Expand Your Vocabulary

[Gravdigr]

I soooo want to pronounce that as "cockistocracy".

[fargon]

What Bruce said.

[Gravdigr]

[lumberjim]

I think i just have a NORMAL fear of being buried alive. Which is to say, that's about the worst way I could think of to die. I can't breathe right now.

[Gravdigr]

That last one was just for you Pennsylvaniacs!

[xoxoxoBruce]

1.wend
You rarely see a “wend” without a “way.” You can wend your way through a crowd or down a hill, but no one wends to bed or to school. However, there was a time when English speakers would wend to all kinds of places. “Wend” was just another word for “go” in Old English. The past tense of “wend” was “went” and the past tense of “go” was “gaed.” People used both until the 15th century, when “go” became the preferred verb, except in the past tense where “went” hung on, leaving us with an outrageously irregular verb.
Replaced with, boogie.

2.deserts
The “desert” from the phrase “just deserts” is not the dry and sandy kind, nor the sweet post-dinner kind. It comes from an Old French word for “deserve,” and it was used in English from the 13th century to mean “that which is deserved.” When you get your just deserts, you get your due. In some cases, that may mean you also get dessert, a word that comes from a later French borrowing.
Replaced with, pay-backs or karma.

3.eke
If we see “eke” at all these days, it’s when we “eke out” a living, but it comes from an old verb meaning to add, supplement, or grow. It’s the same word that gave us “eke-name” for “additional name,” which later, through misanalysis of “an eke-name” became “nickname.”
Replaced with, hustle.

4.sleight
“Sleight of hand” is one tricky phrase. “Sleight” is often miswritten as “slight” and for good reason. Not only does the expression convey an image of light, nimble fingers, which fits well with the smallness implied by “slight,” but an alternate expression for the concept is “legerdemain,” from the French léger de main,“ literally, "light of hand.” “Sleight” comes from a different source, a Middle English word meaning “cunning” or “trickery.” It’s a wily little word that lives up to its name.
Replaced with, trick.

5.roughshod
Nowadays we see this word in the expression “to run/ride roughshod” over somebody or something, meaning to tyrannize or treat harshly. It came about as a way to describe the 17th century version of snow tires. A “rough-shod” horse had its shoes attached with protruding nail heads in order to get a better grip on slippery roads. It was great for keeping the horse on its feet, but not so great for anyone the horse might step on.
Replaced wit, gimme your lunch money.

6.fro
The “fro” in “to and fro” is a fossilized remnant of a Northern English or Scottish way of pronouncing “from.” It was also part of other expressions that didn’t stick around, like “fro and till,” “to do fro” (to remove), and “of or fro” (for or against).
Replaced with, GTFO.

7.hue
The “hue” of “hue and cry,” the expression for the noisy clamor of a crowd, is not the same “hue” as the term we use for color. The color one comes from the Old English word híew, for “appearance.” This hue comes from the Old French hu or heu, which was basically an onomatopoeia, like “hoot.”
Replaced with, bass line.

8.lurch
When you leave someone “in the lurch,” you leave them in a jam, in a difficult position. But while getting left in the lurch may leave you staggering around and feeling off-balance, the “lurch” in this expression has a different origin than the staggery one. The balance-related lurch comes from nautical vocabulary, while the lurch you get left in comes from an old French backgammon-style game called lourche. Lurch became a general term for the situation of beating your opponent by a huge score. By extension it came to stand for the state of getting the better of someone or cheating them.
Replaced with, gotcha sucker.

9.umbrage
“Umbrage” comes from the Old French ombrage (shade, shadow), and it was once used to talk about actual shade from the sun. It took on various figurative meanings having to do with doubt and suspicion or the giving and taking of offense. To give umbrage was to offend someone, to “throw shade.” However, these days when we see the term “umbrage” at all, it is more likely to be because someone is taking, rather than giving it.
Replaced with, come at me bro.

10.shrift
We might not know what a shrift is anymore, but we know we don’t want to get a short one. “Shrift” was a word for a confession, something it seems we might want to keep short, or a penance imposed by a priest, something we would definitely want to keep short. But the phrase “short shrift” came from the practice of allowing a little time for the condemned to make a confession before being executed. So in that context, shorter was not better.
Replaced with, ain't nobody got time for dat.

[xoxoxoBruce]

This is a difficult training exercise for your expanded vocabulary.

[sexobon]

An oldie but goodie.

[Gravdigr]

And, still, they don't know whether to use a question mark, or a period.

[Gravdigr]

[Gravdigr]

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'll be foudroyanted if that becomes commonly used.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A couple of these surprised me.

Data is a plural count noun not, standardly speaking, a mass noun.
Correct: "This datum supports the theory, but many of the other data refute it."

Disinterested means unbiasedand does not mean uninterested.
Correct: "The dispute should be resolved by a disinterested judge." / Why are you so uninterested in my story?

Enormity means extreme evil and does not mean enormousness.
Correct: The enormity of the terrorist bombing brought bystanders to tears. / The enormousness of the homework assignment required several hours of work.

Flounder means to flop around ineffectually and does not mean to founder or to sink to the bottom.
Correct: "The indecisive chairman floundered." / "The headstrong chairman foundered."

Fulsome means unctuous or excessively or insincerely complimentary and does not mean full or copious.
Correct: She didn't believe his fulsome love letter. / The bass guitar had a full sound.

Homogeneous is pronounced as homo-genius and "homogenous" is not a word but a corruption of homogenized.
Correct: The population was not homogeneous; it was a melting pot.

Hung means suspended and does not mean suspended from the neck until dead.
Correct: I hung the picture on my wall. / The prisoner was hanged.

Ironic means uncannily incongruent and does not mean inconvenientor unfortunate.
Correct: "It was ironic that I forgot my textbook on human memory." / It was unfortunate that I forgot my textbook the night before the quiz.

Irregardless is not a word but a portmanteau of regardless and irrespective.
Correct: Regardless of how you feel, it's objectively the wrong decision. / Everyone gets a vote, irrespective of their position.

Nonplussed means stunned, bewildered and does not mean bored, unimpressed.
Correct: "The market crash left the experts nonplussed." / "His market pitch left the investors unimpressed."

Practicable means easily put into practice and does not mean practical.
Correct: His French was practicable in his job, which required frequent trips to Paris./ Learning French before taking the job was a practical decision.
(my spellcheck refuses to accept practical, insisting on practicable, almost had me convinced I was wrong)

Protagonist means active character and does not mean proponent.
Correct: "Vito Corleone was the protagonist in 'The Godfather.' " / He is a proponent of solar energy.

Refute means to prove to be false and does not mean to allege to be false, to try to refute.
Correct: His work refuted the theory that the Earth was flat.

Reticent means shy, restrained and does not mean reluctant.
Correct: He was too reticent to ask her out. / "When rain threatens, fans are reluctant to buy tickets to the ballgame."

Urban legend means an intriguing and widely circulated but false story and does not mean someone who is legendary in a city.
Correct: "Alligators in the sewers is an urban legend." / Al Capone was a legendary gangster in Chicago.

To lie (intransitive: lies, lay, has lain) means to recline; to lay (transitive: lays, laid, has laid) means to set down; to lie (intransitive: lies, lied, has lied) means to fib.
Correct: He lies on the couch all day. / He lays a book upon the table. / He lies about what he does.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Hung means suspended and does not mean suspended from the neck until dead.
Correct: I hung the picture on my wall. / The prisoner was hanged.

What if the prisoner had a big dick?

[DanaC]

Then he was a well-hung, hanged prisoner.