ATTN: World

I'd be more worried about the many people who don't get that "a couple of" means two, not 5 or 7 or 13 or 3. If I say "A couple of customers walked out of the store while waiting for service," I'm not talking about throngs. I'm saying two customers left. People do not get this. If I meant more than two, I would have said "several."

Decimation, by the way, is being used properly by the people you bemoan. Their use matches the definition of the word as it appears in dictionaries. The word has more than one precise meaning, after all. My gripe with couple, on the other hand? There's no room there for debate. That likely won't remain the case for long, though. Enough morons use it to mean three or five or any single-digit number they like that in the near future, that'll be considered the standard meaning. Words and their definitions evolve and we just have to deal with it.

I bet the Romans are very happy that you're uploading upholding the integrity of their execution methods for mutinous legions.

Jason: That usage of "decimate", while commonly accepted, is not universally accepted. I'm one of a dwindling minority that's trying to hold on to the "proper" meaning of the word.

But you're absolutely right about "couple", that one also irks me. Oh, and "bemused".

How do people misuse bemused? Do they mean it as amused? If so, that is kind of annoying.

I actually agree with Jason, though, on both words he cites. To me, "destroy" or "greatly reduce" doesn't sound as powerful as "decimate" even if technically it's not supposed to. Truthfully, I didn't even know decimate had this "proper" meaning until you whined about it. XD

The "couple" misusage, though, is definitely strange to me. I always mean "two" when I use it.

Couple absolutely means two, and nothing else! Is there something wrong with all the people where you live?! Sounds like your population needs decimatin'!

Flagrant/blatant is worse.

This just in: "a couple" is now synonymous with "a few".

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST

Good info on decimate, though.

//Zig

I like your blog background.

I don't like it when people use the word "gay" to describe something bad. That one makes no sense in any dictionary north of Texas.

I'm from Texas.

//Zig

Jason: That usage of "decimate", while commonly accepted, is not universally accepted. I'm one of a dwindling minority that's trying to hold on to the "proper" meaning of the word.

If words had to be universally accepted to have meaning, then we never would get anywhere. I don't think there are too many words that are "universally" agreed upon.

Definitions are determined by how the population uses said word. There is no law or whatever that says any given word must have on definition for all eternity.

Jason is right; words can have multiple meanings.

That same logic could be applied to phrases such as "could of" or "could care less", hence the objection.