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PaperclipPerfector  28d ago (text post)   34849 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025

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Isn't that "rein" with no "g"?

Traditionally, yes. But just like how people keep using "could care less" to mean "couldn't care less (because I care so little that it is physically impossible for me to care any less than I already do now)," people keep using "reign in" to mean "rein in." I think "could care less" has become common enough to become a correct version of the phrase, and I think "reign in" is getting there in terms of how common it is, at least in online text.

Oh, that's deeply unfortunate.

I think "could care less" has become common enough to become a correct version of the phrase

No, it's still very much incorrect. People are just depressingly bad at using language properly.

Well, if enough people are bad at using language properly in the exact same way, then I'd argue that it's the language that's not proper, not the people. It's hard to say where the tipping point is and if the tipping point has been reached, though.

In this case, when people are using words to mean the exact opposite of what they actually mean (and doing it with apathy for the correct meaning, which is even worse), I would say I'm not convinced that there will ever be a point where it becomes correct usage, even if everyone on the planet were to use the phrase this way. But I'm also a diehard prescriptivist, so YMMV.

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