Mis-Used words

[Hermione]

I thought it'd be interesting to make a thread for words that are commonly misused. Here are my examples:

Peruse: People often think that peruse means to glance over, but actually means to read carefully through, like paying close attention to the details.

Prejudism: This is not a real word- the word is prejudice, and it only functions as a noun, I believe. The word I think people are looking for when they say 'prejudism' is racism.

That's all for me. Anyone else?

[Marcus Baker]

Peruse: People often think that peruse means to glance over, but actually means to read carefully through, like paying close attention to the details.

I havent heard of people using this word as glancing over. Cool though!

[Gwared]

Peruse isn't isolated to reading either..it can relate to shopping, etc.

[Tuima]

Never heard of Prejudism... funky. Other misused: you're. Bothers me! I correct papers for one of my classes and everyone writes, "you're house, you're dog..." Gah!

[HuffleDuck]

Tuima, are you a teacher at some school??It sounds very much like it.

Well, you're and your people are getting confused, but mostly it's the American people..aka black and white mostly.

[yasmane]

Whaou !!!
""you're dog", I guess it must be hard to see that for a teacher.
Even I, who is french and don't speak english as well a I would like, I have never done such a fault.
you're students should be a little more careful.

[Ju-DedoH]

ouais des francais sur BaO !!! good english btw !
(that was : yippee french people on BaO !!!)

[yasmane]

Salut Ju-Dedoh, je ne savais pas que tu étais français aussi.
Hi Ju-Dedoh, i didn't know you were french too (for my english friends).

[Nacht]

The word I think people are looking for when they say 'prejudism' is racism.

Having a prejudice has a much wider scope than just racism I think.

[Gwared]

Prejudism for any reason could be racial, sexual (grr..that'll be asterixed), height based etc. So yes it has much wider scope, but similarly it could also concern just racism. It's very much a catch all word whose meaning depends on it's context.

The you're/your thing...just make it so that you're (sic ) students are banned from compounding words unless absolutely necessary .

Oh! et bonjour sur les francais.

[han lin]

it might just be around where i am but some of my friends spell our as are.

so its like.

"come to are house"

also

" i haven't done nothing "which i think is a double negative.and its just urghh!!.

[2F2Type_R]

ugh! double negatives

my favourite ones:
hung (verb); as a past tense of hang: "The boy hung himself."
wrung (verb); as a past tense of wring: "He wrung his towel dry."

Personal favourite:
strafe, strafing (verb); used in first-person-shooter games to mean moving from side to side. e.g. to dodge bullets

we all use it, its totally wrong... and we don't care

[yasmane]

Well, I never used these words before, so...
I really have lacks in my vocabulary, i should go back to school or live in a country which speaks english.
But as for the double negatives, that's one of the first lesson we learn at school, people should be a little more careful.

[Stargazer]

Did any of you guys catch the Simpsons episode where Bart writes on the board (in the beginning) that: "I won't not use no double negatives."

One (well, two) words that my English teacher keeps baffling about are borrow and lend. I borrow from you but you lend to me. He says that it's one of the most common mistakes foreigners commit, to say that "I borrowed him a CD" or "I lended a book from him."

* Stargazer *