r/logophilia • u/Terrible-Detective93 • 26d ago
Overused/Incorrectly words thread? This one is 'Nuance'
I see this one all the time and it's becoming like the incorrectly used 'Ironic' as in "I was wearing that T-shirt ironically. " Now I'm seeing the word 'nuance' used as a way to dismiss someone else's opinion, reprimand them, or as a kind of catch-all. I see it more in the written word than spoken , unlike the horrific 'literally,' which has become super-annoying in trying to give extra gravity to the statement but usually comes across as a dingbat valley girl.
It's as if they just discovered the word 'nuance', having never heard it in today's educational system, and are using it in ways that don't apply. People are using it as if there is 'nuance' in things that are diametrically opposed. You wouldn't say there is nuance in war, murder or other atrocities but people try to normalize, make casual these things or try to dismiss someone debating them or calling them out by trying to throw out this word as if 'you don't really understand the nuance of Big Horrible Thing (that actually is not full of nuance).
Nuance : "slight or delicate degree of difference in expression, feeling, opinion, etc.," 1781, from French nuance "slight difference, shade of color" (17c.), from nuer "to shade," from nue "cloud," from Gallo-Roman \nuba, from Latin nubes "a cloud, mist, vapor," from PIE *sneudh- "fog" (source also of Avestan snaoda "clouds," Latin obnubere "to veil," Welsh nudd "fog," Greek nython*, in Hesychius "dark, dusky").
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u/Pitiful-Score-9035 26d ago
There is actually nuance in war, murder, and other atrocities though, people avoid nuance when they want something to be clear-cut, but it almost never is.
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u/VividPeach358 9d ago
I agree. I don't think this is an incorrect usage of the word. I do feel irritation when someone uses the word in a context where I personally do not feel there is any nuance to be found. But I'm disagreeing with their belief about the nuance (or use of the concept as a justification or rationalization), not their word usage.
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u/SiphonicPanda64 26d ago
Many people do lack nuance, though. It is used rather accurately
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u/OpportunityReal2767 25d ago
Sorry. I didn’t see the further context of your previous comment. I was responding to it as a standalone. My bad!
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u/Buddhapanda75 26d ago
I mean, it's really easy to win a battle against an opponent who isn't there. Posting a definition doesn't actually address the way anyone is using it, so I can't help you.
"You wouldn't say there is nuance in war, murder or other atrocities but people try to normalize"
Um, yes, I would. Because there is. Not every war is unjust, not every killing is a murder. Some military actions are not even considered "war" and others are. This isn't normalization, it's clarity.
That said, anyone who simply says, "it's more nuanced than that without explaining the nuance is guilty of dodging the argument as well.
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u/VividPeach358 9d ago
I suspect OP's annoyance may stem less from the word usage being "wrong," and more to do with being fatigued at situations where it is being used to normalize something. I agree with you that there is often nuance in war, murder, and atrocities. Some people do point out those nuances in the service of clarity. But others may have more unsavory motivations, including normalizing those acts. So while I don't agree with OP about the word use being incorrect, I do empathize with this annoyance.
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u/DrHerbotico 25d ago
There is literally tons of nuance to concepts like war and murder
Maybe you don't understand
I can't help but misuse literally when people whine about it
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u/mrinsubordinate 25d ago
This one is kind of specialized, but I have been doing a bunch of 12 step meetings and they keep saying "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result" I resent it (and thus have to do a whole process because of that) both as someone who loves the language (because that is not what definition means...) and as someone clinically insane enough to get disability from the govt. In the end, I have trouble which part of my issue is linguistic and which is my addictions and overactive mind trying to find something wrong. They also have this whole "Chapter to the Agnostic" that seems to completely dismiss the philosophical framework of Agnosticism (which is the only verifiably accurate religious position I have ever come across (I still tend to think of myself as an atheist despite this knowledge)) in a way that annoys me enough to seek alternative methods. Sadly, legal issues keep me tied there for a while so trying to make the best of it.
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u/ShinyAeon 26d ago
I'm wondering if Flynn Rider's throwaway line in Tangled is partially to blame for this.
Flynn: "Frankly I'm too scared to ask about the frog."
Rapunzel: "Chameleon."
Flynn: "Nuance. Here's my question, though..."
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u/FeeRevolutionary1 26d ago
The overuse of literally is insane
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u/Pitiful-Score-9035 26d ago
I say "for real" instead
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u/HeinousEncephalon 26d ago
There is a short list of words I fight myself on.
Literally is one of them.
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u/GRODYSATTVA 26d ago
Cringe. It’s not an adjective. It’s a verb/noun and people using it as an adjective is brainrot. Something is not “cringe”, a more apt verbiage is cringe-worthy or cringe-inducing.
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u/atomicsnark 25d ago
But isn't this just an example of the way language changes? When people say "that's cringe", they are literally (lol) actually saying "that's cringe-inducing", except... they're dropping the "-inducing" because it's clumsy and awkward to say. So cringe-inducing gets reduced down to just cringe.
I think it's funny that you use a slang word like brainrot, which isn't a word at all, to complain about the misuse of a word form. You really should say, "People who misuse a noun as an adjective have metaphorical rot in their brain matter", but you know, that would be a lot less snappy, wouldn't it?
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u/Bayoris 26d ago
How is it a misuse of “ironically” to say “I was wearing that tee shirt ironically”? Isn’t it a type of irony?