What's Going on with ‘Nonplussed’? (2017)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Competing meanings of “nonplussed”

  • Two main senses discussed:
    • Older / traditional: “perplexed,” “at a loss what to say or do.”
    • Newer / emerging: “unruffled,” “unbothered,” “unimpressed.”
  • Many note that in typical sentences either reading can fit, which fuels mislearning.
  • Several commenters say they only ever knew the “unbothered” sense; others only ever knew “perplexed.”

Regional and usage splits

  • Multiple British and Irish speakers report only seeing “perplexed.”
  • Several Americans say they mainly encounter “unimpressed/unbothered.”
  • Some point to documentation that the newer sense is primarily US-based.
  • Non‑native speakers often had never seen the word or assumed an Orwellian/newspeak origin, or a French one (“moi non plus”).

Ambiguity and “skunked” status

  • Many argue the word is now “skunked”: any use forces readers to stop and disambiguate, often unsuccessfully.
  • Several say they avoid it entirely and advise others to use clear synonyms (“perplexed,” “unfazed,” “unimpressed”).

Language change vs. “errors”

  • One camp views the new sense as a straightforward mistake that undermines precision, alongside shifts in “literally,” “begs the question,” “factoid,” etc.
  • Another camp accepts or even enjoys such shifts as normal language evolution, noting that many “misuses” are now standard.
  • There’s debate whether changes mostly arise from:
    • Misinterpretation from context and morphology (treating non- as a simple prefix; analogy to “not fussed”).
    • Genuine expressive need for finer shades (“dismissive lack of concern” vs. “calm” vs. “confused”).

Broader lexicon and contronyms

  • Thread branches into other ambiguous or self-opposite words: “inflammable/flammable,” “cleave,” “sanction,” “moot,” “literally,” “bemused,” “ambivalent,” “peruse,” “travesty,” “upshot.”
  • Concept of “lost positives” and unpaired words (e.g., “disgruntled” vs. joking “gruntled,” “nonchalant,” “kempt”) comes up.

Dictionaries and authority

  • Dictionaries are criticized and defended:
    • Descriptivist stance frustrates those who want clear labels for “incorrect” usage.
    • Others argue dictionaries must record actual usage, and prescriptivism belongs in style guides, not core definitions.