Even the official definition is self-contradictory:
tr.v.pe·rused, pe·rus·ing, pe·rus·es
1. To read or examine, typically with great care.
2.Usage Problem To glance over; skim.
[Middle English perusen, to use up : Latin per-, per- + Middle English usen, to use; see USE.]
pe·rusa·bleadj.
pe·rusaln.
pe·rusern.
Usage Note:Peruse has long meant “to read thoroughly,” as in He perused the contract until he was satisfied that it met all of his requirements, which was acceptable to 75 percent of the Usage Panel in our 2011 survey. But the word is often used more loosely, to mean simply “to read,” as in The librarians checked to see which titles had been perused in the last month and which ones had been left untouched. Seventy percent of the Panel rejected this example in 1999, but only 39 percent rejected it in 2011. Further extension of the word to mean “to glance over, skim” has traditionally been considered an error, but our ballot results suggest that it is becoming somewhat more acceptable. When asked about the sentence I only had a moment to peruse the manual quickly, 66 percent of the Panel found it unacceptable in 1988, 58 percent in 1999, and 48 percent in 2011. Use of the word outside of reading contexts, as in We perused the shops in the downtown area, is often considered a mistake.
I think the dictionary is noting that people use the word incorrectly, in the exact opposite way, just like twig’s ex-husband (and now we know the reason for that!).
Noteworthy use of a form of that word:
“Submitted for your perusal, a Kanamit…”
Re: peruse … he was surprised he was wrong and he looked it up to verify that my understanding was correct. But he accepted it and moved on. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk about it, I was just confused by his meaning.
He was claiming to have perused a contract so therefore he wasn’t very familiar with it.
I guess a second exclamation point was necessary, to note that I was teasing.
I’m now wondering if there is a similar sounding word that (LOTS of) people are mistaking it for. Can’t think of anything but “cruise.” “I cruised the grocery aisles.”
Ravel/unravel also mean largely the same thing. I mess with people and say stull like: I took like 2 hours to ravel all my fishing lines that got messed up over the winter.
i used “lugubrious” the other day. Not sure why it popped into my head, but it just fit my train of thought at the time.
I have a hard time thinking of stuff like this at random, so I decided to come note when I did use an SAT word. Today i used nebulous when discussing a tool we are building for a team of clinicians in our PBM. I told our boss their request is quite nebulous and it’s tough getting much feedback from them on the work we have done so far.
