Skunked term


A skunked term is a word that becomes difficult to use because it is transitioning from one meaning to another, perhaps inconsistent or even opposite, usage, or a word that becomes difficult to use due to other controversy surrounding the word. Purists may insist on the old usage, while descriptivists may be more open to newer usages. Readers may not know which sense is meant.
The term was coined by lexicographer Bryan A. Garner in his 2008 edition of Garner's Modern American Usage and has since been adopted by some other style guides.

Usage

Garner recommends avoiding such terms if their use may distract readers from the meaning of a text.
Some terms, such as "", may become skunked, and then eventually revert to their original meaning over time.

Examples

"" originally meant "to kill one in ten", but now has sometimes been interpreted as "to destroy" or "to kill nine out of ten".
"Hopefully" used to mean "in a hopeful manner" but has come to mean "it is hoped" since the early 1960s.
"Niggardly" means "miserly" or "parsimonious", but is rarely used in modern English because it is easily confused with the slur "nigger", despite their separate etymologies.
Other examples include "Oriental", "data", and "".
The 2013 Oxford English Dictionary defined "" to include "" and, in 2014, the conflation of "deep web" with "dark web".
A "moot point" in British English has historically meant a point that is worth debating, but the meaning is shifting towards that in US English of a point that is irrelevant or academic.
"" had the original meaning of "an inaccurate statement or statistic widely believed to be true", but now increasingly means "a minor fact".