What is common knowledge?

[Baztrachian]

Decimate means to destroy one in every ten of something.

Annihilate means to completely destroy something.

The last few years it seems people think that decimate means to completely destroy something.

 

[AG31]

I've never heard kittycornered, does it also mean skewed from the norm?

Yup. Kittycornered (the preferred version in my world) means exactly the same thing as cattycornered.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Fortnight is totally normal in British English, but catercorner and variants are unknown - you have to say "diagonally opposite".

Age alters what is common knowledge. If it wasn't news, nor long enough ago to be history, young people won't know lots of the current events you lived through. A few years ago I was working on Brexit with a team mostly of bright young graduates. The customs union and Northern Ireland was a huge problem. At one point one lad asked, "Would it be so bad if the Troubles started again?" Literal pen drop. Another confessed to not really knowing anything about it. Spent the next two hours teaching them 80s history and calming down an older colleague who had served in NI back then.

 

[SimonDoom]

Petrichor -- the smell of wet earth after a first rain. I love that there's a word for that.

And of course, "aglet," the little plastic tip at the end of a shoestring.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Fortnight is totally normal in British English, but catercorner and variants are unknown - you have to say "diagonally opposite".

I once worked at an American company and caused utter glee by asking if the meetings needed to be weekly or could they not be fortnightly - a word, apparently, only seen in Dicken's novels.

"Would it be so bad if the Troubles started again?"

We British have understatement built into our very bones, but perhaps, with this conflict, they would have known more about it if we hadn't given it the same word as my wife uses for her period.

 

[Bamagan]

Petrichor -- the smell of wet earth after a first rain. I love that there's a word for that.

And of course, "aglet," the little plastic tip at the end of a shoestring.

https://preview.redd.it/dh9p6hqbo3j11.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=5f4ab99920a703f878382adfd62abd089dd0c934

 

[alohadave]

Decimate means to destroy one in every ten of something.

Annihilate means to completely destroy something.

The last few years it seems people think that decimate means to completely destroy something.

That's just normal language drift. What the Romans meant when they said it isn't the same as when we say it now.

 

[JMJ4Play]

Water is wet fire is hot

 

[alohadave]

If it wasn't news, nor long enough ago to be history, young people won't know lots of the current events you lived through.

I love when younger people on reddit discover a popular movie from the 80s or 90s and say how underrated it is. No, it's not underrated, it's just older than you are.

 

[ronde]

Cattycornered and carrying are familiar from my childhood (carrying via my southern relatives). Also kittycornered. But don't think I've ever heard kittywampus.

I don't know that I've ever seen either word in text. My spelling is phonetic, so I suppose they could be written as cattywampus and kittycornered.

 

[CuriousJInLA]

Yup. Kittycornered (the preferred version in my world) means exactly the same thing as cattycornered.

There’s a NYT quiz from maybe 15-20 years ago about American dialects based on where you grew up/lived, and this specific example was referenced. There was kitty corner, catty corner, cattywampus, and diagonal, or something similar. Pretty fun and for me it was very accurate

 

[TheLobster]

My word for the list is ‘fortnight’. I used it with some friends and was staggered to find two of them (articulate and well-enough educated, too) told me later they’d had to look it up

Cut your friends some slack. It’s not easy to keep up with kids these days and all their damn video games.

 

[MelissaBaby]

“The exception proves the rule”

Most people seem to think this means that, under particular circumstances, it’s okay to break a rule.

What it actually means is that, if a sign says “No Parking on Sundays”, that indicates that Sunday is an exception to the rule that it is okay to park there on other days.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Decimate means to destroy one in every ten of something.

Annihilate means to completely destroy something.

The last few years it seems people think that decimate means to completely destroy something.

I think this is one of those situations where people are going to have to accept that the meaning of words can change over time.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Petrichor -- the smell of wet earth after a first rain. I love that there's a word for that.

And of course, "aglet," the little plastic tip at the end of a shoestring.

Phineas and Ferb did a whole episode on Aglets.

 

[StillStunned]

I love when younger people on reddit discover a popular movie from the 80s or 90s and say how underrated it is. No, it's not underrated, it's just older than you are.

I remember when Pulp Fiction came out, and all the kids were talking about how cool this new Travolta guy was, and how sexy he was when he danced.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I remember when Pulp Fiction came out, and all the kids were talking about how cool this new Travolta guy was, and how sexy he was when he danced.

I was 16 when Pulp Fiction came out. I'm pretty sure our discos played the Grease Mega-mix even before his 'come back' (yep, released 1990) . He was washed up for certain, but I don't buy that many kids didn't know who he was.

(Okay, I was spoiled by having a sister who was deep into musicals and rented them endlessly over the summer holidays, of which Grease was one of the more tolerable because it was slightly 'naughty')

 

[Baztrachian]

I think this is one of those situations where people are going to have to accept that the meaning of words can change over time.

See, now that's a problem.

Some years ago there was a crazy guy who tried to kill a member of Congress. One of the things he said at the time was, "What is government if words have no meaning?"

At the time I just shook my head at that comment and let it go as the ramblings of a homicidal maniac.

These days when judges of all stripes are reinventing the meanings of words at will the crazy guy's comment is ringing true.

Words and their definitions are how we communicate. What happens when words mean one thing for one group of people and something else for a different group of people?

What happens when the definition of people is up for debate?

I can answer that question:

 

[NuclearFairy]

See, now that's a problem.

Some years ago there was a crazy guy who tried to kill a member of Congress. One of the things he said at the time was, "What is government if words have no meaning?"

At the time I just shook my head at that comment and let it go as the ramblings of a homicidal maniac.

These days when judges of all stripes are reinventing the meanings of words at will the crazy guy's comment is ringing true.

Words and their definitions are how we communicate. What happens when words mean one thing for one group of people and something else for a different group of people?

What happens when the definition of people is up for debate?

I can answer that question:

View attachment 2534846

On the other hand, we also get Sandra.

 

[AG31]

I don't know that I've ever seen either word in text. My spelling is phonetic, so I suppose they could be written as cattywampus and kittycornered.

In my world kittycornered and cattycornered have separate lives, but the same meanings. I've always wondered why we have both.

 

[AG31]

There’s a NYT quiz from maybe 15-20 years ago about American dialects based on where you grew up/lived, and this specific example was referenced. There was kitty corner, catty corner, cattywampus, and diagonal, or something similar. Pretty fun and for me it was very accurate

My husband went to school in Phillie, and is fond of telling people that there's a line in the city that divides people who say greassy from people who say greazy.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

See, now that's a problem.

Some years ago there was a crazy guy who tried to kill a member of Congress. One of the things he said at the time was, "What is government if words have no meaning?"

At the time I just shook my head at that comment and let it go as the ramblings of a homicidal maniac.

These days when judges of all stripes are reinventing the meanings of words at will the crazy guy's comment is ringing true.

Words and their definitions are how we communicate. What happens when words mean one thing for one group of people and something else for a different group of people?

What happens when the definition of people is up for debate?

I can answer that question:

View attachment 2534846

There are thousands of words whose meaning has changed over time.

Nice used to also mean trivial, wanton and dissolute.
The world goes on and it isn't a problem at all.

If you are really worried about the meaning of words changing you ought to concern your self with the people who took "nazi" and "fascist" and changed their meanings to "anyone whose politics I disagree with".

 

[Kelliezgirl]

In my world kittycornered and cattycornered have separate lives, but the same meanings. I've always wondered why we have both.

I've never heard kittycornered, and cattycorner just means "the opposite corner".

 

[NuclearFairy]

I've never heard kittycornered, and cattycorner just means "the opposite corner".

Really depends on who you ask. Growing up catty-cornered meant, "at an angle to fit in the corner." When I moved though I got confused looks and asked, "What's so weird about where I put it?"

 

[Writer61]

I once worked at an American company and caused utter glee by asking if the meetings needed to be weekly or could they not be fortnightly - a word, apparently, only seen in Dicken's novels.

I work with people from many different countries and occasionally sow confusion (deliberately) by asking for something 'by stumps'.