, it doesn't mean 'child of a famous parent' and that kind of annoyed me.

Have you seen any misuses of a word or phrase that has irritated you?

Decimate. It is used all the time to signify something much worse than a reduction by 10%.
That’s because the meaning has changed in the centuries since it was originally used.

Decima still means one tenth in Latin.

Being a parent of small children being described as 'in the trenches', which is becoming more and more common, I assume as the First World War recedes in national memory. No, being a parent is nothing like being in the trenches.

I was talking about ‘decimate’ as used in the English language, not Latin, when I said the meaning has changed over time. Maybe I should have made that clearer, but I thought it was implied 🤔