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.

"Peruse" is one of those words that has come to mean two nearly opposite things. Traditionally, and still in careful or formal writing, it means to read thoroughly and carefully. You could peruse a contract document before signing it, for example. However, over time, "peruse" has also picked up the opposite sense: to skim or browse casually.

In academic, legal, or professional writing, it's safest to reserve "peruse" for careful, close reading, and avoid using it as a stand-in for "skim" or "glance through."

"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".

"Effect" is usually a noun, but it can also work as a verb, where it means "to bring about" or "to cause to happen." For example: "The new manager was able to effect real change in the department" means she caused that change to happen, not that she merely influenced or affected something that already existed. This is different from "affect," which as a verb means "to have an impact on" something.

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!

Some names stick around

From Table Tap Joe to Ziggy Stardust: Who are the best song characters?

Sometimes, a character is the perfect alter-ego to write a song about oneself without self-referencing so much. Other times, a character is just a character. Over the years, musicians have come up with lonely dreamers, fearless heroes, mysterious strangers, and even supernatural villains who have become just as famous as the songs themselves. Some were inspired by real people, others sprang entirely from imagination, but all of them left a lasting mark on music history. Which of these 12 do you remember?

Tom Waits has always had a soft spot for society's oddballs, and few are even stranger than Table Top Joe. Introduced on the 2002 album Alice, Joe is born with only a head and hands, yet grows into a brilliant piano player whose extraordinary talent earns him fame despite the odds stacked against him.

The song unfolds like a forgotten American folk tale, complete with references to Coney Island's legendary Dreamland amusement park and composer Igor Stravinsky. Although many listeners assume the story is based on an old carnival legend, Table Top Joe is entirely Tom Waits' own creation.

Few fictional musicians have ever become as famous as Ziggy Stardust. Introduced in 1972, Ziggy is an alien rock star sent to Earth shortly before humanity's end, only to be consumed by the very fame that makes him a savior to millions.

David Bowie blurred the line between fiction and reality by performing as Ziggy onstage for more than a year. When he unexpectedly announced Ziggy's retirement during a concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1973, many fans believed the character, and perhaps Bowie himself, had truly reached the end of the story.

Tommy Walker isn't just the hero of a song, he's the central figure of one of rock music's first great operas. After witnessing a traumatic event as a child, Tommy becomes deaf, mute, and blind, yet somehow develops astonishing pinball skills that transform him into an unlikely celebrity.

Pete Townshend built an entire musical world around Tommy, exploring themes of trauma, faith, and redemption. First released in 1969, Tommy later became a hit film, a Broadway production, and one of the most influential concept albums ever recorded.

Johnny B. Goode is every aspiring musician's dream. Growing up in rural Louisiana with little more than a guitar and natural talent, he plays so brilliantly that listeners predict "his name will be in lights."

Chuck Berry based the character partly on himself and partly on pianist Johnnie Johnson. Originally described as a "colored boy," Johnny became a "country boy" in the final lyrics, making the song more likely to receive airplay during the segregation era. Nearly two decades later, Johnny's anthem would even travel into space aboard NASA's Voyager Golden Record.

Few fictional characters have captured loneliness as powerfully as Eleanor Rigby. She quietly moves through life unnoticed, while Father McKenzie delivers sermons that no one hears, creating one of popular music's saddest portraits of isolation.

Paul McCartney later explained that Eleanor's name came from actress Eleanor Bron and the Liverpool shop Rigby & Evens. The discovery of an actual Eleanor Rigby gravestone in Liverpool only deepened the song's mystique, though McCartney maintained the coincidence was unintentional.

Billie Jean may be one of pop music's most famous women, yet Michael Jackson insisted she wasn't a real person. Instead, she represented several women who falsely claimed that he had fathered their children during the height of the Jackson 5's fame.

Released in 1983 as part of Thriller, the song became a global phenomenon. It also provided the stage for Jackson's legendary moonwalk during Motown 25.

Unlike many legendary song characters, Stagger Lee actually existed. His real name was Lee Shelton, a St. Louis criminal who murdered Billy Lyons during an argument over a hat on Christmas Eve in 1895.

The shocking crime quickly entered American folklore through countless folk songs before Lloyd Price transformed it into a chart-topping hit in 1958. More than a century later, Stagger Lee remains one of the most enduring antiheroes in American music.

Tom Dooley was inspired by Thomas Dula, a Confederate veteran executed in North Carolina in 1868 after being convicted of murdering Laura Foster. His surname was locally pronounced "Dooley," giving the ballad its familiar title.

The Kingston Trio revived the old Appalachian folk song in 1958, turning it into an international hit and helping launch America's folk music revival.

When the narrator of "Lola" meets an intriguing stranger in a Soho nightclub, expectations quickly give way to surprise. Ray Davies crafted one of rock's earliest mainstream stories exploring gender ambiguity, decades before the topic entered popular conversation.

The recording rarely reached British radio. Because BBC rules prohibited commercial product names, Davies had to interrupt a U.S. tour and fly back to London simply to replace the lyric "Coca-Cola" with the now-famous "cherry cola."

Unlike most famous song characters, the Piano Man is really Billy Joel himself. Before becoming a superstar, Joel spent six months in 1972 and 1973 performing under the pseudonym Bill Martin at the Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles, after becoming trapped in a bad recording contract. The song transforms those experiences into a bittersweet portrait of ordinary people searching for escape at the end of another week.

Joel has said that virtually every character in the song was based on a real person, from bartender John to "Paul, the real estate novelist" and Davy, who really was in the Navy. Yet the Piano Man himself became the story's most enduring character: a quiet observer who offers music as a brief refuge for dreamers, lonely souls, and regulars alike. More than fifty years after its 1973 release, "Piano Man" remains Billy Joel's signature song, and its title has effectively become his lifelong nickname.

Standing nearly seven feet tall and missing an arm, Amos Moses roams the Louisiana swamps hunting alligators. Jerry Reed filled the song with colorful Southern expressions and exaggerated storytelling that make Amos feel like an authentic folk legend.

Although fictional, Amos embodies the larger-than-life heroes found throughout American tall tales. His adventures turned the song into one of Reed's biggest crossover hits and secured Amos a permanent place among country music's greatest characters.

Big Bad John hardly says a word, but he doesn't have to. The towering coal miner earns everyone's respect through quiet strength before sacrificing his own life to save fellow workers when a mine collapses.

Jimmy Dean's 1961 ballad became a smash hit, winning a Grammy and inspiring several sequel songs. More than sixty years later, Big Bad John still stands as one of country music's defining working-class heroes.