That’s not what that means
Let us air our word-use grievances
Today, make a list of popular misnomers, semantics nightmares and otherwise misused names and words that get under your skin; words and phrases that are simply inaccurate af and yet somehow widely used like nbd. Make your list then pick one and write about it today. (Save the others to your main ideas file to write about another time.)
For example, using the word “beauty” when we mean “cosmetics” makes my skin crawl on many layers (um, mostly because only rampant consumerism like this would have us use language to so closely conflate products with appearance). Ditto “lockdown” when we mean “public safety measures” and not say “thing that happens in a prison.” And, don’t get me started on using “nationality” when we mean “ethnicity.”
Hey! Got a book, writing workshop or writerly Substack to promote? Promote it here with a guest writing prompt post. For now, it’s free for authors/writers/facilitators and only really requires writing a prompt that doesn’t suck and answering a couple of questions. Email me at amy [at] amyguth [dot] com to get on the schedule.