[Tomalak]

Very good point. Another word that has been rendered meaningless with overuse is "devastating".

"Incredible" now has a very different meaning than what it first meant, too. It used to mean "unbelievable" - now it just means "that's really, really cool".

The other one that really gets me is "gender". This word has nothing to do with whether a human being is male or female, but that is how everyone uses it these days. Gender is the way you classify inanimate objects in romantic languages like German and French, being either masculine or feminine (German also has neuter). For example, the German word for "Girl" is "Madchen". Now a girl is female, but the gender of the word "Madchen" is neuter. So even in those languages, it doesn't apply.

No one has a gender. If you have a Y chromosome, you are of the male sex, and if not, you are of the female sex. Remember that next time some liberal talks about "gender roles" and so on.

[lawdude]

Very good point. Another word that has been rendered meaningless with overuse is "devastating".

And how about "horrific"? I get weary hearing the talking heads ('specially on Fox) use that word to describe every action they report. Whether a rainstorm in Texas or a massacre in Afghanistan.

[IronJack]

My nomination for Abused Word of the Century is "discrimination." It used to be that a man of "discriminating" tastes was one refined enough to reject the tacky, the tawdry, the hauntingly mediocre. His was not the pedestrian palette, but one that excluded those coarse, boorish values that attracted the less elegant castes of society.

Now, it just means a bigot.

[Jonah Hex]

Thank you. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one fighting the "gender vs. sex" battle. I lost points on a paper because I used the word "sex" in reference to male/female classification. The instructor wrote in the margin "Use gender". When I asked "What's wrong with sex?” she told me the accepted phrase is "gender discrimination". I replied, "Funny, I've never heard of gender harassment or gender preferences? Why is sex politically incorrect?”

I didn't get the points back (sigh). But I still prefer "sex" over "gender". Hell, I prefer sex over anything!