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Thread: Lexical drift
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2024-01-29, 03:53 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Lexical drift
When I was a kid, I learned that you invite people to a party by sending "invitations".
Sometime in the past 20 years (I think) that changed. Now you probably send "invites", with the stress on the first syllable.
Listening to my daughter playing online with a friend yesterday, I heard the word come full circle. Now "invite", still with the stress on the first syllable, has become a verb again, meaning "to send an invite". I wonder if that change will stick.
Another usage I've heard from my daughter - instead of "by accident", she describes things as happening "on accident" - presumably in contrast to "on purpose". Is that just her, or is it more widespread?"None of us likes to be hated, none of us likes to be shunned. A natural result of these conditions is, that we consciously or unconsciously pay more attention to tuning our opinions to our neighbor’s pitch and preserving his approval than we do to examining the opinions searchingly and seeing to it that they are right and sound." - Mark Twain
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2024-01-29, 04:05 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2019
Re: Lexical drift
I've heard/seen people using it (though I live in a non-English speaking country so my exposure is mostly through the internet and pop culture), but it seems less popular than "by accident". I did a quick and thoroughly unscientific experiment by searching for either phrase on Google and the result was 10 000 000 results for "on accident" and 57 000 000 results for "by accident", for whatever it's worth.
EDIT: I just noticed that if I do the search multiple times, the amount of hits changes for some reason (maybe someone more knowledgeable about the mysteries of search engines can explain why?) but the numbers seem to stay roughly in the same ball park.Last edited by Batcathat; 2024-01-29 at 04:08 PM.
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2024-01-29, 04:38 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Sep 2016
Re: Lexical drift
"On accident" is typically more regional from what I understand.
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2024-01-29, 05:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2011
Re: Lexical drift
Interesting. I don't think I've ever heard "on accident" in my life.
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2024-02-17, 10:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2010
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2024-03-22, 11:01 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2024
- Location
- Louisville
- Gender
Re: Lexical drift
Language constantly evolves, and one fascinating phenomenon is lexical drift, where word meanings or usage change over time. For instance, "invitations" becoming "invites" as a verb, or "on accident" instead of "by accident," reflects this drift. It's intriguing how these shifts can be regional or generational, adding layers to the complexity of language.
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2024-03-22, 11:42 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2007
- Location
- Imagination Land
- Gender
Re: Lexical drift
"Invite" never stopped being a verb. It was becoming a noun (over invitation) that seems relatively new.
And "on accident" has (annoyingly) been a common phrase in the midwestern US for decades.
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2024-03-22, 12:15 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2021
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2024-03-23, 09:43 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
Re: Lexical drift
I'm in the Austin, TX area and I tend to hear both.
"That's a horrible idea! What time?"
T-Shirt given to me by a good friend.. "in fairness, I was unsupervised at the time".
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2024-03-24, 01:26 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Apr 2012
- Gender
Re: Lexical drift
I think I've heard "invite" used more often than "invitation" nowadays. Invitations are what kids receive to go to birthday parties or adults to weddings. Invites are for meetings and more casual affairs.
Other drifts:
- Ask has become a synonym for request. This is a big ask, but...
- Queuing versus being in line versus being on line. These may be variations more than drifts.
- Does the shift from using ad hoc text emojis to proper ones count? :P to 😛.
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2024-03-24, 11:28 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2009
Re: Lexical drift
"None of us likes to be hated, none of us likes to be shunned. A natural result of these conditions is, that we consciously or unconsciously pay more attention to tuning our opinions to our neighbor’s pitch and preserving his approval than we do to examining the opinions searchingly and seeing to it that they are right and sound." - Mark Twain
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2024-04-08, 08:03 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Dec 2018
Re: Lexical drift
We're witnessing what happens to language when far more of it is written and read than spoken and heard. It's fascinating.
“Rule is what lies between what is said and what is understood.”~Raja Rudatha, the Spider Prince
Golem Arcana