What a Travesty! The 5 Most Misused English Words
POST YOUR COMMENT
- Gary
- People love the word "literally". It's used to describe things that could not be taken figuratively or have no figurative counterpart. "I literally almost slipped on the ice".
-
REPLY
- 13/10/2017
- Floyd
- Dude, the English language is always changing. Travesty can be used interchangeably tragedy now, okay? Charles Dickens literally used the word 'literally' in a figurative connotation in his book Nicholas Nickleby! How is everyone okay with words like ''selfie and 'dab' being socially acceptable to insert into conversation but not word definitions being twisted a bit to fit the modern world? Now I do admit that homophones like 'your' and 'you're' are misused in writing, but with the would constantly shifting and changing, just accept the fact that old words gain new meaning over the passage of time.
-
- 04/01/2018
- Harry
- Perhaps you should check out the word Dude before you add you facile remarks
- 14/10/2020
- Non native English speaker.
- Yes, not only English, words in other languages also change meanings when generations go on. But that should not stop anyone to find out what the word has meant in the past. Our language builds upon the past. History defines what we are going to know, and we ought to know the links between past and present in order to make things work for the future.
-
- 09/09/2018
- Lover of language
- I think of 'travesty' as having a connotation of a betrayal of the original purpose or betrayal against the original subject. "It would be an absolute travesty [against the playwright] for the leading lady to improvise her lines in such a way as to make herself appear the villain." "It would be a travesty against the deer to allow the venison to rot." Does anyone else get this nuance of feeling when hearing 'travesty'?
-
- 20/11/2020
Stay informed
Subscribe to receive all the latest updates from Tomedes.