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Pirated word:
Visionary
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Common usage: Person X is a visionary, or book X is a visionary look at the future. e.g. "The Road Ahead" is a visionary book. This may be a miss-use of the word through the implication that the person/author is somehow witnessing the future clearly. This is misleading on a couple of counts. First, it's applied to people who usually don't have this skill (e.g. not predicting the scope of the Internet until it is obvious) or look like they have this skill, but actually rely on friends in labs, research students etc to do the real work. The second reason is much funnier. The next time you see someone describing Bill Gates or Bill Joy as a visionary, just think of the classical definition - someone who is irrational, either really seeing visions, phantoms, spirits, or with an out of control imagination!

submitted by Dr

Pirated word:
vagina
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submitted by

Pirated word:
vamountaineer
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Virginia Mountaineer - newspaper in Grundy, VA pirated by fools..

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Pirated word:
van gogh subject
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Pirated word:
veggie
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There is no such word! Don't take it back -- send it back!

submitted by Jimmt Guterman

Pirated word:
verbiage
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What verbiage really is is excess wording, not needed to convey the intended meaning. Corporate types,however, like to say "verbiage" when they mean wording. The joke is that when they refer to their own writings as "verbiage" they may unintentionally be correct.

submitted by Jim Philips

Pirated word:
vetting
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submitted by

Pirated word:
volunteer
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During the days of the military draft, those who signed up for the six-month program (or a similar program) right before they were to be drafted were told they were a "volunteer." How absurd!

submitted by The Legal Eagle

Pirated word:
vote
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The most recent misuse I've noticed: on AOL they are asking people to vote on the question "Do you bring your own food when you fly?" What's voting about that?

submitted by

Pirated word:
voters
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submitted by

Pirated word:
vowels
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submitted by