The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132499 Message #2998560
Posted By: Paul Burke
03-Oct-10 - 05:37 AM
Thread Name: BS: Language Pet Peeves
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves
It's been going on a long time, and I doubt if it will stop in our species' lifetime. A hundred years ago, Disgusted of Tonbridge Wells might have written to "The Times"(*):
The word "terrific" used to mean "inspiring terror," but currently it usually means "very good."
Where did the phrase "Hello" come from, and what will make it go away?
The word is "omnibus," NOT "bus." Are three syllables really so much more difficult to utter than one? It is permissible if you want to use it informally, or to show you are "up to date". But to use it in the newspapers, as in "to catch the bus..." makes me wonder who is in charge.
Note that I've partially corrected a few solecisms ("use to", a certain laxness of punctuation), and excised contractions like "isn't" that would not have been printed in the better newspapers, but wouldn't be blinked at today.
(*) That's how he would have put it then. No one with any education wrote to the Times.