clemencedane writes:
'bemuse' means the same thing as 'confuse'. Many people seem to think 'bemuse' means 'to make mildly amused.'
M-W says: 1 : to make confused : puzzle, bewilder 2 : to occupy the attention of : distract, absorb 3 : to cause to have feelings of wry or tolerant amusement <seems truly bemuseed [sic] that people beyond his circle in Seattle would be interested in his ruminations — Ruth B. Smith>
clemencedane again:
I actually saw that definition 3. from M-W.com before I wrote to you and I figure they are being descriptive rather than prescriptive. I.e., they are acknowledging the widespread nature of the incorrect usage. I was in the middle of a Ph.D. in linguistics at Cornell then dropped out about ten years ago. We were taught to scientifically and non-judgmentally describe how people actually use words (even if it's "wrong") rather than how they ought to use them. This went against my grammar nazi soul. That's not why I dropped out, but now that I am no longer officially a linguist I've gone back to unashamedly labeling things "WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!"
God I love when someone cuts through the clutter like that. I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out to all the people who snottily took me to task for not using the far superior Merriam-Webster dictionary that M-W misspelled the word they were defining. dictionary.com is looking better all the time.
Tony Gore:
As used by all US flight attendants:
"We will be landing momentarily"
The correct version is:
"We will be landing soon"
Momentarily means that we will be landing for an extremely short time [Roll
when you hit! - Dan]
Often used where "flout" is meant. Flaunt means display conspicuously and flout means openly defy. Examples are not hard to find; this one came from Christopher Magan at http://www.middletownjournal.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/02/09/mj020907smoking.html:
Others have decided to flaunt the law until enforcement begins.
In an amusing twist I found a correct usage of flaunt in a Mirror (UK) article headlined "SHE USES BOOBS TOLURE MY MAN". Score one for the tabloids! It will be a better world when, immediately after memorizing the "i before e..." rule, schoolchildren learn "flaunt boobs, flout rules".
Means wasteful; used as a synonym for "wandering". Dear God this one makes me crazy. I believe this word is misused around 98% of the time. It's the one word more than any other that intelligent people will get wrong and just lumber past without a second thought. Examples are legion and I won't single any out, but if you are reading this please try not to do this yourself! This word has turned into a complete mess. I blame Jesus.
Means confuse or thwart, but I suspect it's used as a synonym for discomfort, as in http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/09/10/we_see_you_lee_we_see_you/:
SPREZZATURA. If there's a word guaranteed henceforth to discomfit the editors of The New Republic, that'll be it.
I can't prove this because you can usually make an argument for either meaning, but I think most examples like the one above are incorrect. If it was used properly more often it might be a PAW.
Often used figuratively, typically used to make a point sound more impressive (I'm so hungry I could eat a horse - literally!). No one worth impressing will be taken in.