Misused Words

Ok, I know this is petty, but it drives me nuts! Misused words in posts and emails.

There is currently a post saying "I know I will take a lot of slack for this." No, you are cut some slack, you take flak. I assume the term originated from the word for bursting artillery shells, as in a lot of shit flying around.

Or people always saying they were "mortified" when they heard something that disgusted or disturbed them. The word you are looking for is "appalled". Mortified means deeply embarrassed.

I also had a friend who used to use the word paregoric as a synonym for nothing. For instance if we were playing cards and she had to throw in her hand she would say, "I had absolutely paregoric." I still haven't figured that one out.

I guess the point of this post is that if you hear a word and are not sure what it means, LOOK IT UP before using it yourself!

I'm done now, thank you.

I have a few peeves on this subject as well. While comments on a forum board aren't really expected to be grammatically correct, it is still irritating to see blatant errors.

My biggest complaint is the misuse of "then" and "than."

NO, they are not the same word. If pronounced right they sound different and you can see that they are spelled differently.

Then denotes a time period.
Than denotes comparisons.

"When ppl wrote correct English it was much better then, than it is now."

I literally had a heart attack. Literally misused is so common and bugs me to no end. I am not a fan of hate being used willy nilly either. I rarely use it, though I just did a couple posts ago! Hence is another word that people use very wrong. And the funny part of that is that they are trying to sound smart, but it comes off as stupid as hell.