One of my greatest pet peeves is people misusing words. I am for sure guilty of it, but that doesn’t mean that I still don’t tense up when i hear someone drop Peruse incorrectly…
ATTENTION:
PERUSE ACTUALLY MEANS to READ THOROUGHLY/CAREFULLY
NOT NOT NOT SKIM.
But that is not the point of this post. What I want to tackle is much larger than PERUSE. I want to try to put a stop to people (really just drunk 17-25 year olds) using the word belligerent incorrectly.
All one has to do is spend 25 minutes in a college cafeteria or tap into a high school phone convo to hear its mis usage. Typically it goes a little something like this, “oh my gawh I was so belligerent last night.”
One would think that this meant that the 17-25 year old bro/biddy was participating in some aggressive or warlike behavior…since that is the definition of the word. But no. Somewhere between learning to ride a bike and learning how to act like an ass at a party this demographic learned that belligerent means drunk, which needless to say needs to be unlearned. When trying to express that they got drunk at the social function they will say they got belligerent.
TODAY’S Lesson:
Relearning the meaning of Belligerent
While being really drunk can at times lead to belligerent behavior (aggressive or warlike behavior), the state of being drunk is not mutually exclusive with the state of belligerence. Meaning, if one is drunk they are not always belligerent. In fact, I would be seriously worried if everyone was have a belligerent time at the party cause that would mean no one was having a happy drunk, or a fun drunk, or a sexy drunk, or a dancy drunk. So now you know. belligerent does not just mean drunk. In fact it is not directly attached to being intoxicated at all.
Lesson done.
3 responses so far ↓
gdf5000 // July 10, 2008 at 12:21 am |
If it really pains you some much to listen to 17 – 25 year olds speaking incorrectly then don’t listen in on their conversations. I agree that some kids sound ridiculous when describing a party from last night, but why should you care? Just don’t listen. Didn’t your mom teach you how to ignore? Also, some people who use the word belligerent actually act belligerently. I don’t know the last time you were at a college campus, but there are a fair number of fights that will breakout between multiple college students, and these kids act belligerently.
The Eighth Art // July 10, 2008 at 6:23 am |
We care because it is our language and we don’t want to hear it butchered.
Eric // December 26, 2008 at 11:59 am |
Thank You!!! I hear people say “Last night I was so belligerent, it was embarrassing.”
So I respond with, “Were you trying to fight someone or yelling at people?”
Their response, “No, I was just drunk.”
Umm… wrong word. Don’t use “big” words you don’t understand. Ha ha!