Common mistakes or misnomers

[Louis Balfour]

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

Neither a common mistake nor misnomer.

A portmanteau and evolution of language.

[DickyC]

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

I think saying staycation is grounds for a fixed penalty charge.

[DickyC]

Louis Balfour said:

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

Neither a common mistake nor misnomer.

A portmanteau and evolution of language.

I admire your relaxed view of the fluidity of the English language. It has made me realise, today, that I'm acquiring age-related intolerance. I shall try to be less rigid in my thinking.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Not a misnomer or a mistake but….

…..when we approach a tight spot in the car the other half always says “breath in”

When you breath in you actually get wider.

[Doofus]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Not a misnomer or a mistake but….

…..when we approach a tight spot in the car the other half always says “breath in”

When you breath in you actually get wider.

breathe, not breath.

[toasty]

GasEngineer said:

Use of the words jealous or jealousy when they mean envious or envy. They're complete opposites.

Not just social media thickos - it's even prevalent on the BBC. And as for the expression "I'm well jell" .... you're envious FFS!

I need more on this. Jealous and envious are synonyms not antonyms, as are jealousy and envy.

Which word aligns with covetous and which does not?

[Dr Jekyll]

toasty said:

I need more on this. Jealous and envious are synonyms not antonyms, as are jealousy and envy.

Which word aligns with covetous and which does not?

Envious is covetous, jealous is wanting to keep what you have.

[snuffy]

Louis Balfour said:

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

Neither a common mistake nor misnomer.

A portmanteau and evolution of language.

In which case, a lot of the examples given on this thread fall into that category; I.e. words that have changed their meaning and become the accepted definition.

[HappySilver]

DickyC said:

Train station

If train station should be railway station doesn’t that mean that bus station should be road station?

[DickyC]

HappySilver said:

DickyC said:

Train station

If train station should be railway station doesn’t that mean that bus station should be road station?

Towards more picturesque speech.

Railway Station, Bus Station, Tram Depot, Airport, Ferry Slip.

If we reduce the number of words in the vocabulary we lose the nuances English gives us.

I'm self-taught, me.

[rodericb]

Dr Jekyll said:

cobra kid said:

A guy at work uses "like a bull in a chip shop" with no hint of irony or knowledge of the mistake.

I like that, I'm going to use it. Almost as good as 'we'll burn that bridge when we come to it'.

"We'll burn that bridge when we cross it" will be a good one to drop into "agile" sprint progress-at-all-costs meetings at work.

[toasty]

Dr Jekyll said:

toasty said:

I need more on this. Jealous and envious are synonyms not antonyms, as are jealousy and envy.

Which word aligns with covetous and which does not?

Envious is covetous, jealous is wanting to keep what you have.

Interesting, thanks. It's led me to read more.

It appears we are both correct in that jealous can mean both proud of one's possessions and envious of another's.

Although some dictionaries prefer the distinction between envy and jealousy, common usage has had them as synonyms for over 100 years.

As for "Well jell", who knows?

[Dr Jekyll]

toasty said:

Interesting, thanks. It's led me to read more.

It appears we are both correct in that jealous can mean both proud of one's possessions and envious of another's.

Although some dictionaries prefer the distinction between envy and jealousy, common usage has had them as synonyms for over 100 years.

As for "Well jell", who knows?

Not quite, few people get shot by envious husbands.

[DickyC]

Dr Jekyll said:

Not quite, few people get shot by envious husbands.

Vanessa Feltz, usually the champion of correct English usage, uses jealous when she means envious. Via her Morning Show I sent her a text alerting her to her slip. She hasn't spoken to me since.

[psi310398]

DickyC said:

Vanessa Feltz, usually the champion of correct English usage, uses jealous when she means envious. Via her Morning Show I sent her a text alerting her to her slip. She hasn't spoken to me since.

Thanks for the tip, Dicky!

[SlimJim16v]

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

Staycation, an American expression, actually means staying at home.

[snuffy]

SlimJim16v said:

snuffy said:

Staycation instead of holiday in one's own country.

Staycation, an American expression, actually means staying at home.

But in the UK, it's come to mean going on holiday in the UK, as opposed to being on holiday but staying at home. So it's an American expression that doesn't even mean the same in the UK and it does in the US.

[toasty]

DickyC said:

Vanessa Feltz, usually the champion of correct English usage, uses jealous when she means envious. Via her Morning Show I sent her a text alerting her to her slip. She hasn't spoken to me since.

Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde also apparently got it ‘wrong’.

Far be it for me to say that a word can have more than one meaning.

[Blackpuddin]

Antartica.
And the worst one of all for me, quite often perpetrated by BBC folk with the smug sense that they are posh and educating the nation, 'haitch' instead of 'aitch'.

[DickyC]

toasty said:

DickyC said:

Vanessa Feltz, usually the champion of correct English usage, uses jealous when she means envious. Via her Morning Show I sent her a text alerting her to her slip. She hasn't spoken to me since.

Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde also apparently got it ‘wrong’.

Far be it for me to say that a word can have more than one meaning.

That could explain Vanessa Feltz's lack of response. Nothing from Twain or Wilde yet either.