Just some more miscellaneous complaints about how people abuse the English language. I’ll avoid ones I’ve already written about, and hopefully the items here aren’t the ones you usually see. To vary things a bit, I’ll include some alleged corrections which I disagree with.

“Free reign.” The term “free rein” means lack of restriction, letting someone do what they want. If it’s applied to a government official or agency running wild, “free reign” could make sense, but in general it’s wrong.

“LOL.” Laughing out loud is appropriate when something is funny or ridiculous, but too many people on the Internet stick it onto everything they say. For some, it’s a cheap way to score a point. Some people seem to think it softens what they say. It doesn’t.

“Illegal” as a noun. People do illegal things. There is no such thing, at least in the United States, as a person whose existence is illegal.

“Begging the question.” I’m losing this battle, but I’ll keep fighting it. Begging the question is the fallacy of assuming the point which is to be proven. Example: “The Bible is true because it says so in the Bible.” People often use it to mean something like “leading to the question.” Granted, expressions shift in meaning, but “begging the question” as a term for a fallacy conveys a precise, useful meaning that shouldn’t be watered down.

“Ad hominem.” While we’re on the subject of logical fallacies, here’s another one whose name is often misused. An ad hominem argument attacks the person making a statement rather than its facts or reasoning. We often see it used for insults in general. An ad hominem argument doesn’t have to be insulting; an example of an ad hominem argument could be “X isn’t European and has never been to Europe, therefore his statement about Europe is wrong.” (Technically, this item is about abusing the Latin language.)

Sometimes the people offering corrections are blowing hot air. Here are a couple I have little use for:

“I couldn’t care less.” Pedants tell us that’s what we should say instead of “I could care less.” They don’t understand irony. “I couldn’t care less” lacks any punch. If we have to say “I couldn’t care less,” then we should also say “Little deal” instead of “Big deal.” You say it’s not what I literally mean? I could care less.

“Think differently.” Several years ago, there were many grammatical complaints about Apple’s “Think different” ad campaign. We still hear echoes of them now and then. Apple wasn’t telling people merely to think in a different way, but to think about not conforming, about using computers in new ways, and so on. “Think differently” doesn’t capture that full range. The phrase echoes earlier campaigns; areas with a ski industry, for instance, have used “Think snow” to express their hopes for favorable winter weather.

People will constantly argue about the validity of expressions. That’s how the language changes. I don’t mind when an expression makes our language more colorful, but I don’t like ones that wash the color out of the language or just make it less precise.