• billwashere@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      ok here’s three examples of exactly what the meme is referring to:

      • “Awful” originally meant “awe-inspiring” or “full of awe,” but frequent use to mean “very bad” eventually became the standard modern meaning.

      • “Peruse” traditionally meant “to read carefully,” but common casual use to mean “to skim or browse” has become widespread enough that dictionaries now record both senses.

      • “Nimrod” started as the name of a skilled biblical hunter, but repeated ironic use as an insult (for example, in cartoons… “Bugs Bunny”) led to its accepted modern sense of “fool” or “idiot.”

      Language changes. Words mean what we say they mean since its all made up anyway.

      • SparroHawc@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        The word that always comes to mind is ‘literally’ which has come to mean ‘figuratively, but with emphasis’ and it drives me nuts - because it removes the word we have to say ‘this is a thing that you might assume is figurative, but it’s not, it actually happened’.

      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com
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        1 month ago

        Nimrod” started as the name of a skilled biblical hunter, but repeated ironic use as an insult (for example, in cartoons… “Bugs Bunny”) led to its accepted modern sense of “fool” or “idiot.”

        Nimrod in the X-Men was badass. Probably more fitting to the original definition of the word.

    • greedytacothief@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Ignorance of what? It seems that if you’re using a word the same way your sub culture uses a word, it’s correct. Or rather that words can only be used correctly within a context.

        • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Memes are supposed to be funny

          That’s not true, which is exactly why this is a good meme. The word meme was originally coined as a conceptual analogue to the word "gene*. Ideas spread and evolve, just like genes. Only in the last 15 years or so has it come to mean internet joke, and this is the direct result of people using the word in a different way than it was intended to be used. It doesn’t matter what word the OP had in mind when they made this meme (though gif is the most likely candidate), it’s accurate and relevant.

        • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com
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          1 month ago

          facts about natural processes don’t need “justification”

          rage bait

          that’s in the eye of the beholder & Y U MAD, THO?