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Pedants' corner
Original poster

Nonplussed

17 replies

endofthelinefinally · 01/12/2023 04:26

Why am I suddenly seeing the North American meaning of this word all over MN? It is really annoying and is the opposite of the UK meaning. It is jarring.

OP posts:
AgentProvocateur · 01/12/2023 06:10

What is the North American meaning?

Dragonbed · 01/12/2023 06:25

my husband is one of the biggest pedants I know.. Even he used it to mean ‘not bothered’ the other day. I was so disappointed!

FlossOnTheMill · 01/12/2023 06:29

It's puzzling since most Americans wouldn't even know that there is such a word...

ShoesoftheWorld · 01/12/2023 06:34

I presume the etymology is something to do with Latin non plus, i.e. the person couldn't be any more baffled. It's not a very common word. I guess someone started focusing on the 'non' and thinking of it as 'not fussed'.

Don't see that that's a reason for another thread having a go at Americans and their supposedly inferior use of language.

sorrynotathome · 01/12/2023 06:38

Given that Americans say "could care less" when they clearly mean "couldn't care less", I think we are quite entitled to have a go at their inferior use of language.

AnImaginaryCat · 01/12/2023 07:15

Both usages have been used in the UK for decades. Can't tell you why you've not noticed before now. It's one of those odd things - but it's just down to observation and circumstance. It's how we learn outside educational environments.

Which is like many of the phrases and words people post about on here, annoyed others use incorrectly. They discover that the phrase or word are in in fact used frequent usage (or regional).

If the annoyed poster has a growth mindset, they realised they were ignorant and embrace the new information. Then, through their new awareness, stop judging others.

Original poster
endofthelinefinally · 01/12/2023 08:16

I have never seen it until the last few weeks on MN. I kept thinking it didn't make sense so I looked it up. Never heard it with that meaning. If it is now in common use, I suppose I will just have to figure it out. (I have always found the " could care less" phrase irritating).

OP posts:
Notellinganyone · 01/12/2023 08:26

Nonplussed only has one meaning though, it’s not a regional variation. It only means baffled/confused - anything else is just incorrect.

Wednesdaywednesday · 01/12/2023 08:30

Nonplussed is such a great word and there’s really nothing else to replace it. I find it infuriating when it’s misused. Aghhh

ErrolTheDragon · 01/12/2023 09:16

Notellinganyone · 01/12/2023 08:26

Nonplussed only has one meaning though, it’s not a regional variation. It only means baffled/confused - anything else is just incorrect.

Unfortunately both meanings are now shown in dictionaries. However, Merriam-Webster notes:
NOTE: The use of nonplussed to mean "unimpressed" is an Americanism that has become increasingly common in recent decades and now appears frequently in published writing. It apparently arose from confusion over the meaning of nonplussed in ambiguous contexts, and it continues to be widely regarded as an error.

And also this:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/nonplussed

Words changing to their opposite doesn't help accurate communication.

We could probably say that everyone on this thread is nonplussed by this!Grin

Dragonbed · 02/12/2023 01:22

Yes I’ve come across it used wrongly the American way in quite a few novels recently too. I find it quite jarring when the rest of the writing is good.

CarolinaInTheMorning · 02/12/2023 02:15

I'm American. I don't use it anymore because of the confusion.

It's similar to how the word "literally" is often now used to mean figuratively.

One of my biggest pet peeves is how the word "incredible' has been overused and is increasingly losing its meaning of "not believable."

But English is a descriptive rather than prescriptive language so some meetings will continue to change with usage.

CesareBorgia · 02/12/2023 02:27

This kind of thing leaves me torn. I agree language is constantly evolving - without this, we'd still be speaking Old English - but it is disappointing when the meaning of a useful word is obscured (and possibly, eventually, obliterated).

There is no adequate single-word substitute for 'nonplussed' as there isn't for 'literally'.

Nowadays, if you want to make the point that something literally happened, you find yourself having to clutter up your sentence, e.g. - "I literally fell over, I mean, I physically fell to the ground" - because so many people will take 'literally' as a mere emphasiser; whereas no qualifier would be needed if you could rely on people understanding the true meaning of 'literally'.

ImustLearn2Cook · 02/12/2023 02:44

Are some people confusing nonplussed with nonchalant? Or are they looking at non and plussed separately and misinterpreting it to mean not plussed while associating the word plussed with some kind of positive feeling?

I don’t think the definition of words should change arbitrarily. There should be a practical or logical reason for the change.

CarolinaInTheMorning · 02/12/2023 04:00

"Bemused" is another one that causes confusion, at least in the US.

upinaballoon · 02/12/2023 10:42

I use 'purposely' or 'on purpose' differently from 'purposefully', but I see 'purposefully' often being used nowadays where I would say 'on purpose'.

I've just typed the word 'purpose' so many times that I don't know if it's real any more. 🙂

ImustLearn2Cook · 06/12/2023 23:33

I think I figured it out. Nonplussed rhymes with not fussed. So, perhaps people conflate the word nonplussed with the phrase not fussed.

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