memes

Languages are living things. And living things always change. Note the Great English Vowel Change. Even the Norwegian my Grandfather spoke and that I learned from him was virtually a dead language that modern Norwegians stopped using in the 1850s. And the English spoken in the UK is different than the American English I speak. Spanish spoken in Spain isn't the same as someone from Mexico speaks.

And when conversing with someone, (in the language of your choice), the words you choose to use are defined by the context you use them in. Words can have multiple meanings, but it's the context and tone clarifies those meanings. Consider all the meanings of the single word 'fuck'.

But problems start with written words. And many people have poor written communication skills. It can be hard to parse meaning from poorly written words because there is little context and tone that comes through with a typed sentence.

We are all just baying at the moon like any pack. And hoping some understands us.

LITERALLY everyone!

Literally!

Literally.

What if I told you memes were supposed to be funny rather than excusing ignorance?

Fascist

This is real and actually quite interesting to look at the history of. For example, the word "Decimate" IIRC was originally defined as killing one for every ten people of a group of people. Now, its used as a term for high impact destruction.

My two are Literally, and Crescendo. I really hate it when they are used wrong, and now the wrong answers are considered acceptable. That means Literally actually holds no meaning at all, and by changing the definition of Crescendo, the last 500 years of Western Music Theory have been changed by people who have no understanding of music at all.

Honestly, I could care less about this shit.

I'm going to disagree here on the basis that this logic leads to bubbles of people thinking they're right when they're not even close to a majority.

English is confusing enough. For the sake of future generation I'll correct you for using litterally like figuratively even if I'm the last person on earth that uses it correctly.

"Can't have your cake and eat it too"

vs.

"Can't eat your cake and have it too"

Only one of these makes sense, but the other one is what's been used for a long time now. If I have a cake, then I can definitely eat it, but if I eat it, then I can no longer have it.

Edit: I don't mean to disagree with the simple fact that languages evolve over time. But having a majority dictate the meanings of words isn't something I like. The example of "antisemitism" (a bunch of people are using the word to describe valid criticism of the state of israel) raised in an other comment here is also very relevant.

Everyone has to agree tho.

Don't be one of these dickheads that defines shit their own way then gets upset when nobody agrees with your dumbass. There's quite a few people like that here on Lemmy and I find them to be the single most annoying type of user on this site.