The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #132499   Message #4178477
Posted By: MaJoC the Filk
05-Aug-23 - 10:51 AM
Thread Name: BS: Language Pet Peeves
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves
Leeneeia: it may sometimes be a case of "in spelchek veritas" or "typus autocompletus", when the little offender adds an extra letter to (eg) "Britain is broke". But *agree* about the overuse of "it doesn't work" (which gets boiled down to "it's broken" by lazy headline writers), when what the offender means is "I can't get it to work" or "it doesn't work the way I want it to", or even "I know it works as it's supposed to, but it's getting in my way".

There's also the matter of severity, which is often context-dependent. Brokenness can mean anything from a small chip on the edge of a plate or the lip of a wine glass to a pile of shards on the floor.