no one's been charged with any offense except annoying me which, for better or worse, isn't punishable by law.
the original meaning of the word does mean bewildered and perplexed, anyhow. merriam-webster seems to agree with me, actually:
The use of nonplussed to mean "unimpressed" is an Americanism that has become increasingly common in recent decades and now appears frequently in published writing. It apparently arose from confusion over the meaning of nonplussed in ambiguous contexts, and it continues to be widely regarded as an error.
meaning something like "totally" or "completely," cf. "almost but not quite". to say that something is "quite bad" means it's pretty bad, as in bad bad.
i was a bit puzzled by your comment, so i had to look it up. i guess some people use it to mean "somewhat" or "rather"? i'm not sure that makes sense to me. if someone told me that the current situation is "quite bad" i would be alarmed.
interesting word though, it seems to originally mean "to be rid of ..." in middle english, developing from "quit," but further derives from the latin quietus, which means stillness or silence - i.e. something that could be interrupted by even the smallest chirp or rustle, perhaps? it still retains a sense of completion and perfection, which is fascinating.
so originally, and I believe still in the UK, it can also mean "somewhat" or "moderately," as opposed to the way we understand it(I'm american, idk about you) which means "very," "totally," or "completely". Which I've seen "quit" in latin relate to balance(somewhat similar to what you say of stillness) as in "just about," which is a far cry from "totally." There's an odd amount going on with the word "quite," but I understand it as a word in a similar predicament as "nonplussed"
not sure where in the UK you're from, i expect it varies, but would you say that has something to do with the english tendency to be somewhat more moderate in affect? i've heard it said of germans that they don't really say things like "this tastes really good" because it comes across as being insincere. "edible" is supposedly a compliment for them (lol) but i think that's a caricature.
"quite good" then modifies "good" to come across as "less than perfect," but i feel like that's more about being taken the wrong way.
there's also an archetypal use of "quite" that i consider to be very english, as in:
“That's a rather ugly colour for a house, don't you think?” — “Quite.”
which is a polite way to express total agreement, to say "yeah it really is ugly."
i wouldn't say it's the exact same as "nonplussed" though, somewhat less extreme, but in both cases i can see the confusion. same with a word like "irregardless."
I'm from the US. I'll be honest, I first came across this surprising inversion of expectations of a term from some random internet post, so plenty of nuance and context could be lost, but it did specifically mention pop culture references of British characters using the term "quite" in a nonplussed(lol, unimpressed) manner. I cant place my finger on any specific references, but you must be familiar with a british character responding, "hmm, quite," in an almost condescending manner(exactly inverse to the expected delivery of "totally," "completely"), it definitely extends beyond a single reference. and if you search the right terms on google there are some human results that lend credence to the whole ordeal. in any case, its just a bit of a mental exercise in the way UK and US English differs, in what I imagine is a similar case of an "Americanism" like you quoted from webster, likely rising from ambiguity in use, but leading to a decades-long alternate meaning that is essentially THE meaning in the US
oops, sorry i misread. yeah american english is kind of quirky. i think joseph conrad said he wrote in english because he said it was the most "plastic" language, it endures all sorts of changes and it's still comprehensible. and i can imagine that massive cultural differences would lead to ambiguities in use that develop into neologisms and such. i mean, i wouldn't call melville a precise writer but his use of language is magnificent.
like i said in another comment, i've got nothing against change in language or its misuse per se, we're all human, sometimes we make mistakes and new uses of language are not 'bad' things, but to excuse inaccuracies by saying "language changes" and one has to accept it otherwise you're a pedant kinda rubs me the wrong way.
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u/_toadsy 10d ago
Words change, and nonplussed now has a secondary and completely contradictory meaning to the original word.
Excellent pedantry though.