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What's a word you've spent a long time not using right? (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 years ago by shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

186 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Just recently I was in a conversation with a number of UK mainlanders and we had a debate over what "tories" meant, apparently disproportionately ordinarily it refers to a political party and it's not usual to use it as short for "territories" as I've used it (according to how the debate ended, it was half and half between them). And once again I'm reminded of how people feel to look back at their usage of a word/phrase over the years and cringe.

More tragically, me and a friend were embarrassed once upon realizing everyone was confusing "encephalitis" with "hydrocephalus" when talking to someone about their kid with hydrocephalus. Awkward because encephalitis is caused by HIV.

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[–] LemmySoloHer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I don't use it very often but I misuse the word "Gattaca" on purpose sometimes. In reality it's the title of the 1997 film that's named from the letters G,A,T, and C, referring to guanine, adenin, thymine and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.

But on the TV show The League, the character Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) screams it as his battle cry during paintball, completely oblivious to what it actually means or that it's the title of a movie. I urge you all to misuse this word at some point as well -- if you ever need to hype yourself up, try screaming "GATTACA!" as your battle cry!

[–] Very_Bad_Janet@kbin.social 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Does the character mean to cry "Attica"? Like people who yelled it in the 70s, referencing the prison revolt?

[–] tetris11@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago

Yep, but then Family Guy conflated it 20 years ago to "Gattica!" as a way for Peter to show his support for civil rights whilst highlighting that he's an idiot. I doubt Family Guy were the first to make that joke either

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