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Life support Now an open-ended maintenance of metabolism
blurring the line between animal and vegetable.

Light rail Formerly an inferior railway; increasingly a euphemism
for tram, trolley or streetcar (see pasta).

Literally Formerly its literal meaning; an example of the role of
exaggeration in linguistic deflation from fact to fiction, or from
serious oaths and expressions of awe to conversational hyperbole.

Make a difference Credibly have some influence.

Make no mistake “You’d better be right, and I’d better not be
wrong”: an implicit threat masquerading as authoritative advice.

Meme A misunderstood and contested academic term becoming
the only valid example of itself in popular culture: anything
repeated, usually online.

Mom and Dad Formerly “mother” and “father” outside the
family; see guys for note on “folks”, formerly also familiar for
parents.

Move on from Justification for losing concern about an
unpleasantness in order to ignore or evade responsibility; also
“move forward from”; often used with “getting it behind us”,
another appeal to spatiotemporal disjuncture.

Narrative Explanation trivialized as self-serving justification via
“changing” it.

New normal (see normalize).

No problem Replaced “you’re welcome”; they are phatic
contextual equivalents, but “no problem” implies a burden
imposed but discounted, instead of the reciprocity for gratitude
explicit in “you’re welcome”.

Normalize Accept degraded standards; equivalent to “lowering
the bar”.

Officer-involved shooting The police shot someone; the
justifiability of doing so will be determined by them.