Everybody makes mistakes

“Decimate” doesn’t mean what you think: Words often used incorrectly

Surely, we’ve all made grammatical mistakes that still haunt us. But that doesn’t mean our eyes are safe from twitching when we hear words like "irregardless." A dozen popular mistakes have spread and infiltrated the vocabulary of many, much to the dismay of word lovers. Let’s explore some of these and hope we aren’t among the ones committing them!

Careful: If you say you are nauseous, that means you are causing someone else nausea. You probably don’t mean that you stink, but that you are feeling sick yourself.

When stepping off a rollercoaster, you don’t feel nauseous: You might feel nauseated, which is the correct term.

When did people start using "infamous" interchangeably with "famous"? It’s hard to know, but this mistake is heard often. Remember, "infamous" and "notorious" are adjectives that imply the subject has a bad reputation.

Maybe the confusion comes from "famous" being right there in the word, but keep in mind: infamous isn’t the kind of fame you want.

If you’re bemused, you’re scratching your head, not laughing. "Bemused" gets thrown around as a fancier way to say "amused," but it actually means "confused" or "bewildered." One often isn’t bemused by a funny meme, but a complex set of instructions could leave you bemused.

People often use "decimate" to mean "destroy entirely," but its original meaning is "reduce by one-tenth." It derives from a Roman practice of punishing armies.

For example, you could announce that a crop was decimated by pests but that some survived. The confusion is likely because "one-tenth" doesn’t sound dramatic enough. Ironically, modern misuse has decimated the word’s original meaning.

Some people wrongly state that they have perused a magazine when what they did was flip through it lightly. To "peruse" means to read thoroughly and carefully.

You could peruse a contract document before signing it, for example. Remember, the verb shouldn’t be used as a fancy synonym for "skim."

"Irregardless" gets thrown around, but mostly as the less-preferred form of the word "regardless." Adding "ir-" to it makes it a nonstandard double negative. The word "regard-less" already means "without regard."

Why do people use the wrong form, then? Maybe inventing a prefix feels extra emphatic, but really, it’s like putting a hat on a hat.

"Supposably" is often (and incorrectly) used instead of "supposedly." While the former does exist, it means "as could be imagined or believed". "Supposedly" means "according to what is assumed or believed".

So, which adverb should be used? It depends on whether the reality described is supposed to be true (supposedly) or possible to be true (supposably).

Irony isn’t just a coincidence or bad luck; it’s when there’s a contradiction between expectation and reality. It would be ironic, for example, that a fire station should burn down.

If you simply ran into someone you know, however, that would not be ironic. It would simply be a funny coincidence.

"Literally" means something is true exactly as is stated. It is often misused for exaggerations to add emphasis.

People have grown used to inserting that word into any hyperbolic sentence, such as "I’m literally dying of laughter". The word does have its correct place in some phrases, though. For example, you could literally trip over your own shoelaces.

You cannot feel jealous of someone who enjoys something that you’ve never had. That’s because, strictly speaking, "jealousy" involves the fear of losing something.

"Envy" would be the correct term for referring to the desire to have what someone else does. For example, envying a gold medal when you only achieved the silver one.

Sometimes students claim to be failing a class because they are "disinterested" in the subject, which is an incorrect statement. "Disinterested" means "impartial", or "unbiased". What they mean is that they are not interested, or "uninterested".

"Affect" is a verb, meaning "to influence," while "effect" is a noun, meaning "a result." These two are spotted in the wrong sentence way too often. A speech can have an effect on an audience, but it cannot "effect" the audience. It can only "affect" it.

The space between the words (or lack thereof) does affect the meaning! "Everyday" is an adjective meaning ordinary, while "every day" means "each day." Ask yourself carefully which of the two you are using.

Remember, every day we can find everyday words used incorrectly!

UPDATE YOUR READING LIST

Parseltongue, Nadsat, and More: 10 Books That Have A Unique Language

Image: freestocks

Literature is powerful enough to create and immerse readers in new worlds, fantastic adventures, and magical experiences. Some worlds are more complex than others, and some authors go as far as inventing a new language specifically for the novel. Take A Clockwork Orange, for example.

Whether it is because they couldn’t hold their creativity in or because the language is not enough to express what the author intended, these novels were innovative and successful, and we’ve gathered ten examples of books with their own language.

Image: Thomas Kinto

Anthony Burgess wrote a masterpiece of linguistic innovation. Through the use of Nadsat, a functional slang that blends Russian, English, and Cockney rhyming, it created a fully immersive world.

The novel portrays a dystopian society. The innovative lexicon serves the purpose of entering the reader into that world at the same time it alienates them. As the reader decodes the slang, it enters Alex’s violent escapades in complicity. In the case of this novel, the choice was not just stylistic; it was a device to explore the topics in depth.

Image: Henrique Craveiro

This novel, written by the Irish author James Joyce, is, like most of his works, a bit challenging. Considering it is from 1939, it is full of neologisms, lexical blends, and Irish mannerisms, which ultimately create a hybrid language that is border nonsense. It has an experimental style, and it is considered one of the most difficult pieces of literature.

If you are up for a reading challenge, you might find that this novel -which follows the lives of the Earwicker family in a cyclical and nonlinear way- is a good fit.

Image: Michelle Rumney

This novel by Paul Kingsnorth has an interesting detail behind the reasons for creating a "new" language. Written in 2015 but set in the year 1066, the author states that his intention in creating a new language is to fully represent the time.

In this case, the innovation comes through an invented version of Old English, which combines archaic vocabulary and syntax to create more vivid images and a more historical atmosphere for post-Conquest England. This is no light reading, as the language forces the reader to slow down and engage. Would you be interested in that?

Image: Quinn Korsune

Post-apocalyptic novels are a common thing today, but in 1980, when Russel Hoban published Riddley Walker, this was quite a surprise.

The novel is set two thousand years after a nuclear explosion that destroyed the world, and the life described is similar to what we can imagine it was hundreds of years ago.

The creation of a language was necessary to fully understand how shattered this new world is, and the means to do so is through a more phonetically spelled and fragmented English: "Nothing like it never happent befor but it wer like it all ways ben there happening." Isn’t literature marvelous?

Image: Rae Tian

J.K. Rowling is responsible for creating one of the most popular book series in the world. The details in the creation of the magical world are astonishing and the reason why the Harry Potter world became so immensely famous, even decades after the first book was released.

If a whole new world is created, she couldn’t miss the opportunity to create a new language: Parseltongue. In this series, the language belongs to the snakes and only a few can speak it.

In this case, the language is spelled like hissing sounds, and there seems to be no logic behind it.

Image: Liam Andrew

Following Hoban’s steps, Sandra Newman published a post-apocalyptic novel with its own language in 2014.

What is curious about it is the world it presents: It is inhabited only by children and teenagers because a plague killed all the adults. And this is enough to understand why an invented way of communication was necessary. Haven’t we all got lost in the words of a teenager? They speak their own language in real life, too!

Image: Christian Lue

Published in 1993 by the Scottish author Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting was a successful book later adapted into an equally successful movie.

In any case, this book combines the Scots dialect of his childhood with the darkest English vocabulary to imbue the plot and the characters with a humanity that makes them both sad, likable, and relatable at the same time.

With a tough plot with challenging language but an oh-so-ever engaging topic, this novel is a must-read!

Image: sue hughes

On a more cheerful note, this novel by Harry Mathews, published in 1972, compiles a series of letters between a husband and a wife who are after a treasure which has lost off the coast of Florida five centuries ago.

The wife, coming from the fictional country of Pan-Nam, speaks the language called Pan: "Pan persns knwo base bal. The giappan-like trade-for mishn play with it in our capatal any times."

Critics consider this comedy brilliant, witty, and engaging as it deals with the universally classic topic of marriage and its intricate corners.

Image: Possessed Photography

If you think Artificial intelligence is something of today, you’ll have to think again. Back in 1984, William Chamberlain and Thomas Etter instructed a computer program, Racter, to create some texts. These became a book, a collection of poetry and prose, and it is considered the first book written by AI.

The uniqueness of the language comes from that aspect; it is an artificially constructed conversation that follows its own semantic principles but which, in turn, can be read as any other book. Isn’t that interesting?

Image: Gabriella Clare Marino

Let’s finish this article with what is probably one of the weirdest books in the world. The title already is quite empty of meaning if you don’t know about the book, isn’t it?

Codex is a book by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini in 1981. More than a book, it is a creative masterpiece. It is an encyclopedia with illustrations of fictional fauna, flora, and a whole world described in an imaginary language.

The language created by the artist is so innovative (and imaginative) that it doesn’t really make any sense. The book is not for readers to make sense of it but to enjoy the visuals and the creativity behind it.