Don't get me started on the misuse of "nonplussed." In fact, don't even put the key in the ignition ... or swipe the fob, or press the button or whatever they're doing to start cars these days.

After all, here was this nice, wholesome word "nonplussed" — a good kid, raised on a farm (well, OK, a French farm), but still, as I said, a good kid.

But now that corn-fed lad has drifted off the farm and into the big city, where he's become the antithesis of himself. His old high school friends from Ohio, who occasionally run into him in SoHo during package tours of Manhattan, don't even recognize him.

"Nonplussed," derived from the the French "non" (not) and "plus" (more), literally means "not able to do or say any more," and, by extension, "speechless, confused, perplexed," e.g., "The senator's contradictory statements left his audience nonplussed."

But now people are using "nonplussed" to mean — horror of horrors — almost its exact opposite: "untroubled, unfazed, indifferent."

Three recent examples:

"More surprising than a far-right President in the heart of Europe is the fact that so many Austrians are nonplussed by the prospect." — Time

"The entire [Trump] family is nonplussed by the transition process and is taking most things in stride." — Joe Scarborough's blog "Hot Air"

"[While confronting a hostile crowd,] U.S. Rep. Tom Reed remained nonplussed and pleasant throughout." — Buffalo News

We have met the enemy and he is "nonplussed!"

How could this happen?

English words shift their meanings all the time, and some even hold two contradictory meanings simultaneously. "Sanction," for instance, can mean both "to approve" ("The A.A.U. sanctioned the event") and "to disapprove" ("The U.S. sanctioned North Korea").

Likewise, "a moot point" can be a debatable issue or a non-debatable issue, and the verb "dust" can mean "to remove dust" (dust the table) and "to put dust on" (dust crops).

In the case of "nonplussed," my guess is that people associated "plus" with intensification and perhaps made an auditory association with "fuss." So they assumed that someone who was "nonplussed" (not fussed, not "plussed") was unfazed.

Sadly, our innocent farm kid "nonplussed" has become what usage expert Bryan Garner calls a "skunked word." Whether you use it "correctly" to mean "perplexed," or "incorrectly" to mean "unfazed," someone will surely be confused and — dare I say it? — nonplussed.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.