I've heard the title phrase a couple of times and it really annoyed me. Most recently it was on The Soup, where a guy from the show Wife Swap (I think) ate some raw meat (he ate only uncooked food for whatever reason) and said, "That's pretty good, it's got a wang to it."

What bothered me was first that I know roughly what he meant by that, but he was using a made-up word to describe a complex flavor. What annoyed me most though was the realization that I probably don't know a word to better express what he really meant either.

I've heard a few other lazy people describe spicy foods that way and it was just as annoying to me. You always hate most about people those traits that remind you of your own shortcomings.

Without a doubt, our culture is getting dumbed down in every respect. Most video games have thin and uncomplicated story lines; "reality" shows have taken over television, giving airtime to ignorant slobs; the internet, while democratic, is spreading propaganda and rampant falsehoods to people at a faster rate then ever possible. 

I have managed to get a bachelor of science degree in essentially an English degree (but for people who actually want to get a job) with an appallingly small vocabulary.

I don't have a great history with keeping new year's resolutions, but this one is one I can keep. I want to find a good website that will teach me one new word a day.

I did a google search for "Daily Vocabulary" to try to find one.

The first entry, zdaily.com, I couldn't figure out what I'm supposed to do or how it works, and I have a very low tolerance of things on the web that are not intuitive and easy to figure out how to use. Web design as all other forms of communication take unselfishness to accomplish, and narcissism is the most common disease infecting people in our culture, and it manifests itself in poorly written poetry and unusable websites. Like the morons on the show I'm half watching right now on Sell This House that can't imagine potential buyers not liking their pink walls and dated wallpaper because they themselves love it. Good communication requires one to step outside himself and imagine what others require. Most people are too self-centered to do this.

The next site is vocabuvitimins.com, which looked somewhat promising, but it requires a login and I don't want to have to log on to anything. Today's word is "impromptu," which at first I was thinking that it is too easy of a word, because I already know it, but I thought again and decided that it isn't just that I don't know enough words, but that I don't really use the full breadth my vocabulary or don't always use the most precise word for a given message. So I won't mind if the site has some words that I think I know, it will help me know the true meaning and increase the words that I'm likely to pull out and use on my own, rather than simply recognize when I see it. 
 
Classbrain.com was next, which has a matching game to line five words up with their synonyms. There were a few things wrong with this site. The most important flaw was that I don't think it's been updated since November... 2006, but even if it had been, I found the game counterproductive.

I matched the words as I thought they should be, getting only two of the five right, then found that I was getting confused between the real definition and my gut instinct even after finding the real word meanings. So this site could actually help me become dumber. 

The rest of the entries kept getting more out of date or junky and of questionable content, so I changed my google search to "word of the day" and found this: dictionary.com 's word of the day.

This site will work perfectly and I've used dictionary.com often at work to look up words, so I like that I can give daily traffic to a free site that I have found useful in the past. I'll add it to my "What Chuck Reads" list on the sidebar.

I recently found this article, on the nine words that don't mean what you think they do, which is not safe for work and could offend the more prudish among us with moderately bad language and scantly clad women, but actually did teach me something I didn't know about seven of the nine words. I'll summarize here so that the prudes don't have to see cleavage or bad words, but if you think you can take such things and are not at work, read the real article linked above because it is far wittier than anything here:

Irregardless
People think it means:
Regardless.
Actually means:
Nothing

This one I already knew. Actually, my father used to complain about several fake words that some of his former colleagues in the corporate world used, and "irregardless" was the top of his annoyance list as an all to common word. The other one was "invanereal," which one person like to use in place of "immaterial," or of no essential consequence; unimportant. But word managed to make the user look stupid and be inadvertently offensive all at once.

Peruse
People think it means: 
To skim over or browse something. 
Actually Means: 
Almost hte opposite of that

Peruse means "to read with thoroughness or care." I'm sure I have misused this before.

Ironic
People think it means:
Any kind of amusing coincidence.
Actually means:
An outcome that is the opposite of the one you expect

It's often a little more than that too, I think it's an opposite than expected outcome with a bit of a morbid fatalist twist. People love to sound smart talking about how the song Ironic by Alanis Morisette actually contains no examples of Irony. I like Alanis too much to get all holier-than-thou on that point, especially since she did this a few months back, which again proved that Canadians make the world better for everyone. You can only appreciate the irony of the song remake of "My Humps" if you have heard the original version by Fregie and the Black Eyed Peas. 

This site corrects all of Alanis' examples of irony in "Ironic" to actually be ironic. It should be used by English teachers to teach the concept of irony. I know I spent more than half my life using that word incorrectly.

Pristine
People think it means:
"Spotless" or "as good as new.""Spotless" or "as good as new."
Actually means:
Ancient, primeval; in a state virtually unchanged from the original

This one really surprised me. What I liked in learning the correct meaning is that it's often used correctly, but I had been missing the real connotation, like in the cliché "pristine rain forest." I always thought that it meant perfect or a perfect example of a rain forest, but it really means that it's untouched and in its natural state. So an antique plow rusting and bird poo covered in a barn would be in pristine condition, while if you cleaned and painted it, it would no longer be pristine.

Nonplussed
People think it means:
Unperturbed, not worried.
Actually means:
Utterly perplexed or confused.

I hate this word, so I've never used it and won't start, but it is interesting to know what it really means. Everyone gets this one wrong.

Bemused
People think it means:
Mildly amused. 
Actually means:
Bewildered of confused.

I have probably used this word incorrectly.

Enormity
People think it means:
Enormous.  
Actually means:
Outrageous or heinous on a grand scale.

I know I've gotten this one wrong.

Plethora
People think it means:
A lot of something.  
Actually means:
Too much of something, an over-abundance.

This is a fun one to know about because it's usually used by incorrectly people trying to sound smarter than they are. Yup, I've done that too.

Deceptively
People think it means:
Nobody is sure.   
Actually means:
Nobody is sure.

"Specifically, we're talking about when the word is used with some other adjective. Like if somebody says, "The turd pool is deceptively shallow," does that mean it's deeper than it appears, or not as deep?"

I will have to try to stop using this word.