Nasty neologisms

[Norfolk Born]

I'm sure you'll still be all tweetness and light!

[mercia]

"Tasked"

I hadn't come across tasked before the Leveson Inquiry. Hackers are tasked, journalists are tasked, everyone's tasked.

[ahinton]

I hadn't come across tasked before the Leveson Inquiry. Hackers are tasked, journalists are tasked, everyone's tasked.

Not everyone. Unless I misunderstand the term, being tasked involves the need for someone else has to do the tasking and so my self-employed tatus presumably exonerates me from this.

[Serial_Apologist]

Not everyone. Unless I misunderstand the term, being tasked involves the need for someone else has to do the tasking and so my self-employed tatus presumably exonerates me from this.

Until "tasked" came along, people in general were "charged" with undertaking tasks. But I bet when "charged" first came in those requested would have objected to being charged, in more senses than one!

As for "alarmed", the title Thomas Ades's Proms premiere piece of a few years ago, "These Premises Are Alarmed", evoked for me some pretty weird images of trembling buildings!

[Panjandrum]

I hadn't come across tasked before the Leveson Inquiry. Hackers are tasked, journalists are tasked, everyone's tasked.

"Sourced": whatever happened to "supplied by" or "purchased from"?

[scottycelt]

I cringe when any politician/manager is 'minded to' do something and especially when it will be done in 'a robust' manner ...

[ahinton]

Almost anything can be turned into an neologism just it can be turned into a cliché just as it can be turned into a verb, given sufficient will to do so. It's a long time now since de la Rochefoucauld asserted that language was given to Man to conceal his thoughts, though far less long ago that this bon mot prompted my composerly mind to ponder upon the possibility that musical language was given to Man to conceal those thoughts that he somehow still couldn't contrive to conceal by means of words alone - but then maybe that's due at least in part to the less palatable aspects of the Scotsmanship of my mental processes...

[scottycelt]

Almost anything can be turned into an neologism just it can be turned into a cliché just as it can be turned into a verb, given sufficient will to do so. It's a long time now since de la Rochefoucauld asserted that language was given to Man to conceal his thoughts, though far less long ago that this bon mot prompted my composerly mind to ponder upon the possibility that musical language was given to Man to conceal those thoughts that he somehow still couldn't contrive to conceal by means of words alone - but then maybe that's due at least in part to the less palatable aspects of the Scotsmanship of my mental processes...

You took the very words right out of my mouth, ahinton. The less palatable aspects of the Scotmanship of our mental processes are really not fit for purpose, and I therefore stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in total solidarity.

[mangerton]

I cringe when any politician/manager is 'minded to' do something and especially when it will be done in 'a robust' manner ...

Quite. What about when they make things "clear" or even "perfectly clear"?

[scottycelt]

Quite. What about when they make things "clear" or even "perfectly clear"?

Yes, that's the very stage when we expect, and almost always get, even greater ambiguity than before ...

[Ferretfancy]

Yes, Scotty, and let there be no mistake!

[Serial_Apologist]

"We have no plans to" is euphemism for "We're very much bearing it in mind".

[amateur51]

"Sourced": whatever happened to "supplied by" or "purchased from"?

And what about "Outsourced"? Meaning "we've made redundant those people in cleaning services with workers' rights and given the contract to a huge French cleaning company who will most likely employ half as many 16 year-olds as temps at £2/hour less"

Outsourcing? Now that's what I call 'management savvy'

[Ferretfancy]

amateur51

Remember when Human Resources Management used to be called Personnel?

A few months ago, while doing my voluntary job, I was greeted by a young lady of some nineteen summers who wore a badge labelled "Overseas visitor experience co-ordination executive "

[umslopogaas]

This reminds me of an old Civil Service friend, with whom I have propped up many a bar in many lands in the course of The Great Game (ours, not Theirs). He had a Jargon Generator. Three columns of words. You could take any one word from each column to make a three word phrase that would give you an equally, simultaneously, meaningful and meaningless description.

Perhaps you need a visit from my

"Environmentally Flexible Facilitators"

No? Really? Why not?

They definitely operate within a:

"Robust Funding Envelope",

which is definitely a:

"Benign Contemporary Solution"

or if one is feeling really bold, a:

"Benign Contemporaneous Solution".


Thank you for your time Minister, I trust you'll find those phrases very helpful.