Writers trying (and failing) to fake literacy and their tendency to misuse words they _think_ they know the meanings of simply manage to spread subliteracy. Today’s misused word (out of MANY by noon, despite the fact that I have not been on the Interwebs longer than 20 minutes today before now): utilize. No, it does not simply mean “use” in more (unnecessary) syllables. It either means a chemical process wherein the uptake of a nutrient is effected or to effectively use a thing for a purpose for which it was not originally intended (Thus “utilize” is often proper referring to redneck reengineering of common items for new, and often unique, applications. 🙂 ) At least, those were _once_ the very useful distinctions between “use” and “utilize,” but as subliterates spread their “mass-man” (TY, Ortega) influence to other subliterates, a once very useful word is becoming simply a pedestrian means of distinguishing between literates and subliterates.
Oh, and an annoyance to anyone who wants to genuinely master English.
This just seems to me to be more evidence that, despite our technology and acquisition of knowledge through science, each generation is less intelligent than the previous one.
I don’t believe in molecules to man evolution, but I do believe in micro-evolution. Selection processes weed out variety, and mutations typically degrade the genome. So over the few millennia we’ve been around much of our original design has been degraded.
I think a similar process happens with language in general. English may have assimilated many words over the centuries, but it has also lost many of the distinctions in meaning that many words had. And I think it’s precisely because we are so lazy in the head.
I think, perhaps, that Jose Ortega y Gasset put his finger on a large part of the degradation of literate text when he described the process of cultural democritization run amok in “Revolt of the Masses.” Long disquisition short-stopped by a click on the link to “Ortega” in the post. It’s the only one of Ortega’s works I’ve read, but it does make me want to get my hands on his book about hunting. 😉
I’ve read Revolt of the Masses. I didn’t know he had a book on hunting.
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Hunting-English-Spanish-Ortega/dp/0684186306/
Since I left _formal_ schooling, I’ve had a hard time convincing myself to buy books priced at $50-$100 (and up), so I just have to keep hunting used book stores that don’t price like used book sites on the internet (I wish myself luck with THAT *heh*).