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revert back, top priority, forward planning. my three favourite examples of tautology. Why don't people think before speaking Two common examples of the misuse of language are mayhem{which means bodily harm] and carnage[which means slaughter]
I notice that testament as in a testament to is now in common use instead of the correct word testimony. Stop the world I want to get off!

Hi, alanfi.

Your first three examples are victims of management-speak, I think - when simple words are deemed too plain! I agree with you about carnage and testament/testimony, but not about mayhem. That last word does indeed mean 'bodily harm', but it also means 'havoc, chaos'. Yes, Chambers describes this usage as 'informal; non-standard' - but that doesn't make it invalid. I think. The Oxford Dictionary of English is even less restrictive and doesn't agree with you - 'violent or extreme disorder; chaos'. Still, vigilance is always good!

The OED, which I would suggest is the one to refer to, only gives bodily harm.

Alanfi. I think we'll have to agree to disagree - if Chambers, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Collins all accept the usage of a word as perfectly valid, that's good enough for me!

The OED (1997 update) gives meaning 3 of 'mayhem' as 'Rowdy confusion; chaos, disorder'.

Personally, I don't think that these weakened uses of 'carnage' and 'mayhem' are any better or worse than the similarly weakened senses of 'massacre', 'slaughter' etc, or the strengthened use of 'decimation' to mean near-obliteration. It would be unusual to find these words used in such a way as to make their meaning unclear.

Thanks for the OED information - and 1997 is quite a while ago, so the usage appears to have been acceptable for some time!

Yes, many words have morphed into slight variations/nuances of meanings. I expect we all have lists of those we dislike, those we abhor.

All this reminds me of when Jacob Rees-Mogg reminded the person interviewing him (Peter Snow) that shambles meant a slaughter house.

Try this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StJ-OK4jiSY

We should expect nothing less from the 'Honourable Member for the Eighteenth Century', but given the choice between words being used figuratively and 'She was like' being used to mean 'She said', I know which side of the fence I would nail my colours...

Spoffy, the 'she was like...' has been hanging around too long for my liking. I wish it would disappear, never to return.

I'm all for words being used 'properly', but not everyone agrees on what that is. I don't feel hide-bound by some old meanings - the 'shambles' one, say, or even the 'mayhem' mentioned in the OP. My 92-year-old father-in law and my 20-year-old neighbour both use the word 'wireless', for completely different things - and in context, there's no confusion about meanings.