When I first watched The Perfect Neighbor—the one where the Karen kills the neighbor—they showed the kids’ reaction to their dad telling them their mom died. It was on bodycam, and I didn’t feel sad at all. I kind of liked seeing them sad and cry. When the kid said, ‘No, but my heart is broken,’ I rolled my eyes and cringed. Sometimes I go back to watch their reactions for fun. Is this normal? (No, I’m not trolling.)
Edit: And sometimes I just dont care when I see kids or people in pain either way.
“Gainsay” is antiquated? Huh.
Yes, it’s largely fallen out of favour in the common vernacular, as in, people generally don’t use it.
There used to be a site (one of the popular dictionaries) that would show you how commonly a word has been used in publications (and, I suppose, online now) over time, but I can’t find it now. It would be interesting to see how less common words rank.
FWIW, I did find a dictionary entry that said it merely means to declare something untrue, with no mention of saying it to gain social status over the person, but that’s how I learned it. Not sure where I picked it up, but if I learned it from a movie or a book, it was being used in that way.
Fair enough. Thank you.