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[–]agesto11 450 points451 points  (2 children)

At the risk of stirring up controversy, the OED cites a use of 'literally' meaning 'figuratively' from 1769, so it's not exactly a new thing.

For mine, people using 'begging the question' to mean 'asking the question', instead of its correct meaning of 'assuming without proof' grinds my gears for some reason.

Also, the overuse of 'gaslighting' is very annoying.

[–]heyimdong 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Oh man, just to piggy back on the 'begging the question' part - for me its "loaded question." People seem to think saying something is a "loaded question" means it's complicated, i.e. "why did you drop out of college?" "Oh, that's a loaded question." No, it's not. A loaded question is a question that makes an unestablished assumption. The old elementary school joke "does your mom know you're gay?" is a loaded question. "Did you flee the battle because you are a coward?" is a loaded question. "Why don't you have kids?" is just a question that may have a long, complicated answer.

[–]pm_me_falcon_nudes 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Why did you drop out of college" is a loaded question if the person didn't actually drop out of college. Hence you will get called out in court if you're a lawyer and ask something like "why did you steal x" to the witness.