To have misunderstood the meaning of this word my whole life?

[Lemonsaretheonlyfruit]

Salubrious.

I always thought it meant luxurious. Turns out it means healthy or health giving. (My 10 year old DS asked me this morning so I looked it up just to double check I was giving him the correct definition!)

Who knew? (Probably everyone apart from me). Any more of these to share?

I thought a sybaritic lifestyle was a harsh one, when in fact it means the opposite. Makes me think of Syberia, thats why!

What is the misuse of mortified, @Hotelhelp?

I'm usually pretty good but I think I'd got puce and livid colours wrong.
I'd have thought puce was green and livid was deep blackish red. But, no

I'm pretty tolerant as I live with 2 Dyslexics so not much annoys me now

The word “barely” still confuses me. For example, in Angela’s Ashes, there was “barely half a pound of flour”. Does that mean exactly half, slightly more than half, or slightly less than half?

Until recently, I thought erstwhile meant “esteemed” and august meant “fat”.

As a child, I was alarmed whenever Winnie Mandela appeared on TV. The newsreaders always referred to “Nelson Mandela and his estranged wife, Winnie”. For some reason, I thought estranged meant “insane and dangerous”.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid

What is the misuse of mortified, *@Hotelhelp*?

I mentioned this upthread, but I hear mortified used to mean very very upset. Eg, she was mortified when her father died. I think it's a regional thing. It always makes me wince a bit, particularly in the context I've used here (and I've heard this exact phrase).

I'm with you OP. My parents used to have a book called 'Death in a Salubrious Place', so I always assumed it was somewhere awful.

@Melroses

Then there is lagubrious which I thought meant what salubrious now means.

There's no such word! You're probably thinking of lugubrious which is mournful, sounding dismal.

This thread is reminding me of the (I think) David Niven anecdote about Hollywood director Michael Curtiz (who directed Casablanca amongst others). Curtiz was Hungarian born and arrived in US aged 40.
Anyway, Curtiz, annoyed with his actors apparently shouted "You think I know fuck nothing! When in fact I know fuck all!!"

@cattenburg Estranged - yes i remember thinking it meant something else as a child too! Probably a mix of deranged and stranger.

For years I thought it was “air on the side of caution” rather than “err on the side of caution”

Also “pass the book” instead of “pass the buck”

It wasn’t until a manager pointed it out in a group email that I realised

@Doggybiccys

Hoi polloi- means common people - I always thought it meant rich people

Hoi polloi doesn't need "the" in front of it either - hoi means the.

@SunsetBeetch weary v wary confuses me too. I can't work out if it's a mispronunciation or they don't know the difference!

@UmmH

Regarding spendthrift and thrifty, it can be helpful to think of a spendthrift as someone who spends their thrift or their savings, whereas a thrifty person um, thrifts it, iyswim. That sounded a lot better in my head .

I think 'condone' sounds like it should have the opposite meaning. 'Eschew' sounds and looks wrong, and mercurial and sartorial don't sound like what they mean in my opinion.

I get what you’re saying you’re spending your thrift.

I struggle as thrift means to be frugal, or very careful with money. So it literally means spend frugal.

I thought for years a spend thrift was someone who was frugal. You were thrifty with your spending. Which is logical in my head (😄)

The fact it means the opposite, you are a big spender makes no sense to me at all.

I think the word needs to be banned,

Some of these things are a sort of Chinese whispers. Someone says something, you feel too embarrassed to ask what they mean. Or, so many repeatedly say something wrong that you start to doubt your original, correct knowledge.

I remember being told on a journalism course not to use pristine as an adjective meaning "spotless",

It does mean spotless / immaculate, as well as the other meaning.

It's not a new thing at all!

[quote Lurkingforawhile]@SunsetBeetch weary v wary confuses me too. I can't work out if it's a mispronunciation or they don't know the difference![/quote]

Also not helpful since the advent of autocorrect. Did they try to write the right spelling but were autocorrected? 🤔

@BlueBirdGreenFence

I only discovered last year banal doesn't ryhme with canal .

This is why I stopped listening to audio books. Couldn't cope with the embarrassment of how many words I've been pronouncing wrong for years.

I wouldn’t assume you are always in the wrong there. Although Audible has educated me about the pronunciation of some words, I’ve also been shocked how often they can get it very wrong.

The word “barely” still confuses me. For example, in Angela’s Ashes, there was “barely half a pound of flour”. Does that mean exactly half, slightly more than half, or slightly less than half?

Barely means just about enough, like maybe the tiniest bit over or under. It would be used to imply a state of poverty or lack of a resource, typically.

Ah the Hungarian director! He also said 'bring on the empty horses' meaning the ones without riders on them.

Riders! Another odd word. Can mean the list of stuff a performer asks for in their dressing room. Legend has it that some rock band wanted M&Ms with the red ones taken out, and Mariah Carey asked for a basket of kittens to pet.

My dad used to say it isn't very salubrious to mean it isn't a very nice place, a bit run down. I wasn't aware of the duel meaning re healthy.

Mine is that I used to think that if you slept fitfully you had slept well when it actually means the opposite i.e. that you kept waking up!

I'm always having to double check enervating and turgid, as both of them sound almost the opposite of the way they sound to me.
They're easy to avoid, though. I keep seeing Americans especially writing 'Ugh', when they don't mean it in the sense of 'yuck' at all (eg Ugh, I must have that). I'm not entirely surely what they do mean.

@AwaAnBileYerHeid well it means embarrassed but people use it as meaning upset or even angry. Although I fear you’ve only asked me to clarify in the hope you’re able to tell me I’m wrong ...

There are two I'm not sure about, but probably because my old mum used to use them and their meaning has probably shifted over time. She'd/I'd use 'nonplussed' to mean 'puzzled/non-comprehending', but these days it seems to be used to mean 'not bothered'?? Also, I think that the 'enormity' of a situation means its awfulness, but maybe (as often heard these days) it just means its large size??

@BlueBirdGreenFence

I only discovered last year banal doesn't ryhme with canal .

This is why I stopped listening to audio books. Couldn't cope with the embarrassment of how many words I've been pronouncing wrong for years.

Noooo. How do you say it then?