Words you can't use any more

[CoalTit]

I know language evolves and all that. I accepted that "nonplussed" is now an unusable word because so many people take it to mean its opposite. I didn't really have much occasion to use it anyway. But now it turns out that "lame" and "literally' have suffered the same fate.

I've hurt my foot. I tried to explain to a friend on WhatsApp that I won't be going dancing this week, by writing: "I'm literally, technically lame". I got a long voice message in return expressing sympathy for my lack of confidence, saying how intimidating the dance scene can be.
So I tried, "No, lame, like a horse" and that seemed to work.
Then I messaged my upstairs neighbour to say I can't help her with her work in the light well today because I'm lame. I hurt my foot helping her so I thought she'd understand.
She replied asking me to get up the ladder so she can pass things down to me. I tried " I can't help you today; I can barely walk", and she seemed to understand.

I thought I could use "lame" to save myself typing out "I hurt my foot; it's badly swollen and I can barely walk". I thought I could use "literally" to make it clear, but no.

Lame in that sense hasn't been commonly used since I was a child and I'm in my 40s, even then it was mainly used in reference to animals. Largely because people just tend to be more specific, I've hurt my foot. Literally still means literally. Even when people use it incorrectly it tends to be used hyperbolically , eg. that is literally the worst thing I've ever seen, about a colleague's dance moves, when they are a palliative care nurse.

Literally still means literally. Even when people use it incorrectly it tends to be used hyperbolically
That is making me wonder what you think "literally" means

It’s saying ‘literally, technically’ lame that’s confused people, I imagine, rather than the use of ‘lame’.

Saying you're literally technically lame is an odd turn of phrase and saves no typing compared to I'm injured.

I know language evolves and all that. I accepted that "nonplussed" is now an unusable word because so many people take it to mean its opposite.

I’m puzzled. Why would it be unusable? I use it, admittedly not frequently, but when called for! What would you say was the opposite of nonplussed?

Well the word queer used to always mean weird or very strange but I’m going to presume we can no longer use that anymore. It did have me a bit mystified the first time I heard it used to mean ‘gay’ but 🤷🏼‍♀️

So you’re nonplussed? That would have been a good time to use it 😂

I think lame is hard because you’re using it out of context - I’d know what you meant if you’d described an animal as lame but I’d be a bit confused what you meant for a person. If you said you were literally lame I’d have got it, but I’m not sure what literally, technically lame means - aren’t literally and technically a bit contradictory (not quite the right word but it’s almost midnight! Maybe I mean tautology and therefore creating confusion because why have you said the same thing twice) here?

I have never come across anyone misunderstanding the word nonplussed, I could understand someone not having heard it before but not taking it as the opposite.

Lame does only seem to be used for animals but that has always been the case as
far as I remember, or the other meaning of being a big rubbish.

If you used lame in that context to me I wouldn’t of understood, I’d of thought you were telling me you were boring or rubbish

I was thinking the other day that nobody says 'quarrel' anymore, which is a shame because 'argue' doesn't necessarily mean more than a bit of a disagreement but 'fight' could give the impression there were fisticuffs!

Gay is another word you can’t use in its original meaning.

Dd got into trouble in Y5 for using ‘gay’ and ‘queer’. She couldn’t understand what she had done wrong, and the school did not explain it to her clearly. I had to point out to the school that dd was a voracious reader - which they knew - and that she was reading children’s literature classics from 20th century and earlier, where these words were used in their original meanings. I also pointed out that she was not using any of the actually offensive words or attitudes from those books, because I explained their contexts to her and because she had the common sense to recognise that they were not acceptable nowadays. Which the school has omitted to do when she used words they didn’t approve of. It has not occurred to me that gay and queer might have been completely stripped of their original meanings.

I don't think I’ve heard lame for a person outside of church and the Bible. It sounds almost as odd as saying someone’s a leper.

Lame is for horses, because it takes longer to work out what the nature of their injury is and they can’t tell you.

I think nonplussed is still ok.

Actually I’d assume lame for a person came from a time of everyday medical illiteracy. I can imagine a Victorian urchin being lame, because no-one had the means or wherewithal to discover and address the cause.

I can't understand how people are using nonplussed to mean the opposite. Can you give an example?

I haven't heard "lame" since reading the Ladybird book of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, with "the little lame boy".

When did that non-plussing event happen? In the 1970s? You can't have just noticed a change in usage😁

Is that a brave or ironic use of of in Pedant's corne?😁

It’s rebellious
*corner 😉

You can no longer use 'decimated' as a useful word to mean reduced by 10%, because the alternative meaning to reduce substantially/dramatically, has now taken over.

I used 'lame' recently to describe people unable to walk quickly through injury. It was a conversation about park run.

On the basis that this is Pedants' Corner and pedantry is encouraged, it's 'should have' or should've NOT 'should of' .

Not heard lame being used for humans, but I think I would have understood if you said something like, ‘I’ve hurt my foot and am lame at the moment’. Ie, put context to it.

Yes, I hadn’t thought about quarrel but really dislike use of the word fight for argument. To me a fight is physical or at least ambiguous.

Tiff and spat aren’t used as much either.

What do you think nonplussed means?

I have never come across someone using the original meaning of nonplussed, even in literature. I've only ever heard it in the context of being unbothered, for instance.