this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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Enormity does not mean great size, it means more like great evil. I gave up the fight for this word because with even the BBC misusing it, I was never going to win. Now both meanings appear in the dictionary. What can you do? Most people who are conflating two things don't care, so they are always going to say "huh. Why so you care so much?" In my case, that only has boring potential answers, but in your case it has an easy answer few are unmoved by, so I would drop the fight for the original meaning of words when society has moved on if I were you.
Linguists define the meaning of a word from its use. You can't prevent language change as an individual, and this one is always going to get interpreted a particular way. Give up. Already dictionaries literally list figuratively as a meaning for literally. It's not going to work and it's not worth your time.
You seem very wise and it's a shame to see you gave up on things like this. One thing is to not care another is to completely give up in despair..
For me it is not about the word, it is about the impact on the world it has when the word isn't used correctly. Quite literally there is more kids being abused because people misuse this word. And I would personally feel sick giving up on that (not trying to say you should, I get that everyone can't fight every battle). So my only ask is even if you don't want to fight some specific battle, don't stop others from doing so :D
No. Absolutely not. People abuse kids because their power and gratification is more important to them than children's lives. They don't give a shit about the meaning of words.
You seem to miss my point. When people misuse the word pedophile (what they usually mean is predator) they make it harder for pedophiles to get the help they need and thus creating more predators. Of course I'm not defending them here, it is entirely their own fault, but that doesn't change the fact that misusing this word and shaming them for feelings that they don't act upon is making it worse.