I thought about posting this in the Promenade Miscellaneous Forum, but since it's word play, I thought my fellow scribes here in TrekLit might want to take a shot at it.
In the WALL-E thread, I made a comment about the movie being "sweet, in the GOOD sense of the word". Then I felt stupid that I had to add the explanation.
I suddenly realized a lot of complimentary words from years gone by have actually been bent to become condescending.
Another word is "clever". It once was a universally accepted compliment, but now "My, how clever" or "Aren't you clever?" are definite chides, or words used to evade having to say something bad about something else.
What other words were once universal compliments which, through sarcasm, misuse or other means, have become the opposite?
--Ted
In the WALL-E thread, I made a comment about the movie being "sweet, in the GOOD sense of the word". Then I felt stupid that I had to add the explanation.
I suddenly realized a lot of complimentary words from years gone by have actually been bent to become condescending.
Another word is "clever". It once was a universally accepted compliment, but now "My, how clever" or "Aren't you clever?" are definite chides, or words used to evade having to say something bad about something else.
What other words were once universal compliments which, through sarcasm, misuse or other means, have become the opposite?
--Ted