A skunked term is a word that becomes difficult to use because it is
transitioning from one meaning to another, perhaps inconsistent or even opposite, usage, or a word that becomes difficult to use due to other controversy surrounding the word.
may insist on the old usage, while
descriptivists may be more open to newer usages. Readers may not know which sense is meant especially when
prescriptivist
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
s insist on a meaning that accords with interests that often conflict.
The term was coined by
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
Bryan A. Garner in ''
Garner's Modern American Usage
''Garner's Modern English Usage'' (''GMEU''), written by Bryan A. Garner and published by Oxford University Press, is a usage dictionary and style guide (or 'prescriptive dictionary') for contemporary Modern English. It was first published in 1 ...
'' and has since been adopted by some other
style guide
A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...
s.
[Ben Yagoda, ''How to Not Write Bad: The Most Common Writing Problems and the Best Ways to Avoid Them'', , 2013, p. 82 and ''passim''.]
Usage
Garner recommends avoiding such terms if their use may distract readers from the intended meaning of a text.
Some terms, such as "
fulsome", may become skunked, and then eventually revert to their original meaning over time.
Examples
* "
Hopefully" used to mean "in a hopeful manner" but has come to mean "it is hoped" since the early 1960s.
* "
Niggardly
In the United States, there have been several controversies involving the misunderstanding of the word ''niggardly'', an adjective meaning "stingy" or "miserly", because of its phonetic similarity to ''nigger'', an ethnic slur used against bla ...
" means "miserly" or "parsimonious", but is rarely used in modern English because it is easily confused with the slur "
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
", despite their separate etymologies.
* Other examples include "
Oriental
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
", "
data
In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...
", and "
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
".
* "
Literally
''Literally'' is an English adverb. It has been controversially used as an intensifier for figurative statements.
History
The first known use of the word ''literally'' was in the 15th century, or the 1530s, when it was used in the sense of "in ...
" is widely used to mean "
figuratively".
* The "
deep web
The deep web, invisible web, or hidden web are parts of the World Wide Web whose contents are not indexed by standard web search-engine programs. This is in contrast to the " surface web", which is accessible to anyone using the Internet. Co ...
" is often confused with the "
dark web
The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on ''darknets'': overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communi ...
".
* A "moot point" in
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
has historically meant a point that is worth debating, but the meaning is shifting towards that in
US English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
of a point that is irrelevant or academic.
* "Biweekly" has come to mean either "occurring every two weeks" or "occurring twice a week". The same ambiguity exists for the word "bimonthly".
* "Disinterested" is widely used to mean "uninterested" whereas the primary meaning is "unbiased".
*"Humbled" originally meant "be brought low" but is often used to mean "be honored."
*"It's all downhill from here" originally meant to become easier but is widely used to mean becoming worse or more difficult.
See also
*
Autoantonym
References
{{reflist
Lexicology