this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2026
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Language is always changing. At one point 'an apron' was 'a napron' while words like 'literally' are no longer literally literal. What are some language battles that have been lost in living memory and what are some others you predict will soon occur?

Edit: Non-english examples very welcome!

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[–] chunes@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

People no longer double-space after sentences.  No one cares that further compares metaphorical distance and farther compares physical distance.  Most people seem to think that joining two independent clauses with a comma (a comma splice) is just fine.  Things are now done on accident instead of by accident.  Compute used to be something you did; now, it's something you rent.  People seem to have given up on less being used for uncountable things and fewer for countable things.  Now they just use less for everything.  People these days are enamored 'by' something instead of with it (or of it, for our British friends).

[–] blackbrook@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

Unique coming to just mean unusual.

[–] _deleted_@aussie.zone 40 points 4 days ago (6 children)

“Decimating” no longer means killing ten percent as the Romans did; now it is used to mean the killing of a majority, so it’s close to the opposite of its original meaning.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I thought decimating meant reducing to a tenth, as in removing 90%?

[–] Prime@lemmy.sdf.org 18 points 4 days ago

No. It meant killing every tenth soldier in a line

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[–] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (9 children)

Australian English language is now largely Americanised, a process that started in the post-war era is now mostly complete.

  • Terms such as 'gaol' have been widely replaced by 'jail'.
  • 'Programme' is mostly replaced by 'program'.
  • A 'car bonnet' is likely to be called a 'hood'.
  • 'Play lunch' is mostly replaced with 'recess'.
  • 'Pusher' is mostly called a 'pram'
  • 'Lacker band' is now mostly just 'rubber band'.
  • 'Boomer' no longer means kangaroo, but instead 'Old person.'

I'm not really bothered by it or anything, but it's been interesting to see it shift even over my lifetime.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Y’all still got dual carriageways over there?

[–] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Is that an Australian-ism? I don't remember it ever coming up in conversation with my American or British friends.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 1 points 4 hours ago

Yeah it’s a divided highway. I got directions once that included what I heard as a “jewel carriageway” and had just a very confusing time getting that clarified.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 points 4 days ago

I'd say pram is still pretty British ("I have to push the pram-a-lot!") in the US it would be almost definitely stroller.

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Americans don't use pram though, we say stroller

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago

Elden Ring is trying to bring the spelling back to "gaol."

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[–] Ydna@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Ending sentences with propositions, and getting them jumbled around. My work does it in their advertisements and i cry every time.

"See what classes you can register for." Or modifying it to be worse; "see what classes you can register for fast"

[–] CedricWhaley@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

propositions

Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?

[–] Ydna@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

LOL I'm gonna leave it that way 🤣

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 29 points 4 days ago (5 children)

We were always supposed to put punctuation inside quotation marks; however, now it seems to be the user's choice of inside or outside. And I have to admit that most of the time when I’m using quotes, it seems more logical to me to place the punctuation outside of them.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

We were always supposed to put punctuation inside quotation marks;

Isn't this a US English thing? In India we were taught to close them like brackets - i.e., the one that opened last closes first. So

'Don't wait. I will come later.'

But

He said 'I will come later'.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

You know, I actually prefer that it be variable, but only when it serves a purpose.

Like, if Im quoting someone "I might want to indicate that they completed a sentence.", but also continue beyond it.

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[–] JoseALerma@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Pour one out for the Oxford Comma .

Let's eat Grandma

Commas save lives!

[–] 1hitsong@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

From my cold dead hands!!

[–] HamsterRage@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Us that technically a missing Oxford comma, or just a missing comma?

[–] JoseALerma@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

The grandma quote is a missing comma in general, but there's another reply with a missing Oxford Comma.

Although punctuation is waning, I'm willing to spend the time to use it.

[–] racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The rich couple, me and ScarJo donated ten thousand dollars to a local charity school.

[–] likebudda@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Y'all make a cute couple but she's doing the heavy lifting.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 2 days ago

That's typical of her relationships.

[–] LeftReddit2@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago (21 children)

Loose and lose might as well be the same word these days. Drives me up a damn wall.

That and "POV" doesn't mean what it used to mean anymore. Also drives me up a wall.

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

Ain't ain't a word.

It is now.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Literally is still understood, it just gets misused.

Going in a bit of a different direction, emojis and things like /s are well understood now, which is an addition.

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[–] RavuAlHemio@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (3 children)

From my perspective, literally being used for emphasis does not actually change its meaning, it’s simply hyperbole.

If you complain that you’ve been “waiting for hours”, even though it’s been 45 minutes, that doesn’t change the meaning of “hours”, you’re just exaggerating.

Hyperbole is a stylistic element; style is a completely different level of language than grammar/spelling/semantics (word meanings). As another example of style, ending a sentence with a preposition is grammatically correct but stylistically not recommended.

[–] _deleted_@aussie.zone 11 points 4 days ago

“I’ve told you a million times, don’t exaggerate”

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[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Not exactly what you're asking, but double spaces after ends of sentences.

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[–] lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I suppose the word "boomer" has changed meaning very quickly. It rarely gets used anymore to refer to actual boomers (people born just after WW2) and instead now can refer either vaguely to anyone older than 30, or anyone with an antiquated/problematic notion of social norms.

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[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 16 points 4 days ago (3 children)

"begging the question". it's not the same as "bringing up a question", it means assuming your conclusion is true in the course of an argument

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[–] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago (11 children)

I miss double spaces after periods.

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 11 points 4 days ago (3 children)

We were taught single space in the mid 90s, so that can't be too recent.

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[–] Dagobah@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

LUXURY!BACKINMYDAYWEDIDNTHAVESPACES.DONTGETMESTARTEDONTHISLOWERCASENONSENSE

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[–] likebudda@reddthat.com 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Apple put the nail in the coffin for adverbs when "Think different" let illiterates think they were speaking correctly.

[–] tomenzgg@midwest.social 5 points 3 days ago

*speaking correct

.I'm so sorry; I couldn't help myself

[–] NathanDerWeise@feddit.org 8 points 4 days ago (3 children)

While not totally gone, German's genitive case (which is used to show ownership) is becoming less and less common. They have both the genetive case as well as their equivalent of " 's " - which is just "s," if you're wondering. Example:

Der Herr der Ringe.

The Lord of the Rings. It would normally be "die Ringe," but it becomes "der" in the genetive case.

Another transition in German is that the "formal you" is being used less and less frequently. I understand this is the case for a few other European languages as well.

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[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Presently used to mean "soon" or "in a bit" but now means "happening right now"

The meaning of bemused is similar to "befuddled", but it's more often used as if it means "amused"

It used to be a firm rule that you mustn't end a sentence in a proposition.

[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 10 points 4 days ago

"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put." - attributed to Churchill

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