On a monthly basis at my place of employment, the powers that be give awards to those people who do great work, provide quality leadership, or generally perform at an average level while refraining from inserting profanity between every other syllable. The nominations for these awards come from anyone who decides to type out a comprehensible paragraph about themselves or someone else and click the submit button.
Although these are oftentimes very eloquent, a recent one desperately needed a proofread. It included a sentence that nearly made me wet myself. Of course, the name has been changed to protect the innocent.
“Steven does great for us. He exenterates every quality that is expected of a manager.”
Exenterate means “to surgically remove organs”. I think they were shooting for exemplifies, but I’m afraid they missed.
While I'm thinking of it, and while we're sort of on the topic, there is a specific misuse of a word that drives me up a wall. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me for some reason.
"Donald supposably put away the porn, but my parents found it anyway."
It's supposedly! Supposedly! Supposably is not a word. I repeat, not a word!