[musiciangames]

(Aside). To expand slightly, what robertsdionne is highlighting is the changing usage of this expression. In its original sense, e.g an issue is so important that it is impossible to overstate its importance. It is now increasingly used the other way around.

Old me would have said it’s used wrongly, but this happens all the time with language. Especially things being used in the opposite of their original sense, e.g. inflammable for flammable.

[smcameron]

In my mind, "cannot overstate" always meant "impossible to overstate", but I think some people interpret/intend "cannot understate" to mean something like "must not understate". I don't know if that's really what they're thinking, but it is how I make sense of it. I have come to just avoid such constructions.

Edit: reminds me of an ancient SNL skit with Ed Asner in which he's a retiring nuclear engineer and as he heads out the door he says to his incompetent co-workers "Just remember, you can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor".

[deanishe]

> opposite of their original sense, e.g. inflammable for flammable

Inflammable was never the opposite of flammable. Those word have always been synonyms. The opposite was always non-flammable.