Eric Zorn, “Eke! A Skunk!” (Chicago Tribune, Mar. 28, 2014)
I’ll quote Ben Zimmer, Wall Street Journal language columnist and executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com.
Zimmer told me that eke is what the word-nerd community calls a “skunked term,” meaning that its definition has changed through what purists argue is misuse by The Great Unwashed.
Common examples: Hopefully, bemused, decimate, enormity and nonplussed.
Read the rest here.