Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 11 Aug 24 - 08:09 AM Humans are not naturally good at computing risks. There seems to be a sliding scale involved: * Will not happen * Cannot eliminate the possibility that this will happen * Might happen * Could happen * May happen * Is likely to happen * Cannot eliminate the possibility that this will *not* happen * Will happen That's why people tend to be scared of flying, but will happily take the greater risk of driving to the airport. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Thompson Date: 11 Aug 24 - 06:43 AM A perfect example of the misuse of the word "may" when "might" is correct: Washington Post headline says Heat killed a sanitation worker. Pending safety rules may have saved him. Oh? The man died, but then he was saved? Nope. When you read the story he died. He wasn't saved. The headline should read "Heat killed a sanitation worker. Pending safety rules might have saved him" |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Doug Chadwick Date: 10 Aug 24 - 04:49 PM It's not common enough for me to have heard it before. I can think of more common alternatives. DC |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Rain Dog Date: 10 Aug 24 - 12:07 PM I had not come across the term 'gagging away' before. I read it today in The Guardian, writing about the USA mens 4 x 100m relay team. "Even without Noah Lyles, who was out of the lineup due to Covid, the US entered the race as favorites. But over the past 20 years, they’ve had a knack for gagging away Olympic opportunities. The last time they captured a medal was in 2012, but that was later stripped for a doping violation." A quick google revealed a few uses of the term, the earliest back in 2003. It does not appear that common. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: leeneia Date: 08 Aug 24 - 12:21 AM I got interested in Chinese porcelain, and I was reading about cobalt, (actually cobalt compounds) which is what provides the blue paint in blue and white porcelain. Much cobalt on the market today is mined in unregulated mines in Africa, where conditions are dreadful and thousands of children are put to work. The language problem is that this cobalt is described as "artisanal." Talk about a weasel word! |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: mayomick Date: 04 Aug 24 - 06:07 AM "it's all starting to kick off" |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Doug Chadwick Date: 25 May 24 - 04:02 AM ..... I will not use "stomach" to mean belly, which (IIRC) Fowler condemned as genteelism. The alternative is "abdomen". DC |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 25 May 24 - 02:46 AM I used to think "solar plexus" was a euphemism for the victim's, er, naughty bits. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Joe_F Date: 24 May 24 - 10:23 PM It is far too late to protest, but I will not use "stomach" to mean belly, which (IIRC) Fowler condemned as genteelism. When I was in high school, I had a teacher who, when he was in high school, had a teacher who said "The stomach is an internal organ. You can no more lie on your stomach than you can lie on your liver". |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Joe_F Date: 24 May 24 - 10:14 PM I somewhere, somehow acquired the notion that "fuzz" for the police arose as a sarcastic diminutive for "whiskers" and alluded to "Mr Whiskers," slang for Uncle Sam. Unlikelier things have turned out to be true. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: meself Date: 24 May 24 - 02:26 PM "Visible rocks and sandbars can be seen in the river .... " |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 04 Apr 24 - 08:30 PM What about the stupidity of the American people? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 04 Apr 24 - 02:01 PM Compare G. W. Bush's "misunderestimate." |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: meself Date: 04 Apr 24 - 11:20 AM Heard on local radio this morning: "It is almost impossible to understate his contribution to the world of comedy" ...... |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 02 Apr 24 - 04:05 PM I looked it up. A raid is "sudden" so no, it can't last weeks. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: leeneia Date: 01 Apr 24 - 09:09 PM "ax" (for ask) has become a part of the language for African-Americans, nothing to do with laziness. Nah, I have heard white people from the south say ax. One of them was my own sister-in-law. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 01 Apr 24 - 10:59 AM I keep reading about that hospital destroyed "after a 2-week raid" - isn't a raid a quick action? Somehow, if it lasted weeks, it wasn't a raid, to me. Attack, onslaught, not siege which lasts but you aren't in the place you are besieging, so, what? I don't think raid is the mot juste, here. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Backwoodsman Date: 28 Mar 24 - 10:57 AM Heard about "Travel Reshtrictions" this morning from the BBC Radio 2 Traffic Nincompoop. WTAF? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 28 Mar 24 - 10:42 AM > a book called How to be Top There was a similar fashion for using "rules OK" in headlines (usually in the Sun iirc), which only died the death once some comedian or other pushed out "Dyslexia lures KO". They'd never get away with that death-stroke these days. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 28 Mar 24 - 10:37 AM I haven't noticed Sht for St, but in Ireland I heard Chewsday, which comes after Monday, Chune, which you sing, and Jew, which forms droplets on grass in the early morning... |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 27 Mar 24 - 07:50 AM When I was in Edinburgh a dozen years ago, I heard it a lot. Listen closely to "Dr. No," etc., and you'll hear Sean Connery saying it regularly. In my experience, it isn't as, er, "pronounced" as strongly as the letters "sh" might suggest. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Doug Chadwick Date: 27 Mar 24 - 07:24 AM If I listen to the radio at all, which I rarely do, then it's generally Radio 4. There is far more in the 'cheery' chat in between the music, on Radio 2, to annoy me, than the way they pronounce "st"/"sht". DC |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Backwoodsman Date: 27 Mar 24 - 07:11 AM You need to listen to BBC Radio 2 Doug. They’re all doing it on there, and it’s spilling over to BBC TV Channels too. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Doug Chadwick Date: 27 Mar 24 - 05:56 AM pronouncing 'st' as 'sht' Sean Connery was the first one I noticed doing it. Other than him, I can't say that I've noticed it much. DC |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Backwoodsman Date: 27 Mar 24 - 05:36 AM Talking of fashions in language (and my gripe is about pronunciation rather than actual vocabulary), am I the only one of our UK-contingent who has noticed the current fashion for pronouncing 'st' as 'sht' - so 'student' becomes 'shtudent', or 'street' becomes 'shtreet'? I've recently heard 'superstore' pronounced 'supershtore', amongst many annoying others. It seems to be a BBC-driven phenomenon - the first offender I noticed indulging in this verbal mangling was that Richie character who presents the traffic bulletins (he also pronounces 'bus' as 'buzz' but, having worked with a guy from Dudley for a number of years, I'm used to that one). Unfortunately, 'sht' seems to have become the widely accepted pronunciation and I'm probably just a moaning old wrinkly, but it really boils my piss! |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Thompson Date: 27 Mar 24 - 04:53 AM Has anyone brought up* the overuse of the term "key"? I can see why newspapers use it instead of "vital" in headlines (shortage-of-ink error), but I find use of it in speech to be unforgivably jarring, especially when overuse makes it a stand-in for "important", "noteworthy" or "interesting". There's so many "key" issues these days that there's no room in the door for anything else but locks. "Key" is the 2024 equivalent of the 1960s "top" - everyone was a top scientist, a top politician, etc - until some comedian brought out a book called How to be Top, when it gradually faded away. Words as analogies have these fashions. A few years ago "relish" was the trend, and it really annoyed me. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 25 Mar 24 - 03:33 PM I shall uae the term crash blossom going forward. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 22 Mar 24 - 05:33 PM "Trump frustrated as bond deadline nears and key bacteria identified in colon cancer cases." There's now a name for these syntactically ambiguous sentences. They're called "crash blossoms." Why? According to Merriam-Webster: "While crash blossoms themselves are as old as newspapers, the term dates back to 2009, when editor Mike O'Connell saw an ambiguous headline that appeared in the newspaper Japan Today— 'Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms' —and wondered in the Testy Copy Editors forum, 'What's a crash blossom?'" |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 22 Mar 24 - 05:05 PM Interesting to read that "aks" was "down to 1600 the regular literary form." So according to those of a mightily prescriptive bent, "aks" should be correct, and "ask" is an illiterate variant. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Manitas_at_home Date: 22 Mar 24 - 04:30 PM AKS. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/12074/why-is-ask-sometimes-pronounced-aks |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 22 Mar 24 - 03:49 PM Interestingly, Oxford offers no examples, ever, of "ask" being used for "ax." |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: gillymor Date: 22 Mar 24 - 02:38 PM In the U.S. "ax" (for ask) has become a part of the language for African-Americans, nothing to do with laziness. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: meself Date: 22 Mar 24 - 01:27 PM "Lazy American mouths" continue pronunciations that were in use long before English-speakers came to 'America'. What the heck is wrong with them? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 22 Mar 24 - 08:10 AM There are three sounds in both "ask" and "ax." So it isn't laziness. It's a reversal of the order of the sounds. This is called "metathesis." Oxford shows similar forms in use since Old English (before 900 AD). Here's a good example from the Coverdale Bible of 1535: "Axe and it shall be given you." (The first published English translation of the Old and New Testaments, predecessor of King James Version.) |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Donuel Date: 22 Mar 24 - 06:30 AM Lazy American mouths say Ax instead of ask. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 21 Mar 24 - 10:44 AM NBC headline Trump frustrated as bond deadline nears and key bacteria identified in colon cancer cases: Morning Rundown I just bet he cares deeply about bacteria |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 11 Mar 24 - 09:33 AM Thanks for the disambiguation, Doug: I bow to your superior knowledge. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Doug Chadwick Date: 10 Mar 24 - 01:17 PM someone being "detained", then "arrested". I'll check, but be formally arrested, methinks there needs to be one or more specific charges, and the defendant must then go before the Beak. One can instead (or first) be detained, which (like being chucked in the cooler after an excessively good celebration) need not necessarily lead to a charge. My understanding of the situation in the UK is that there are three circumstances where someone can be detained before arrest: stop and search; to prevent an imminent breach of the peace; search of property. Otherwise, at formal arrest must be made and the arrested person advised of their legal rights. They may then be detained without charge for a limited period, normally 24 hours, although exceptionally, this may be extended to 36 hours by the station Superintendent, or 72 hours under a magistrate's warrant. The decision to charge rests with the Crown Prosecution Service. DC |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 10 Mar 24 - 09:49 AM > someone was arrested "after" a drug bust Bingo! this just seen on the the Beeb's Red Button: someone being "detained", then "arrested". I'll check, but to be formally arrested, methinks there needs to be one or more specific charges, and the defendant must then go before the Beak. One can instead (or first) be detained, which (like being chucked in the cooler after an excessively good celebration) need not necessarily lead to a charge. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 10 Mar 24 - 06:53 AM Has anyone brought up* the overuse of the term "key"? I can see why newspapers use it instead of "vital" in headlines (shortage-of-ink error), but I find use of it in speech to be unforgivably jarring, especially when overuse makes it a stand-in for "important", "noteworthy" or "interesting". There's so many "key" issues these days that there's no room in the door for anything else but locks. * I use the term most carefully. Sound effect to (dis)taste. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Thompson Date: 09 Mar 24 - 04:20 AM People have discarded "whoever" and are using "whomsoever", weirdly. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 01 Mar 24 - 09:59 AM Of course surprises are to expected. Specific surprises are not. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 01 Mar 24 - 08:28 AM Heard on NPR surprises are to b expected |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 29 Feb 24 - 09:55 AM Again, someone was arrested "after" a drug bust. Like, in a completely unrelated other bust? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: meself Date: 25 Feb 24 - 09:46 PM No, no - you just hold them in your hand and warm them up. The term 'cooked' is being used loosely. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Tattie Bogle Date: 25 Feb 24 - 06:52 PM Then there are the “hand-cooked” crisps (chips to those in the US) - as if you’d plunge your hand into a vat of boiling oil? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 25 Feb 24 - 02:04 AM Ok... every car on this lot was hand-selected. What, like a flower? How do you HAND-select a CAR? |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Thompson Date: 24 Feb 24 - 03:07 PM In Ireland, cops are the shades. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Lighter Date: 24 Feb 24 - 03:06 PM Hard to believe, but here are two English words that are essentially as thoroughly synonymous as "gorse" and furze." Not very exciting though: "inalienable" "unalienable." Semantically identical and orthographically nearly so - just one letter different out of eleven. The only other difference, if it is a difference, is that the Declaration of Independence uses "unalienable," though most people (who'd be unlikely to use either one in a sentence) think it's "inalienable." Oxford shows "inalienable" from 1647 and "unalienable" from 1611. |
Subject: RE: BS: Language Pet Peeves part II From: Mrrzy Date: 24 Feb 24 - 03:05 PM Sic'm, Fang! |