I saw one of these the other day while out with friends and it made me ask them: what's the word to describe how you feel when looking at this very old fairground equipment?

I don't think it was nostalgia I felt, as I've never been on one and don't remember them from carnivals from my own childhood. It was nostalgia for something I had never experienced, mixed with whimsy and some kind of yearning, a little bit melancholic. Wistful is what another friend said, and I think thats closest.

I was shocked when I saw that the word “[to] revert” now also meant “[to] respond.”

The definition only very recently made the dictionary. It’s tagged as “Indian” in the Oxford dictionary. Meaning, this use is seen only among the Indian masses.

Personally, I see it being used in professional settings, such as by the HR, manager, and even directors, over emails. These are legit corporate exchanges. All formal.

The sheer volume of its use in India in professional & casual settings, by a variety of authoritative figures, seems to me to be the primary reason for its adoption by the dictionary.

What are your thoughts? Do you know of any other words whose ineligible meanings have entered the dictionary, especially through force of use by a population.

Link:

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/revert#google_vignette

When you tar a person or people with the same stroke, you're lumping them with someone else. This is generally used pretty negatively. For instance, if you're in a group project and someone starts slacking off, the teacher might paint the entire group with the same stroke, believing that you all are a bunch of no-good for nothing slackers.

to charm, attract, or interest someone, often through flattery, or to trick and mislead someone using deception

What's it doing there? It seems unlikely it was ever pronounced in the olden days, it sounds ridiculous if you say it.

Contrastive reduplication is when you repeat a word to mean the proper, original or typical version of it, as opposed to a looser one.

'Do you want a coffee, or a coffee coffee?' (instant versus the real thing)

'It's not a book, it's a book book.' (paper rather than e-book)

'Are you hungry hungry, or just peckish?'

'I like him, but I don't like like him.'

It's one of those things everyone does and almost nobody has a name for. What are your favourite examples?

Bonus points if you've heard one that triples up. I can't think of any.

This isn’t meant to be confused with the physical action, but rather figuratively. The thrust of something is the main point, purpose, objective, or meaning of something. It’s the central theme or primary direction of something. The thrust of a charity, for example, is to raise money for people in need. This can also apply to other stuff like creative works. The thrust of the film was to tackle racism or maybe that racism continues to be perpetuated by systems that facilitate and foster it. The thrust of a Sonic the Hedgehog game is to use your skills and knowledge of Sonic’s move-set and level design is to blast your way through to the end as fast as possible.

When something is peripheral, it is not an essential part of it. It’s auxiliary and supplementary. A peripheral issue is not as important as the main issue. This can also apply to people. A peripheral audience is not the main audience.

I have a long time gag(? just my humour 😭) of combining words, using ordinary phrases + coming up with new definitions, and finding absurd ways to describe random things. Here is a collection of random terms I've used in conversation spontaneously or come up with and written down.

Both words can overlap, but there are differences between the two words. Veracity is about truthfulness or honesty in regards to facts or statements. It's primarily used when you think someone is lying or trying to deceive you. For instance, trying to assess the veracity of whether your child went to school or went to the playground with their friends.

Validity focuses the soundness or correctness for a specific purpose. You're not trying to figure out if someone's lying, you're trying to see if the facts are right. Whether it's logical or sound. Testing the validity of a science experiment

Veracity is more about truth while Validity is more about accuracy.

We all have that morbid curiosity.

I got to thinking about this while watching a science YouTube channel (that seems fairly reputable) and the host said the opposite of a placebo is a verum. Having never heard the word before I opened a browser and searched ‘opposite of placebo’ and was given an ai overview and a page of links that all claimed the opposite of placebo is nocebo.

A search for ‘placebo v verum’ yields an ai overview that was just a copy paste from better health dot com describing verum as a drug with an active ingredient and a page of links using verum as the opposite of placebo but, curiously, almost every link was about acupuncture.

iOS doesn’t recognise verum or nocebo as a word, Webster’s online dictionary doesn’t recognise verum as a word, it does have a definition for nocebo;

a bad effect on someone's health causedby what they expect from a treatment, for example that it will not work or will have side effects (= unpleasant effects in addition to the main intended effect)

Which sounds more like a counterpart to placebo rather than its opposite.

Anyone have a light to shine on this?

Ever since my undergrad Argumentative Writing course it's been one of my favorite words. There are words that are lovely to hear, others fun to say, some pleasant to write, and even a few nice to look at. 'Procatalepsis' isn't my 10/10, but like the 1992 Summer Olympics US men's basketball Dream Team, it delivers on all fronts, charm and flair with a hint of gravitas and a splash of fun.

Recently, I was reading some rhetorical shtuff and their section on procatalepsis listed 'prebuttal' and 'prolepsis' as synonyms. Now, in the past I've thought of a 'prebuttal' as different enough from 'procatalepsis' so as to not use them interchangeably and 'prolepsis' was new to me, so I was excited to have to have new things to research, more runway down my research rabbit hole (this particular rabbit hole has a runway b/c it was built by highly advanced rabbits that have airplanes and universal healthcare). Even more exciting though was the new entry to my lexicon: prolepsis.

Now, I like to keep a melange of synonyms banked away in the ol' mental thesaurus; after all, a sundry store of synonyms supplies stock when making a sentence sandwich, story salad, even spice up a script salmagundi. Most importantly, it's the remedy to reduce rote repetition. That being said, in this instance, I think I'm going to stick with 'procatalepsis', and here's why. Butts. 'Prolepsis' looks like 'prolapses' which makes me think of a prolapsed butthole and I don't want to think about prolapsing buttholes. Then, if I say "prebuttal" I start thinking of a butt, a butthole, then I think there's another word for this I can use that won't make me think about butts, I use that word. Prolepsis. Prolapses. A prolapsed butthole. NOW I'M PICTURING PROLAPSING ANUSES (prolapsing ani?) AGAIN, fuck. So I'm just going to stick to calling it a procatalepsis, no but(t)s.

The difference lies in the scale of the damage. Breakage is like a jar falling off the windowsill, or a hole you made in the wall while your brother and you were busy play fighting. A Wreckage is a lot more extensive like your house after a hurricane. Something left after a wreckage is probably a lot less recognizable after whatever ravaged it.

Yassify: (verb) to digitally edit a photo or portrait using beauty filters or AI tools to make the subject look hyper-glamorous, theatrical, and often nearly unrecognisable [from this post https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/s/Q8w62PeR5Y]

Flystrike: (noun) (also known as myiasis) a painful and potentially fatal condition where flies lay eggs on a live animal, and the resulting maggots hatch and burrow into the animal's flesh to feed on its tissue [from this post https://www.reddit.com/r/GetNoted/s/8XZ1Qqs0AC]

Dykes: (noun) diagonal cutting pliers [from this comment https://www.reddit.com/r/whatdoIdo/s/ovlbrhMZ5M]

TQVM: “thank you very much” [from a conversation at work]

Princeps: (noun) a Latin word meaning "first in time or order," "foremost," "chief," or "first citizen" [from The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu]

Aptronym/ aptonym: (noun) a personal name that fittingly matches its owner's job, personality, or main characteristic [from this post https://www.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterTropes/s/EYktLgj0Wr]

Makeweight: (noun) something placed on a scale to make up the desired weight [from Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov]

When you're being high-handed, you act on your own without considering the feelings and thoughts of those around you. You abuse your authority, and generally very condescending towards other. High Handed is primarily used to describe people in positions of power who wield their power without considering what their cohorts or even the public think.(e.g., passing a law without anyone's input)

As in "restrict" or "limit"; it's an equestrian metaphor, people, and the correct word is *rein*, not "reign" (which is what a monarch does during his/her tenure). Seeing this multiple times a day recently.

Is there a reason why these words are spelled nearly identically the same, despite having somewhat different meanings?

Postiche-refers to something that's fake or counterfeit like a fake moustache

Pastiche-An intentional mimicry of a piece of work.(e.g., my song was a pastiche of Micheal Jackson's Thriller)

In Korea, we have the word "hmmteresting" (흠터레스팅 in Korean), which is a combination of "hmm" and "interesting"; it is not exactly slang, but quite a lot of people, at least those around me, use it.

How does it sound to native/non-native English speakers?

The difference lies in the scale of the damage. Breakage is like a jar falling off the windowsill, or a hole you made in the wall while your brother and you were busy play fighting. A Wreakage is a lot more extensive like your house after a hurricane. Something left after a wreckage is probably a lot less recognizable after whatever ravaged it.

If you’re desultory you don’t have a definite plan. You’re aimless and often jump from one thing to another. Constantly switching majors in college is a good example

Prevaricating refers to not telling the truth, not giving a direct answer, and being generally evasive. Should note prevaricating is different from just outright lying. Lying means a complete falsehood while prevaricating is using half truths rather than giving a false statement. For example, when your mother wants to see your report card, but you prevaricate and beat around the bush to avoid giving up the fact you got all F’s on your report card.