Originally Posted by ksryder

You know how people will use a particular word incorrectly long enough and eventually the English Language just says "well eff it I guess that's what it means now" (example: irregardless now being in the Oxford Dictionary)?

I usually don't get worked up about that sort of thing even though my undergrad degree was in English and I write for a living. This is because (a) languages evolve; (b) language "rules" are arbitrary; (c) the English language is really 3 languages standing on each other's shoulders and wearing a trench coat trying to pretend to be one language; and (d) ugh who cares, what a stupid thing to get worked about.

HOWEVER

It drives me crazy every time I see someone refer to the tire width as 28c instead of 28mm. There is no such thing as 28c (or 32 or 38 or whatever the width is.) "c" is not a unit of measurement. It's an archaic French standard that is supposed to indicate in a general way a class of tire widths. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-sizing.html#french

But you see it all the time, even in so-called professional cycling media and in ad copy from manufacturers themselves. It's such an easy thing to get right and yet no one bothers.

Like I said common mis-usage eventually becomes the correct usage and this is not a hill upon which I wish to die. But it still privately drives me crazy.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.