Quote:
Originally Posted by bhartman36
You're obviously right, but I think Harmon's point is a good one: One of the ways writing is getting debased is that precise words are being either replaced with imprecise ones or themselves neutered. Sort of Orwell predicted in 1984. If you can refer to anything as being "decimated" (or "awesome", for that matter), then why even bother? If precise words keep getting clear-cut from our language, it'll become hard to describe anything well (which is probably one of the reasons why mediocre books can prosper).
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I don't have the expertise to give good examples ... but I presume that even the classics referenced on this thread were guilty of using words according to the definitions current at the time they were writing - rather than only definitions that had been completely acceptable for 150 years. Indeed my limited understanding of the situation is that the problem was potentially worse then because language tended to be more localised.