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.

Yes, I agree you need to give context these days, as there’s more than one meaning of lame now. I think that was what OP was trying to do when she said ‘literally, technically’.

I just think it a bit mad for people to claim nobody ever uses it for humans when OP clearly just did 😁

Along with lame, dumb is another word that used to have a specific neutral meaning - simply a way to refer to the disability of somebody who is unable to speak - but which has now taken on a nasty sense of being stupid.

I don’t think ‘bastard’ did used to be a neutral word - in the bad old days, children were likely to be heavily stigmatised for being born out of wedlock which of course wasn’t their fault. It’s a good thing this word isn’t commonly applied in this way any more.

True, it was usually used in a blame-worthy way - and especially horrible when the child had absolutely nothing to do with their parenthood in the first place.

But it did also just have a neutral meaning e.g. when clarifying inheritance rights (however unfair they were at root).

Doesn't Shakespeare refer to 'the King's Bastard' in at least one of his plays? Was he a villain, and 'bastard' did double work? Was he stigmatised for being a bastard, or did he have status for being the King's offspring?

Ok fair point. But she did and wasn't understood because it's so infrequently used. Hence the OP?

There’s a whole wiki page of historical figures known as ‘… the Bastard’ including Shakespeare’s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_known_as_the_Bastard

From that list it is clear that being the Bastard didn’t hold them back from high status.

I think “dumb” meaning stupid (rather than speechless or mute) is an American usage, but it’s definitely becoming more common among British speakers.

I’ve noticed that increasingly, when words have slightly different meanings in US and UK English, British speakers seem to be defaulting to the American meaning. I assume it’s largely because of the internet and social media.

One example I’m noticing a lot is “mean” being used for unpleasant, rather than the original British meaning of parsimonious. I see that on here quite frequently.

A homosexual told me that GAY stands for 'good as you'. I understand that but it's a bit of a shame that the old sense of the word 'gay' is more-or-less obsolete.

'And the child that's born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe and good and gay'. NO, YOU CAN'T SAY THAT ANY MORE.

So you didn’t know gay and queer mean something different now?

I'm quite old. When I was young the word 'queer' certainly meant odd or strange but it was also used as a reference to homosexuality. Then that use seemed to become frowned on but it also seems to have come back and it's used again as being respectable.

All the way through queer has still meant odd or strange.

I knew someone in a workplace who used the phrase 'queer as a nine-bob note', which made me smile . Those who never knew the old money won't know that we once had ten-shilling notes as well as pound notes et cetera, so a nine-bob note really would have been a strange thing indeed.

That is not what I said.

Have you read your post back? Are you sure you're a pedant?

I’ve never once claimed to be a pedant and I’m starting to think I’m glad I’m not!

Respectfully, do you not get that this phrase that seems to strike you as adorable nostalgic is usually used as a homophobic slur?

That’s a good heads up for Future!Bratislava

I took the poster as meaning that she hadn’t realised the meanings of gay (jolly/fun) and queer (peculiar/odd) had now fully migrated to mean same sex and whatever queer definition of queer is (which I can’t actually define off the top of my head)

@NoArmaniNoPunani
'Disinterested' has lost its original meaning.

Yes, and I still find its more recent meaning annoying. The battle has also been lost with ‘to beg the question’.

And to such an extent that teachers could not recognise words IN CONTEXT.

Or perhaps would not.

Unfortunately this now means the rest of the sentence doesn’t work:

”I could also blame the fact I just woke up and got early morning brain”

You would need to change it to “I could also blame the fact I just woke up and have got early morning brain”

Adding some additional friendly pedantry for you!

afaik it usually meant ‘dodgy’ rather than any reference to sexuality. Because in the era of ten bob notes, the primary meaning of ‘queer’ was still ‘peculiar’. I’m old enough to remember it being used. Although more usually it was ‘as bent as a 9 bob note’ - again, although ‘bent’ was and is a homophobic counterpart to ‘straight’, the commoner meaning was ‘corrupt’ as in ‘bent coppers’.

I once had quite a bad foot injury and I wondered if I would be lame for the rest of my life. I would use the word to describe any creature who / which limped.
I also understand the word 'lame' in the sense of having a lame excuse for not doing something.

I use "bent as a nine bob note" for "corrupt" and I'm younger than decimalisation.

Bent has gone the other way compared to gay and I think is less about sexuality than it used to be. If someone describes a person as bent I would think corrupt before I thought homosexual.