your jealousy of my brainpower is cynical

[rone]

I'm sure the smart guys at languagelog would have an academically supported term for this, but i'm particularly irked by what i call "reflective usage", or using words in a sense that happens to be completely wrong in a sense of viewpoint, but makes sense if you manage to twist your brain in that direction.  The two big culprits are "jealous" and "cynical".

Jealousy is an exaggeratedly protective attitude one has towards a perceived rival for one of one's resources.  However, through usage it has become synonymous with envy.  Thus, B is envious of A's thing and covets it, and A jealously guards it.  But now, B is jealous of A, and A is jealous of B's jealousy.

I realize that "cynic" comes from the Greek word for "doglike", and that Cynic philosophy seems rather opposed to its modern meaning; however, this is outside of the scope of this particular plaint.  When one is cynical, it means that one distrusts the motives of others, especially when the actions of others seem beneficent.  However, these days it also refers, as Merriam-Webster puts it, to something that is "based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest (“a cynical ploy to cheat customers”)."  Essentially, it's transferring the feeling of distrust from the subject to the actions of the object, when it ought to be something like, "I was cynical about the plainly self-interested ploy to cheat customers."

Both usages are ridiculous, and they ought to be stamped out.

Comments

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

you know...
by the time you're complaining about a shift in language like this, it's already too late.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Look, we got into this mess through usage, we can get out of it through usage. Spread correct usage to your acquaintances. It's all that can be done.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

actually, most linguistic evidence is that you can't get out of it through enforcing usage. it's easier to add something to a language than to take it out.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about enforcing usage (and how could i — it's not like we have an English Academy). I'm talking about using the words correctly, in the same way that others use them incorrectly.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

well, if people use it correctly and incorrectly, then both usages will survive.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, with luck the correct usage will vastly surpass the incorrect one in civilized areas, much like "soda" vastly outperforms "pop".

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Yes, and if coprophagy thrives, still doesn't make it right.

[thegodliestlord.livejournal.com]

i hate it when people say something is addicting rather than addictive.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

we got into this mess through usage

I initially read this as "we got into this mess through wusage".

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That bastard boutell has broken the English language for the last time! Sancho! Fetch my lance!

[pentomino.livejournal.com]

I've heard cynicism confused with skepticism.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's some overlap there, so it's not nearly as bad in my opinion.

[tyggerjai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm cynical about their ploy, because I'm somewhat skeptical about their stated intentions.

jai.
.

[urbeatle.livejournal.com]

The jealousy/envy mix-up is kind of annoying, but I absolutely hate the "cynical ploy" and related expressions with the fury of ten thousand suns. Especially since I see it most of the time in political mudslinging.

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

I'm rather guilty of misusing jealous (http://schwa242.livejournal.com/611514.html) and didn't know it until now. I think I'm good with cynic though.

[xlerb.livejournal.com]

Oh. I've always read “a cynical ploy” as somehow attributing cynicism to those performing the ploy. It wouldn't have occurred to me to transform the concept to make it about the observer's cynicism, even though it makes more sense that way in such usages.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

And even that, really, is wrong. People who make ploys that intend to defraud customers are deceitful, but not cynical; they aren't mistrusting the motives of their marks. It's the marks who ought to be cynical of the purveyors of the ploy, but aren't, and get defrauded.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Disagree. The rhetorical device used in "a cynical ploy" is known as a transferred epithet (http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm#Epithet).

The linked page, incidentally, is considered the best page on the Internet.

[heliumbreath.livejournal.com]

"cynic" comes from the Greek word for "doglike"

Ah, so I'm cynical because I'm too dog-tired for optimism. That makes sense, then. Thanks.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

So what is your preferred word to concisely express that a statement is based on the belief that conduct is based on self-interest?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

I think that "jealous" meaning "envious" or "covetous" is probably too well-established to fight effectively, given that in the 1970s it was already the first meaning of the term I learned as a child.

I didn't hear the use of "cynical" that bothers you until later, usually in political writing, and it always bothered me a little. It may be easier to stamp out.

I am, however, in favor of avoiding both of these usages, since they both seem to me to reduce expressive precision.

"Jealous"

[notr.livejournal.com]

was a lost cause before the advent of television, I think. It's as quaint a bugbear as split infinitives.

I'm not sure I see the problem with the "cynical ploy," specifically. To me, that description seems to suggest quite properly that the customers are cheated on the basis of a belief that they're doing their best to cheat the vendor, so the vendor has to stay ahead of them.

I do, however, cynically believe that "cynical" is not so much misused as deliberately abused by those whose own bad behavior is rooted in cynicism. "I know you are but what am I?"

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Split infinitives are a bugbear created out of whole cloth. It's not even in the same ballpark.

Your interpretation of "cynical ploy" is cute, but i have never seen anyone use it in that sense.

[eb-oesch.livejournal.com]

I think that "jealous" meaning "envious" or "covetous" is probably too well-established to fight effectively, given that in the 1970s it was already the first meaning of the term I learned as a child.

Not just the first meaning of the term, but the first term for the meaning. Kids never said "envious" at all.

[catbear.livejournal.com]

Feed them bread ties. That'll fix it.
Urgh.

[sambushell.livejournal.com]

I still gotta lend you my Dictionary of Confusable Words.