Transcript of “Bemused Over Nonplussed”
Kaelin in Park City, Utah left us an interesting message about the word nonplussed.
And she has lots of questions about its meaning and its origin and its correct usage.
Yeah, she said that she gets into heated arguments with her fellow skiers about this word nonplussed.
Because lots of them say, well, nonplussed means, you know, you’re not bothered by something.
But she’s hanging on to the original meaning of the word, which is to be at a loss, to be perplexed.
Because all the way back in the 16th century, nonpluss was a noun.
It came from Latin nonpluss, which means no more.
And so if you’re brought to a nonpluss in one of those arguments, then you hit a wall.
You can go no further.
And by the early 17th century, nonplus was being used as a verb.
And then something happened in the early 20th century where people began to use the term nonplus to mean unfazed or unruffled or unperturbed.
It’s like, you know, try to look nonplussed.
You know, don’t look as if anything’s bothering you.
And maybe there was some confusion with words like nonchalant, you know, which also means unfazed.
But I remember hearing Barack Obama talking about his daughters and how they weren’t really bothered by the media glare.
And he said, I’ve been really happy by how nonplussed they’ve been by the whole thing.
And that made me sit up straight because that’s not the original sense of the word.
And I know that etymology isn’t destiny and we don’t have to hang on to the original sense of the word.
But for me, I think it’s time to put nonplussed out to pasture because the meanings are so different.
And you look it up in dictionaries, and it’s got both of those meanings, which mean two different things, pretty much the opposite of each other.
Yeah, it’s definitely a skunked word where you just risk confusion.
I want to know why Kaylin is talking about nonplussed on the ski slopes.
She’s talking to fellow skiers about whether they’re rattled or chill.
Yeah, well, you know, if you just had a yard sale on the slopes.
To translate that, for those who don’t know, yard sale is when you do a full body plant and part of your gear goes that way and part of your gear goes that way and it looks like you’re selling everything.
Right, right.
And maybe you’re nonplussed by that.
I mean, you know, if that happens to you and you say, I was nonplussed, what does that mean?
I’m with Kalen that, I mean, this word may end up ensconced in future dictionaries with the meaning of not bothered.
But until then, I just avoid the word.
Yeah, absolutely.
We would love to hear about the language that you’re discussing on the slopes as you look for the good pow pow.
