There are two terms that have become common in modern usage that I don't like and I think I will never use. I'm not sure if they're only used online, or if they're frequently used by younger people. I only see them written.
I didn't understand what either one meant when I started seeing them, and I find both of their apparent meanings counter-intuitive to their actual meanings.
One is own goal and the other is based.
I think I saw own goal first. To me it sounds like a positive thing, as when someone makes one of their goals, their own goal. But that's the opposite of what it means: it comes from a time when a player (probably in soccer) scores for the other team against his or her own goalie.
It's (over)used as a metaphor for times when a person or an organization does something that ends up damaging their own cause.
An example: "This administration's damage to our country is strictly an own goal." –Joyce Vance
Based, in my experience, is a more recent term. At first I thought it was a typo of "biased," or maybe there was a word missing. I have finally determined from context that it essentially expresses agreement — especially with something that's controversial. Essentially, a short way of saying "fuck your feelings."
Urban Dictionary says it's "used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think."
Its etymology is pretty twisted, and it sounds like I wasn't the only one who didn't know what it meant.
I'm sure I dislike it partly because Elon Musk is fond of using it when he reposts his white supremacist and anti-Semitic trash on X. Mostly, it makes him sound like a 50-something teenage-wannabe.
I hope Musk's old guy cooties have soured young people on using it. Maybe it will (or has already) gone out of style.
Friday, September 4, 2026
Two Terms I'll Never Use
Posted at
3:39 PM
Categories: Words at Play
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