Thank you very much for the thorough reply.

As the person who uttered in conversation (not wrote) the statement (and meant to rule out the possibility that 100% of people are smart), I'm really curious to know on what authority you are basing your statements. In all known human languages, including English, meaning is determined by common usage, not logic. While this might drive some English teachers or (even some Linguists) bonkers, it is in fact the case. In English, the statement "Everybody is not tall" is almost never taken to mean "Everybody is short", but rather that there are some who are not tall. This is the case pretty much no matter what adjective one substitutes in the sentence. Using pure logic, your interpretation would be sound, but logic doesn't dictate how language works, usage does, and there are hundreds of examples of this. I'd really like you to show me an example in English (outside of Mathematics or Logic) where the negation of an adjective is commonly taken to mean the opposite of the adjective, as opposed to stating a categorical exception. Consider for example, the same sentence containing a contraction; "Everybody isn't bright", this sentence means the same thing as the one without the contraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litote

Nice try, but Litotes in English generally involve double negation. The specialized use of them in certain contexts pretty much proves my point.

I'm assuming you thought I was trying to refute your point or something, which is the obvious explanation for the semi-snarky "Nice try" (and all of the words after it, I guess), but I didn't care that much about its validity. You asked for something and I took your request literally and posted what you asked for.

While it's true that I would interpret "everybody isn't stupid" as "not everybody is stupid", I would also be thinking that I was actually speaking to a spastic.

Please don't argue "everybody isn't stupid" is in any way acceptable; it could at best be described as tolerable.

I wonder if they would pay if I lost with 4 deuces.

Good chance I posted this before but does "hence why" bother anyone else?

Example:

"Hence" means "for this reason" hence why "why" is superfluous.

I could see it used in rare instances, since the secondary meaning also indicates a period of time. I could also see it for weird emphasis. But yeah, it sucks.

One that grinds my gears that's similar and that I've likely posted about a lot before: 'as per'. As in 'As per this source, such and such has happened' - I see it a lot on Twitter. You can just say 'per' - the as is superfluous.

per se. I'm sure people are misusing it, and I'm not sure myself what it means.

Speaking of superfluous...

"Continuing on..."

It means "in itself."

Which do you guys think is worse, "literally" or "actually"?

Literally is a far worse word, not that that column makes the case for that very well. Actually is a slightly more refined variation on "um" with connotations of "wow"; literally does that same duty, as well as (far more annoyingly) standing in for its own opposite.

A related point is that "actually" is often used as an unintentional backhanded compliment. Am I incorrect interpreting "I actually had fun last night" as "I wasn't expecting it at all, but I had fun last night"?

I just caught up with this New Yorker blog on the semicolon, which I found useful. (I also liked what it said in passing about the colon.) http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...emicolons.html.

Neither word is worse -- both words are fine. It's the ****ing morons using them you have to worry about.

(And people who use literally use it improperly far more often than people who misuse actually).

I mean, actually doesn't even have to have any loaded barb to it at all.

"Let's go to In-N-Out for lunch."
"No, I need to eat healthy. But In-N-Out is so good... and I haven't had a burger in a week. Actually, yeah. Let's go to In-N-Out."

Shouldn't it be "healthily"?

Watch out for poorly-worded Full Tilt updates, from one of the FT threads:

"We're delighted to announce that we have officially closed our deal with the U.S. DoJ as of today, August 9th. 90 days from today is November 6th (yes, U.S. election day). Full Tilt Poker will be live no later than that day."

Poorly-worded because someone with no knowledge of the situation could interpret it to mean the site is live now and would be shutting down on 11/6, I guess? Just replacing "be" with "go" would fix that right up.

Also,

See Eat Fresh/Think Different discussion IMO.

Just saw a headline on the news detailing the wounded constabulary: NYPD Officer's Shot

Next it's going to be NBC Graphic Designer's Shot.

Just one officer, right? So assuming they mean "officer is shot" it's grammatically correct, but awful for a headline.

I'd go with "NYPD Officer Shot" every day and twice on Sunday (whatever the **** that means).

Actualy I'm living in a country where "gogo" litteraly means "girl" (see what I did there? :P ). I first wondered what was wrong but then saw the "'" and understood.