Asklemmy

43893 readers

1553 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

157

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

submitted 11 months ago by shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

256 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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] feinstruktur@lemmy.ml 9 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In German we use the English term 'understatement' in some occasions, e.g. 'his dressing style is a clear understatement...'. My brain somehow tied the meaning to something like 'understanding', maybe due to the similarities of both words. For decades it was clear to me that someone dressing like that were dressed to the point and 'making a clear statement'. Now that I've checked the real meaning, I'm completely puzzled when and how to use the term and what I've misinterpreted all the years...

[–] MaXsteri@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

You might have been looking for the term understated.

As in, to dress in an understated style. Which relates to simplicity, elegance, and versatility.

[–] macgyver@federation.red 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Understatement would be like “it’s just sprinkling” when it’s actually raining really bad. Typically used sarcastically when someone tries to compare the situation to something that is normally comparable but to a lesser degree.

Unless I am unclear on what you’re misunderstanding :)