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What's a word you've spent a long time not using right? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

249 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what "tories" meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it's not usual to use it as short for "territories" as I've used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I'm reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing "encephalitis" with "hydrocephalus" when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Inflammable means flammable? What a country

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Inflammable means it catches fire and flammable means it starts fires. Maybe. I guess. I'm not a chemist

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

You have those backwards, flammable means it can easily catch fire in the presence of an ignition source. Inflammable means it can easily catch fire even without an ignition source. I remember the different because inflammable is Immediately flammable without help.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep, they mean the same thing irregardless.

[–] PorkTaco 3 points 11 months ago