Somehow I hadn't noticed 'intensive purposes', so thanks. Recently I have found the use of 'practically' as a replacement for 'pretty much' irksome. We have plenty of words for that and no more to indicate 'for practical purposes'.
As others have pointed out: language is meant to be understood. It would be enough to always take the meaning from a speaker, except if we do that chronically, we begin to lose words. Which will make communication more difficult when you need those specialized meanings.
As others have pointed out: language is meant to be understood. It would be enough to always take the meaning from a speaker, except if we do that chronically, we begin to lose words. Which will make communication more difficult when you need those specialized meanings.
Bother.