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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate when people use the word 'ignorant' to mean 'rude'?

93 replies

Draineddraineddrained · 26/01/2022 19:33

Ignorant doesn't mean rude. It doesn't mean discourteous. It doesn't mean thoughtless. It is a common, simple word. It has a specific meaning. So whyyy do so many people use it wrong??? It is ACTUALLY ignorant and it drives me crazy!

Sorry. Just saw it in another thread and got in a temper. I'll go and meditate or something.

OP posts:
rightsideoftheroad · 27/01/2022 06:58

It's used incorrectly all the time on here! People think it either means rude or that someone ignored them. The irony is that when it's used liked that it means the person saying it is, in fact, ignorant!

rightsideoftheroad · 27/01/2022 06:59

@madisonbridges no one says 'I'm coming presently' these days.

echt · 27/01/2022 07:01

[quote rightsideoftheroad]@madisonbridges no one says 'I'm coming presently' these days.[/quote]
It would make an interesting mode of expression for a sexual interlude.

LifesABotch · 27/01/2022 07:10

YABNU!

hugr · 27/01/2022 07:12

@Kelly7889

To think that "ignorant" means "rude" is, in itself, ignorant.

The other one I dislike is when people say "mean" instead of "nasty".
"She is really mean".

No, she is nasty - "Mean" means tight with money, not "nasty"

Wrt to mean, words can have 2 meanings.
hugr · 27/01/2022 07:13

@madisonbridges

The meaning of words changes over time. So in Shakespeare times 'I'm coming presently' meant now. These days it means soon. It's accepted in common use that ignorant now means rude. That's how languages evolve. You've got to get with the times. 😉
You're what Shock
Aishah231 · 27/01/2022 07:24

It depends where you live. I've moved around a fair bit. In some part of the UK it's used to mean rude. It took me a while to get used to it. I don't use it myself in that context but can accept different areas of the UK do.

WarriorN · 27/01/2022 07:31

I had a massive argument with the whole school bus about this when a teen.

Yes it's both ignorant and annoying!

WarriorN · 27/01/2022 07:35

@LoseLooseLucy

Hmm.. (I do agree with you though OP).

No, it never used to say that. I looked it up many times Grin I think it's been used so much that it's evolved and now is in the dictionary.

There was a bbc Alice in wonderland record I had as a child - "if you don't know what ignorant is, that's ignorant" was a whole song.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 27/01/2022 08:00

@thistimelastweek

It's shorthand for ignorance of normal rules and manners.

Lack of awareness.

This. I would use it for the sort of people who drop litter at the bus stop, even though there’s a bin (which I have never yet seen full) a mere 3 paces away.
ShowOfHands · 27/01/2022 08:01

I'd simply like to see ambivalent used to mean having mixed, contradictory feelings. Occasionally would be fine.

It's almost exclusively used to mean "not caring".

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 27/01/2022 08:03

Should have added, and to me that’s not the same as being rude.

RedHelenB · 27/01/2022 08:04

@Draineddraineddrained

Ignorant doesn't mean rude. It doesn't mean discourteous. It doesn't mean thoughtless. It is a common, simple word. It has a specific meaning. So whyyy do so many people use it wrong??? It is ACTUALLY ignorant and it drives me crazy!

Sorry. Just saw it in another thread and got in a temper. I'll go and meditate or something.

It means rude in some dialects around the country.
rightsideoftheroad · 27/01/2022 10:00

But people who are using it incorrectly are generally not using it because they believe its shorthand for something else, they are using it because they genuinely believe it means being ignored or being rude. It doesn't, it means being uneducated

Squills · 27/01/2022 10:06

Definition from Oxford Languages

adjective
1.
lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.
"he was told constantly that he was ignorant and stupid"
2.
INFORMAL
discourteous or rude.
"this ignorant, pin-brained receptionist"

Singingtherapy · 27/01/2022 14:25

This has come up on mn before. I've never understood why people have a problem with it. It absolutely means rude or discourteous and is in the dictionary as a secondary definition. Informal does not mean incorrect. It's just an example of words changing over time. Different timescale but it's literally the equivalent of having a problem with people using gay to mean homosexual when it means happy.

DaisyWaldron · 27/01/2022 14:32

I've never seen anyone using "ignorant" to mean "simple or roughly made" which is the traditional definition of rude.

If you are using the more modern definition of "rude" to mean "impolite" then you really ought to accept that words can change their meaning over time.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 27/01/2022 15:21

For the first time, I’ve just seen on another thread, ‘ignorant’ when the poster clearly meant rude or abusive.

I suspect that English is not their first language, though.,

Emilizz34 · 27/01/2022 21:36

When I was a health visitor , a mother once told me that her 3 month old baby could be very ignorant at times . I was disturbed both by the incorrect use of the word and the attributions that she was putting on a tiny baby . On further exploration , it appeared that she felt that the baby used to cry to annoy her etc . Anyway it turned out to be a very complex case

thepeopleversuswork · 27/01/2022 21:45

Technically it’s wrong but I think it’s legitimate because there is some crossover. Rudeness, insensitivity and bigotry are often caused by ignorance.

I also agree with the poster up thread who pointed out that language evolves. You can’t expect to prevent that.

QueenCatLady · 28/01/2022 00:33

As a few other PPs have said , it is used in a few dialects across the UK and Ireland.
English is my first language, and like many others that speak these different dialects, I understand the meaning of the word ignorant is dependant on context.

It's not out of ignorance but my dialect , I'd say someone being highly unpleasant was an ignorant fucker! Grin

That usage goes back at least a hundred years. What's rather strange as Irish-English goes however ,is that it doesn't seem to have been influenced by Gaeilge . AFAIK no single word for both meanings of ignorant as Gaeilge.
( Lol "As" here is pronounced like a really really posh English person saying "arse" btw). ...

I feel like Marge Simpson with her.... potatoes....talking about English dialects.

" I just think they're neat! " Smile.

milkyaqua · 28/01/2022 01:14

I once asked a posse of enormous women, some with buggies, etc, who were completely blocking the railway station lift doors to please step away (oh, excuse me, etc) so I could get out first, and they scowled and sneered and said aggressively I was ignorant! Weird. I had never heard it used interchangeably for 'rude', but I grasped this is what they meant. I baffled over it afterwards, as it was not rude to point out I needed to get out to catch my train before they all pressed in, and I asked politely.

PixieLaLa · 28/01/2022 02:22

Ignorance is bliss as they say Grin

Squishmael · 28/01/2022 02:27

It isn't wrong! Honestly, I despair!

There are 2 meanings, both equally correct. It makes me laugh that so many people railing against others' ignorance (lack of knowledge) are being completely ignorant (rude) and ignorant (lacking knowledge) themselves.

Here's a suggestion... look up the word CLEAVE it means its own exact opposite.

milkyaqua · 28/01/2022 02:41

Just because there is a (new) colloquial use for the word, does not mean it is equal to the primary definition, set over centuries.

www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ignorant

'Rude' does get a peek in there, but not really in the manner people are using or misusing the word 'ignorant'.

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