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Apple scarf 113 Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Proper use of the word conflate

In a recent conversation, I heard my boss say, in criticizing someone, “His words and actions don’t conflate.” I argued that this was not the proper use of conflate to accomplish his goal in the sentence. To conflate, I argued, is to erroneously relate two arguments as similar. By saying his words and actions don’t conflate, this would suggest he is not mistakenly relating two incongruous things and is therefore matching his words and actions. My boss said he used the word conflate properly. Can you please help us resolve this?
  

Top answer

Your boss is wrong. He was thinking of some other similar word, ironically, like maybe correlate. The AHD has a usage note that points out that your definition of "conflate" is relatively recent, perhaps arising even more ironically from a failure to remember the word "confuse", and only 55 percent of their usage panel approved of it in that use.

— Anonymous

  • Your boss is wrong.
  • He was thinking of some other similar word, ironically, like maybe correlate.
  • The AHD has a usage note that points out that your definition of "conflate" is relatively recent, perhaps arising even more ironically from a failure to remember the word "confuse", and only 55 percent of their usage panel approved of it in that use.
  • Me, I like it.
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1 Answers
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Your boss is wrong. He was thinking of some other similar word, ironically, like maybe correlate. The AHD has a usage note that points out that your definition of "conflate" is relatively recent, perhaps arising even more ironically from a failure to remember the word "confuse", and only 55 percent of their usage panel approved of it in that use. Me, I like it.

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