Pirated word:
La Brea Tar Pits
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(La) brea means tar in Spanish. Tar tar pits? submitted by Gracie-A
Pirated word:
Land ho
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submitted by
Pirated word:
Landlubber
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submitted by
Pirated word:
Large
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What has happened to Small, Medium, and Large. It is now too often Small, Large, and Extra Large (or Family Size or Party Size or whatever). If you only have three sizes, they should be called Small, Medium, and Large. Save the fancy terms for the biggest of four or more size choices. submitted by Keith Thompson
Pirated word:
Learn
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Why do schools never seem to TEACH the difference between teach and learn ?
(See the comments in the entry for "it's" for an example. submitted by
Pirated word:
Learn more
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Often used as a link on a corporate web site, what it really means is "give us another chance to pitch you." My objection is to the blurring of the boundary between selling (that is, information with spin) and knowledge (that is, information without spin). submitted by Ed Lycett
Pirated word:
Leverage
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The word "Leverage" has been buzzing around alot lately, about how the managers need IT profesionals to "Leverage our current systems". I always thought leverage is a physical thing you did to move something, so what do they mean? are they going to place a board underneath a server and send it flying into the ceiling? think about the mess that would make with the foam tiles..... submitted by Jerry Loss
Pirated word:
Liberal
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Dictionary definition:
Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.
What it has come to mean: in the last 25 years the word "liberal" has become code for all the "worst" political traits of people on the left of the political spectrum... even if the ideas themselves are NO LONGER ideas for reform! In fact, when you look at the definition of the word subjects like welfare reform are liberal... unless you're in America, in which case they are conservative? That's another one... submitted by cheryl
Pirated word:
Liberty
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Liberty is the state of personal freedom, typically from the government.
When George Bush refers to "the enemies of liberty", he mean terrorists and people he can tie to them. And he's using his war against the "enemies of liberty" as an excuse to deprive all Americans of their constitutional liberties and an unknown number of foreigners of their physical liberty. submitted by Barry Parr
Pirated word:
Light Year
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The DISTANCE light travels in a year, fer cryin' out loud. NOT time, distance. Get it? Got it? Good! submitted by UTroorat
Pirated word:
Literally
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"Literally" means that you're saying something that is normally meant figuratively, but in this case, it's an accurate representation of reality. ("I was literally on fire last night. No, really...I dropped a lit cigarette in my lap.") Most people now say "literally" as emphasis. Don't say you were "literally in hot water" if you weren't in danger of scalding. submitted by quantumpanda
Pirated word:
lame
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submitted by
Pirated word:
land
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submitted by
Pirated word:
language
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I don't know where else to put this, and I imagine that this will create quite the stir, but I have to say what's on my mind.
I have yet to come across one word on here that, when used in today's context, doesn't make sense to me. I appreciate the old definitions, but that's what they are--old. Inherently, language was made for man, not man for language. Why should words not morph into another meaning? The whole point of language is to communicate; if a word comes to mean something other than its original meaning, it means that society is changing. That's a good thing.
My .02. submitted by Lex
Pirated word:
lawyer
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vipers its the real name for lawyer submitted by tommy butler
Pirated word:
lean
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submitted by
Pirated word:
lee
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submitted by
Pirated word:
legend
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Alegend is a traditional story popularily regarded as a historica myth. I can also mean an inscription. It does NOT mean a successful or prominent sportsperson!! submitted by george
Pirated word:
lemon
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submitted by
Pirated word:
lend / borrow
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Not interchangable, folks. You do not borrow something to someone, you lend it, as in I'll lend you a dollar NOT I'll borrow you a dollar. Is this just a problem in the mid-west? submitted by Jess
Pirated word:
lesbo
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submitted by
Pirated word:
letīs rock
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submitted by
Pirated word:
level playing field
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A "level playing field" usually implies applying a penalty rather than creating fair circumstances.
In my state, banks continually seek to "level the playing field" in their competition with credit unions for retail financial services. What this really means is that the banks would like to see the member owned and not for profit cooperatives taxed like they are as shareholder owned profitable businesses. submitted by Frank Paynter
Pirated word:
leverage
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submitted by
Pirated word:
liberal
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Free markets. Level playing field. Government support for the basics that the free market doesn't provide left to itself. Nah, now "liberal" has been deliberately paired with "tax and spend" and "reverse racism" and has been painted as unacceptably radical.
Too bad. We need liberalism within our political spectrum. submitted by David Weinberger
Pirated word:
liberated
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stolen submitted by Gary
Pirated word:
library
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submitted by
Pirated word:
library patron
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people who use a library.
patrons pay for something; public libraries don't require users to pay. submitted by
Pirated word:
life insurance
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Fire insurance = insurance against fire
So shouldn't life insurance be called death insurance? submitted by John
Pirated word:
lifestyle
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They've taken two words ("life" and "style") which
are reliable, decent words and which we should take
back... and turned them into one word ("lifestyle")
which we should simply destroy because it's totally
meaningless except to to people hell bent on selling
you something you don't need or want. To quote
Elizabeth Young; "People have lives, not
lifestyles." submitted by Clay
Smith
Pirated word:
like
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It's been, like, pirated to become ubiquitous oral punctuation. submitted by Jon
Pirated word:
like... you know?
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It sucks. Don't say it so much y'all, mkay? submitted by cbrokaw
Pirated word:
lily
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submitted by
Pirated word:
literally
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"It was so hot yesterday I was literally melting." No, you weren't. Literally means, "I'm not using a figure of speech." People use the word as if it means the opposite of what it really means. submitted by tomx
Pirated word:
loan
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One can make a loan. One can take out a loan. One does not, however, loan things. One lends things. Do not ask, "Yo, can ya loan me the ....?" Ask, instead, "Yo, can ya lend me the ....?" He lent me the money; it was a loan. submitted by Cameron
Pirated word:
logiciel word
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submitted by
Pirated word:
lonly fool
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a "lonly fool" is a pirate with no love no friends and no famliy
submitted by Dmoney playa1
Pirated word:
look
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submitted by
Pirated word:
loose
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You don't loose your money in Las Vegas, you lose it. submitted by Bob Denny
Pirated word:
loose ends
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submitted by
Pirated word:
loser
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some people were moking stupid kids submitted by john
Pirated word:
loss
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Corporations and industry associations report "losses" of money that they never actually possessed. When you hear someone like the BSA or RIAA saying that they "lost" billions of dollars to software or music "pirates", what they actually mean is they came up with some (probably inflated) numbers of how many people copied their "intellectual property" without permisson and multiplied that by the full retail price of the supposedly "stolen" "goods". Besides the fact that this isn't a real loss of anything they actually had, they also purposefully neglect to consider that not all of those "thieves" would have the means or desire to purchase what they "stole" at the full retail price (or even a more realistically reduced price,) meaning that a significant percentage can't even be counted as loss of potential sales. So "loss," in this sense, actually means "what we would have liked to have made but didn't." submitted by
submitted by
Pirated word:
love
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Pirated word:
low-cost
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refers to subsistence level housing, coined by Harold Ickes, Esq. Roosevelt Administration advisor. Protologism 1934, neologism 1954 on publication of "The Secret Diaries of Harold Ickes - The First One Thousand Days." Low is a reference to economic class status (as in lowborn) and 'cost' is the price of acquisition. It has been correctly applied to a fewe other necessities of life, like housing, but even electricity and telephone have migrated to the specialty descriptor 'lifeline.'
Consumer goods that are inexpensive are not 'low-cost.' Since when did something that is government sponsored or acquired ever cost very little; usually just the opposite.
The Wall Street Journal has recently and repeatedly used the phrase in headlines incorrectly to apply to the 'low-cost' acquisition of deep well oil reserves by a private holding company that sells off the shallow wells at a gain and keeps the deep ones in the hopes that the high price of oil will justify the future cost of deep extraction. submitted by
Pirated word:
luddite
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The luddites were a group of men who were faced with the destruction of their livelihoods by new weaving machines. In response to this they would go to the factories that had such weaving machines and smash them up.
The word luddite is now ascribed to anyone resistant to change as though the luddites greivance was that weaving machines were new and so bad. By it's new definition luddites are the kind of people who would complain at the word "pirate" being given a new meaning whereas to really qualify the new definitions should adversely affect their livelihoods and they probably ought to go round and smash them up so they can continue to make a living out of the old definitions. submitted by
Pirated word:
luddites
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submitted by
Pirated word:
luded
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submitted by
Pirated word:
lurid
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submitted by
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