Examples of errors that have been normalised?

[spicedsoup]

Language evolves and I assume there are words or expressions that exist that developed from common misunderstandings or variations in usage. I don’t know of any examples though! Do you have any examples or know where I can find out more about how the English language has evolved?

I’ll also share that part of the reason I am curious is because I am irrationally concerned that one day ‘of’ in place of ‘ ‘ve’ as the contracted ‘have’ will become accepted as correct due to common usage. I’ll be an old lady ranting at young ones, “In my day it was HAVE! HAVE, I tell you!”. So I’m wondering what the precedent is

I'm not getting naked with anyone who says that to me!!!

I once worked for a large company that said we weren’t allowed to say ‘bear with me’ to customers as it meant you were asking them to get naked with you.

Momentarily. As in “the aeroplane will be taking off momentarily”.

Though I think it might be American usage.

Speaking of which I can never remember when it should be may or might!

"Woofing" food instead of "wolfing" food.

@ClariceQuiff

'Literally' as an intensifier.

"I literally died of embarrassment!"

Clearly, you didn't.

This literally drives me insane.

@FindingMeno

Gotten is sneaking in.

Or sneaking back?

I hate ‘I am excited for christmas’. You are excited for someone and about something.

Also “pre book”! Surely if you have to book something the pre bit is unnecessary?

Passed and past.

Makes me FURIOUS.

Another sort of usage that seems to be becoming accepted now is a verb used as a noun, in the sense of:

"Bring your bakes to the table to be judged."

"Count up your reads for the competition."

"The next residents' meet will be next month."

I would naturally use baking, reading (sessions), meeting in those instances, but I hear these much more commonly now. It's perhaps along the same lines as invite instead of invitation.

Ambivalent is rarely used correctly. I think the battle is lost. Nonplussed is going the same way.

I also can't get used to enormity being used as a synonym for magnitude but it's become the primary meaning for the majority.

@Bytrgrewd

Also “pre book”! Surely if you have to book something the pre bit is unnecessary?

See also "pre-reserve" and "pre-order".

Pre-warn too? But there again forewarn is a good word!

Pre-order makes sense in that it is generally used to mean ordering something that is not available yet (a book in advance of the release date, for example) whereas order means to order something that is, or should be, available.

May I offer up the use of advanced instead of advance. For example road signs which say "advanced warning of roadworks". It sets my teeth on edge!

@Darley368

May I offer up the use of advanced instead of advance. For example road signs which say "advanced warning of roadworks". It sets my teeth on edge!

Unless there was an introductory warning, followed by an intermediate warning...

@Kdubs1981

I love a bit of pedantry. However, ours is a living, breathing language. It evolves. It will not stay the same. Otherwise we would all be speaking Middle English

That’s the thing @Kdubs1981 I don’t know what words or expressions in usage today evolved from ‘incorrect’ usage in the past. My focus on “It’s have, not of!” for example may be equivalent to something else I say which was once considered incorrect but today is commonplace (or perhaps, accepted/‘correct’. I just don’t know what those are! I’m curious to learn any examples of how the language has evolved from terms or expressions that were once considered ‘incorrect’. I’ve seen a few on this thread already that I didn’t realise were ‘incorrect’.

I find all this language business quite fascinating

Gotten is sneaking in.

There's nothing wrong with 'gotten' in British English - it was used in the King James Bible in 1611!

I would add 'whom', which is barely heard at all now. The easy way to determine whether to use 'who' or 'whom', compare them with 'he' and 'him', (rephrasing the sentence or answering a question if need be) - there are either two 'm's (him/whom) or none (he/who):

Who is collecting these forms?
He is collecting these forms.

To whom do I need to hand my form?
You need to hand your form to him.

The easy way to determine whether to use 'who' or 'whom', compare them with 'he' and 'him'

That should have read 'for an easy way' or 'the easy way.... IS TO....'

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Pretty much the entire language.

At some point, young people started saying "an apron" and "an adder" instead of "a napron" and "a nadder" and I bet it drove old people nuts. I like to imagine conversations like "You want me to pass you what? The 'apron'? I can't see any 'aprons'! There's only this napron here!"

@ClumpingBambooIsALie I had no idea! Well, now I know what I am going to be telling everyone over the next few weeks

I agree with gotten and the point about whom.

I don't like the use of never for haven't e.g. a café owner said to me recently "I've never seen you in years". I've only come across this in spoken English so far.

Or ending sentences in though. That seems well-used among the young, from what I have seen on social media.

Different to.
Different than.
We don't say similar from!

My secondary school English teacher taught us that, IvysMum12.

People saying brought instead bought gives me the absolute RAGE

It’s rare to see ‘I should like a cup of tea, please’ these days, but it’s always used instead of ‘I would like a cup of tea’ in books written before WW2 (at a rough guess). I think that’s a good example of usage which has already changed. ‘Should’ is used to mean something akin to ‘must’ or ‘ought’ nowadays. I’ve never used the older construction.

I think past tense is changing at the moment - ‘I have drank the whole bottle’, ‘the jumper shrunk in the wash’, ‘the phone rung’ are all examples that I’d consider incorrect - people frequently mix these up in informal speech but the confusion creeping into online journalism now, unfortunately. Looking at you, BBC news website.