Ignorant

[FlightlessDuck]

Can someone please tell me when the word "ignorant" went from meaning "Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated" to "having a moral code, lifestyle, or belief system that I disagree with"?

 

[Goofyluver]

Well, I'd definitely categorize certain folks that subscribe to specific belief systems or exhibit certain behaviors as uneducated...and therefore ignorant.

So, there ya' go.

 

[LuvOrlando]

delete

 

[topolino]

Happens with a lot of words, unfortunately. People are ignorant to their true meaning, begin to use them wrong, and then it becomes a habit.

A good example is "ironic". Irony is more than just a mere coincidence. I'll sometimes give this example to people:

If you run into your co-worker at the supermarket, it's a coincidence, not an ironic situation.

If a man works fifty years on the railroad without incident, then, shortly after retirement, goes on a vacation via train and gets hit and killed by the train, that's irony.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Well, I'd definitely categorize certain folks that subscribe to specific belief systems or exhibit certain behaviors as uneducated...and therefore ignorant.

So, there ya' go.

The thing is, I think you need details before that conclusion can be reached. Somebody can believe something and be very well education. Another person can believe the same thing and not be well educated at all. And then it's a matter of whether someone is ignorant in general, ignorant about a specific item, or decides to ignore (which isn't the same thing) knowledge he or she has in favor of a belief or lifestyle.

And even if you do reach the conclusion that someone is uneducated, I don't know why it's always used in a derogatory tone.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Ignorant used to be a value-free word. But now we as a society have come to embrace it in a very snobby self-satisfying way. Often, to say that someone is "ignorant" is to imply that they lack the enlightenment we ourselves have achieved -and since they are not as enlightened they are lesser people. Since it did used to be value-free it now also provides the the added luxury of plausible deniability that he/she ever intended to be hurtful by using it.

I admit I am guilty of using it that way sometimes but do try to refrain because it typically does not go over well for me.

 

[Michelle67]

Are you talking about the way young people use the word these days? I'm thinking it was probably about the same time people started talking and writing (places other than text messages) in text-ese. : Drives me bananas. Makes ya look IGNORANT!

And on a side note, what is with the young people putting a boatload of excess letters in their text messages/FB posts, whatever? As in: So borrrreeeeed, texxxxxt meeeeeeeee? Goiiiiiinng to my babieeeeeeeesss, texxxt meeeeeee. Umm, yeah okay. You need surgeryyyyyy to removeeeeee excess voweeeeeeels. You gotta say "ur" instead of you're, but you're going to stick ten extra letters in your other words? Bizarre. I completely skip over my niece's FB posts because it annoys me too much to weed out the 50 extra letters to figure out what a one sentence post is supposed to say.

Sorry for the sidetrack.

 

[Plannin'Shannon]

Can someone please tell me when the word "ignorant" went from meaning "Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated" to "having a moral code, lifestyle, or belief system that I disagree with"?

Nice. And on which thread, may I ask, did the exchange that inspired this post occur?

 

[topolino]

Are you talking about the way young people use the word these days? I'm thinking it was probably about the same time people started talking and writing (places other than text messages) in text-ese. : Drives me bananas. Makes ya look IGNORANT!

And on a side note, what is with the young people putting a boatload of excess letters in their text messages/FB posts, whatever? As in: So borrrreeeeed, texxxxxt meeeeeeeee? Goiiiiiinng to my babieeeeeeeesss, texxxt meeeeeee. Umm, yeah okay. You need surgeryyyyyy to removeeeeee excess voweeeeeeels. You gotta say "ur" instead of you're, but you're going to stick ten extra letters in your other words? Bizarre. I completely skip over my niece's FB posts because it annoys me too much to weed out the 50 extra letters to figure out what a one sentence post is supposed to say.

Sorry for the sidetrack.

I agree! For various reasons, I correspond with young people on an informal basis, and I see this a lot among the 18-24 set. It almost makes sense with a repeating vowel at the end of a word, for emphasis, but repeating consonants at the end of the word render it impossible to pronounce! "i'm boreddddddddd" Just how does one pronounce that?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Nice. And on which thread, may I ask, did the exchange that inspired this post occur?

Well, TODAY, it was the thread about the Irish Travelers TV show, but I see it at least once a month used on the Community board.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Are you talking about the way young people use the word these days?

Not unless every time I see it here, it's posted by a "young person".

 

[MIGrandma]

Ooooh, I'd love to know the answer to that one!!

It's always funny when a poster says I'm ignorant, when my opinion on something is different from theirs. No, having an opposing viewpoint does not make me ignorant. It makes my opinion opposite of yours.

 

[Michelle67]

Not unless every time I see it here, it's posted by a "young person".

Ah, okay. Just checking. My daughter is 22 and she uses the word "ignorant" in a way that generally seems to mean "I don't like you" or "I disagree with your point of view." Which doesn't mean that ONLY "young people" could do it, but it's the association I have because that's where I hear it.

 

[Disney Ella]

It's been used incorrectly as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, people regularly used "ignorant" when they really meant "rude."

 

[Michelle67]

I agree! For various reasons, I correspond with young people on an informal basis, and I see this a lot among the 18-24 set. It almost makes sense with a repeating vowel at the end of a word, for emphasis, but repeating consonants at the end of the word render it impossible to pronounce! "i'm boreddddddddd" Just how does one pronounce that?

Thank you for understanding. It's so good to know I'm not alone.

BTW, I don't mean to slam anybody. Talk any way ya want, and I can either figure it out or ignore. I know when I was 17 my friends and I drove my mother bananas because everything was "rad" and we interchanged "hot" and "cool" and she found this stupid and contradictory. "WELL, which is it? Hot or cool?" And I specifically remember her telling me that if one of my friends squealed "OmiGAWD" (think Valley Girls) one more time, she was going to belt her. I'm just now at that moldy age where "I don't get it" and the excess letters annoy me.

 

[Aisling]

Can someone please tell me when the word "ignorant" went from meaning "Lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated" to "having a moral code, lifestyle, or belief system that I disagree with"?

OMG Thank you for this question!!!!!!!!!! People throw that word around like rice at a wedding and they obviously have no idea what it really means!!!! It's not an insult to be ignorant.

And to answer your question, it's because they're ignorant. (And that's NOT an insult; it just means "you don't know"!)

 

[JaneBanks]

Language evolves. Ignorant isn't the first word that would stray from it's original meaning and it won't be the last.

 

[Aisling]

Language evolves. Ignorant isn't the first word that would stray from it's original meaning and it won't be the last.

Oh, I don't think it's language evolving. It's people de-volving. People these days have such a low knowledge of vocabulary as they did years ago, and that's a fact.

Look how "devastated" is thrown around. "My son didn't make the team and he's devastated". Well, if he were devastated, he'd be in total collapse, as per the definition.

 

[JaneBanks]

Oh, I don't think it's language evolving. It's people de-volving. People these days have such a low knowledge of vocabulary as they did years ago, and that's a fact.

Look how "devastated" is thrown around. "My son didn't make the team and he's devastated". Well, if he were devastated, he'd be in total collapse, as per the definition.

You could say the same thing about Awesome.

Words do evolve. For example, the word NICE. From the Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

Word History Five hundred years ago, when nice was first used in English, it meant "foolish or stupid." This is not as surprising as it may seem, since it came through early French from the Latin nescius, meaning "ignorant." By the 16th century, the sense of being "very particular" or "finicky" had developed. In the 19th century, nice came to mean "pleasant or agreeable" and then "respectable," a sense quite unlike its original meaning.

I don't think it evolved to this definition because people were ignorant. That's just the way language works.

 

[Aisling]

You could say the same thing about Awesome.



I don't think it evolved to this definition because people were ignorant. That's just the way language works.

I DO say the same thing about awesome! Ask a group of people if they know what the word MEANS, and most will say "really cool".


Language works that way because people work that way, by becoming less knowledgeable about definitions. That causes incorrect usage to become the norm, because of ignorance of the definitions.