The 58 most commonly misused words and phrases(independent.co.uk) |
The 58 most commonly misused words and phrases(independent.co.uk) |
So... if a meaning is "rarely used today", and the author admits it's just personal preference, surely it shouldn't be on the list? I've seen some serious contortions in academic papers that try to use 'data' as a mass noun but still pedantically write "data are" instead of "data is". I've concluded at this point it's essentially an academic shibboleth.
I wouldn't call this 'misuse', but evolution.