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1、Top 10 misused words,王惠玲,Many people who have had to proof read documents start to develop a kind of compulsive“tutting”at misused words.Heres the top ten words that are misused by either professional writers or public speakers who,lets be honest,should really know better.,10-Refute,“Refute”means to
2、“disprove with evidence”and yet its commonly used,even by professional writers,to mean“rebut”which carries a similar meaning but isnt so strong,as it also mean“argue against”,9-instant,9-Instant,Nowadays,its almost universally assumed that“instant”actually means“quickly”or“without intervention”.Obvi
3、ously,it does not.It actually refers to a precise moment in time.Google Instant(谷歌即搜)is a good example.,8-Enormity,“Enormity”means“extreme evil”,but its often used to mean“enormousness”.The former US President,George HW Bush missed this one when he said after being elected that he“couldnt believe th
4、e enormity of the situation.”,7-Less,“Less”is used when comparing quantities that cant be counted;for example,“Id like less milk.”If youre comparing quantities like bagels then“fewer”should be used.But you do not,7-Less,win many competitions with a tie break if you point out that“25 words or less”sh
5、ould actually be“25 words or fewer”.The antonyms“more than”and“greater than”get similarly misused.Programmers will know the comparison operators are referred to as“greater than and less than”;it should really be“greater than and fewer than”.,6-Chronic,Chronic is originally a medical term meaning“lon
6、g term”;it has the same root as“chronometer”(精密计时器).Someone suffering from chronic pain has long term pain.Its often used to mean“very bad”-in fact“acute”should be used instead.,5-Literally,This is such a widely known misused word that examples are less common,as most people know to avoid the term w
7、hich should be used to describe something that is actually happening.,5-Literally,For example,“He literally danced with joy.”but should not be used for emphasis.“Steam was literally coming out of his ears.”This example quotes a,now deceased,reverend gentleman who seemed to rejoice in,frankly,daft op
8、inions,including one about a“literal homosexual steamroller”.,4-Panacea,“Panacea”means a cure all;it comes from the same Greek root as“panorama”.It shouldnt be used to imply a cure for a single thing,and yet thereis a newspaper saying:“SOUTH AFRICA:Welfare payments a panacea for poverty?”,3-Disinter
9、ested,Does“disinterested”mean the same as“uninterested”?No,3-Disinterested,“Disinterested”means that a party is independent;so a dispute might be settled by a disinterested party.“Uninterested”means the party has no interest.“I asked John if he wanted to go to the cricket,but he was completely unint
10、erested.”,2-Decimate,Decimation was a Roman punishment where one in ten men was killed.So when something is decimated,it implies that ten percent of it is destroyed.“Devastate”is almost certainly a better word for most usages andyet:“New York City budget will decimate libraries”.,1-Ultimate,From the
11、 Latin,this means the last in a list of items.But its so widely used to indicate the best;a Google search for“ultimate phone”gives 307 million hits.,1-Ultimate,This is probably the most misused word on the Internet;type“ultimate”into Google and thousands of hits come up,pretty much all of them using it as“the best”.However,for a change,this is the ultimate entry in this list.,Thanks,
