BS: how do you define - nonplused

Subject: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 06 May 09 - 08:53 PM

I just read an online article where the writer used the term 'nonplused'.

It didn't make sense to me in the context. So I pointed out in the comments section that the writer is using the term incorrectly.

ie. nonplused means literally 'no more' = speechless, at a loss for words

Someone else pointed out that language evolves and lately a new specifically 'North American' meaning has developed and it means
'unperturbed'.

Now it strikes me as odd that a new meaning would emerge that actually contradicts the old. So I may have to ask people what they mean when they use that term. Maybe Im going too far, but it also seems to me this new meaning is just ignorant, like using a word without fully understanding it.   Just because a lot of people write 'must of' instead of 'must have' (or could of instead of could have) does not make it right.

Any thoughts? And Yes I'm North American too, and when I think back, I probably thought nonplused meant 'unperturbed' until someone pointed it out.
Petr

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 May 09 - 09:16 PM

Never heard that before, and I was borned and raised up and am living in the US.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Peace
Date: 06 May 09 - 09:31 PM

"Someone else pointed out that language evolves and lately a new specifically 'North American' meaning has developed and it means
'unperturbed'."

Possibly a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word. It entered the English language when Shakespeare was 27 or so, and as far as I know its meaning has always meant 'A state of perplexity, confusion, or bewilderment.'

However, I think there are amny words that go that way. Awful as in your 'hair is awful' used to mean it is so beautiful it fills one with awe. Today it will get you a fyathyrio.

However, just because I've never heard the 'new' way doesn't mean it ain't out there.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Jeri
Date: 06 May 09 - 09:45 PM

Well, thanks to you and Google, I know what 'fyathyrio' means.
When I was in school, I argued that 'aweful' should mean full of awe and my teacher told me I was wrong... 'just because'. (I knew what that really meant.)

Me, I can't figure out why 'nonplused' isn't either spelled 'nonplussed' or pronounced 'nonpluzed'.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 May 09 - 09:54 PM

It strikes me that the person who responded in Comments that it meant 'unperturbed' was simply mistaken. There has been a time or two when I was mistaken; life is full of those spine cringing moments... ;~)

However, evolving words and phrases that eventually come to mean the opposite are not new. Look at "I could care less"; frankly, I think it's just plain dumb ignorance.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: katlaughing
Date: 06 May 09 - 09:55 PM

I've always read it to mean "gobsmacked" which is much more expressive, imo.:-) Never heard of the later definition; it has always meant awestruck, speechless, taken aback, to me.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: GUEST,Slag
Date: 06 May 09 - 11:17 PM

????, !

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Bill D
Date: 06 May 09 - 11:26 PM

WordWeb says "filled with bewilderment"

That is sort of what I have always understood.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Gurney
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:49 AM

I define it as misspelled, as does the Oxford. NonpluSSed means confused.

Of course, we may have either an American meaning, or an American spelling.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 May 09 - 01:02 AM

Totally lacking in pluses....whatever ta' hell a pluse is.........Maybe its related to a minuse.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Peace
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:10 AM

"Me, I can't figure out why 'nonplused' isn't either spelled 'nonplussed' or pronounced 'nonpluzed'."

Buses or busses. Same-same.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Peace
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:18 AM

Oh, yeah. It's a word I had never used in my entire life until I tried to read George W Bush's speeches AND comprehend what he was saying. I was seriously nonplus(s)ed then. Many times.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:21 AM

Awful as in your 'hair is awful' used to mean it is so beautiful it fills one with awe

Awful can still have that meaning, depending on context. I remember a gem in a Popeye cartoon from many years ago:

Popeye: "Oh Olive, you're awful pretty"

Olive Oil: "You're pretty awful yourself"


DC

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Peace
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:27 AM

Beautiful, Doug.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:29 AM

As to 'aweful', the root word 'awe' means a mixture of reverence and dread, so not necessarily a strictly or exclusively 'positive' emotional response.

A mushroom cloud could inspire 'awe' for example, with no contradiction of meaning, and it would also be 'aweful' to witness.

Nonplussed means perplexed, bewildered etc. Never heard the other proposed meaning used in any context.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:58 AM

And yet, "awesome" sitll has the positive sense.

I agree that "nonplussed" means perplexed, bewildered etc.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 May 09 - 03:12 AM

I think that "Non-plussed" is an English formation from the French - one was brought to halt and could go "point, non-plus", so the double s would have arrived as part of the formation of the English adjective.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 May 09 - 08:57 AM

I am completely nonplussed by this thread. It is truly awful.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 May 09 - 11:20 AM

Awesome, even.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: topical tom
Date: 07 May 09 - 11:41 AM

Merriam Webster's version:
                        
                                  Click Personally, I always took it to mean "at a loss", "puzzled."

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:34 PM

also flustered..
but there are other definitions..
one definition

and askoxford.com had a similar North American (informal) definition 'unperturbed' - although stating it is not as yet accepted meaning.
cant find the link though.
cheers
PEtr

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Bill D
Date: 07 May 09 - 12:46 PM

I did something I haven't done in ages...since technology made answers a few Google clicks away.....I pulled out my 15 pound copy of Webster's New International Dictionary- 1950.

It gives nonplused first, but says "or nonplussed"

nonplus n, "A state in which nothing more can be done, or which baffles reason or confounds judgement: inability to proceed or decide."

similar verb forms

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Art Thieme
Date: 07 May 09 - 01:16 PM

To my ears, the word non-plus-ed smacks of negativity.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 May 09 - 01:21 PM

Olive OYL.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 07 May 09 - 02:21 PM

Oy'll remember how to spell right next time.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: GUEST,Slag
Date: 07 May 09 - 03:14 PM

Quite literally it means: -+! from the Latin, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 May 09 - 03:22 PM

It means minus cross bang???

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: GUEST,Slag
Date: 07 May 09 - 03:57 PM

Dash the crosshairs, FIRE!

Subject: RE: BS: how do you define - nonplused
From: gnu
Date: 07 May 09 - 04:56 PM

Sommat smells offal here.