verbicide

[prettygoodword]

verbicide - n., the willful distortion of the meaning of a word.


That being, in a sense, "killing" the word. Again, coined from Latin roots -- in this case, in 1858.

---L.

Comments

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Obligatory reference to the well-known Alanis Morissette song.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Whoops, I missed this. Which song does she use verbicide in?

---L.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

She doesn't use the word, she just does it - "Ironic". (Actually, looking at the Wikipedia article, she seems pretty much a class act about it.)

(And really, at this point it's more like "language evolution", but the reference is obligatory, nonetheless.)

[larryhammer]

Oh, THAT. Yes. Good example (and one that bugs me, because otherwise it's a really good pop song).

---L.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

See, speaking as an Alanis Morissette fan, there's one thing you gotta know: she's not good with words. "Malapropism queen", in her own words. There are exceptions (I think "Hand in My Pocket" is one), but most of the time you just gotta let it go or not listen to the track.

That said, on reflection, it's not really verbicide, given that it's unintentional - the real examples would be phrases like "reeducation camp", or use of the term "terrorist" to mean "people I don't like".

[amanen.livejournal.com]

That song always bothered me just a bit precisely because of its verbicide.