A skunked term is a word that becomes difficult to use because it is transitioning from one meaning to another, perhaps inconsistent or even opposite, usage. Purists may insist on the old usage, while descriptivists may be more open to newer usages. Readers may not know which sense is meant.
Contents
The term was coined by lexicographer Bryan A. Garner in his 2008 edition of Garner's Modern American Usage and has since been adopted by some other style guides.
Usage
Garner recommends avoiding such terms if their use may distract from the meaning of a text.
Some terms, such as "fulsome", may become skunked, and then eventually revert to their original meaning over time.
Examples
"Decimate" used to mean 'to kill one in ten' (from the Roman practice of decimation), but now means 'to destroy' or 'to kill nine out of ten.'
"Hopefully" used to mean 'in a hopeful manner' but has come to mean 'it is hoped' since the early 1960s.
Other examples include "niggardly", "jewfish", "Oriental", "data", and "media".
The 2013 Oxford English Dictionary's definition of "literally" to include "figuratively" and, towards 2014, the conflation of 'deep web' with 'dark web'.