Nasty neologisms

[Guest]

A couple of really horrible examples this morning:
(1) On 'Today': 'Scotland has perhaps been less migranted than other parts of the United Kingdom' (by which is meant, I think, that it has attracted a smaller proportion of [im]migrants)
(2) On 'BBC1 Breakfast' a psychologist, during a discussion on sheds and social networking, referred to 'the onlineness of life these days'.

[Nick Armstrong]

With you, on both fronts. Saw the online woman

[amateur51]

Oh dear!

We are getting old.

At one time we created the neologisms, to the horror of our parents

And now we are holding our heads in our hands.

It's ugly, ugly, ugly .... but it's necessary and unstoppable, I'm afraid.

THE LANGUAGE HAS TO KEEP CHANGING dammit

[Nick Armstrong]

True, ams... but there seem to me to be good neologisms and nasty lazy ones. Of those two, 'migranted' seems to me to be particularly horrible.

But who am I to judge?

Innit.

[kernelbogey]

They're not neologisms, just lazy speech. Neither of the examples in M1 describes something that can't be conveyed in another, more elegant way: '...had fewer migrants' is clearer and uses the same number of words and syllables. 'Migranted' is also a sort of pseudo-jargon. My life, I will admit, has an onlineness quality, along with its shoppingness, drivingness and eatingness qualities.

[ahinton]

Oh dear!

We are getting old.

At one time we created the neologisms, to the horror of our parents

And now we are holding our heads in our hands.

It's ugly, ugly, ugly .... but it's necessary and unstoppable, I'm afraid.

THE LANGUAGE HAS TO KEEP CHANGING dammit

Of course it does!

Two decades ago, we didn't have the word "online" (or not in the sense in which use it now, anyway); now that we do, why would anyone be surprised at "onlineness"?

As to "migranted", whilst it's one of perhaps rather too many examples of turning anything and everything into a verb, I imagine its coinage and use to be for the purpose of using one word where more would otherwise have to be pressed into service.

What too many people fail to recognise is not only that language not only has to but does keep changing but also that it's changing every time we say or write anything, just as we ourselves are.

[amateur51]

True, ams... but there seem to me to be good neologisms and nasty lazy ones. Of those two, 'migranted' seems to me to be particularly horrible.

But who am I to judge?

Innit.

Too true innit

Migranted is vile beyond belief - let's hope it's vile beyond popular usage too

[amateur51]

Of course it does!

Two decades ago, we didn't have the word "online" (or not in the sense in which use it now, anyway); now that we do, why would anyone be surprised at "onlineness"?

As to "migranted", whilst it's one of perhaps rather too many examples of turning anything and everything into a verb, I imagine its coinage and use to be for the purpose of using one word where more would otherwise have to be pressed into service.

What too many people fail to recognise is not only that language not only has to but does keep changing but also that it's changing every time we say or write anything, just as we ourselves are.

I largely agree, ahinton.

[kernelbogey]

[....] it's one of perhaps rather too many examples of turning anything and everything into a verb[....]

There are other examples of changing parts of speech in this way. These are my posts no 181 & 195 on the Semantics thread:

In the summer I spent some time with a woman who frequently, apparently unable to think of the right word, would say things like 'Can you pass me the eggy-lifty thing?' (i.e. a spatula). It was mildly endearing and became a bit of a joke between us. Recently, I was talking to a young graduate (of Women's Studies) about her ambition for a master's degree, which she said would probably be 'in something gendery'. I'd been wondering if these are examples of a trend and have just overheard two builders talking in the street and one said to the other 'You need one of those pushy-offy things'. Has anybody else some across this forgetty-guessy usage?

I recently saw an AA van on the motorway with the words 'Battery Assist' on the door. I wondered why they used the verb in this phrase - perhaps just shorter than 'Assistance', easier to fit in the space and perhaps thought easier to read when passing at speed. But it reminded me of the phrase 'new build' which has become ubiquitous: I suppose it does convey something different from 'new building' but I find it ugly.

Today I spotted 'garagey' in the Guardian in relation to music.

[ahinton]

There are other examples of changing parts of speech in this way. These are my posts no 181 & 195 on the Semantics thread:

Originally Posted by kernelbogey View Post
In the summer I spent some time with a woman who frequently, apparently unable to think of the right word, would say things like 'Can you pass me the eggy-lifty thing?' (i.e. a spatula). It was mildly endearing and became a bit of a joke between us. Recently, I was talking to a young graduate (of Women's Studies) about her ambition for a master's degree, which she said would probably be 'in something gendery'. I'd been wondering if these are examples of a trend and have just overheard two builders talking in the street and one said to the other 'You need one of those pushy-offy things'. Has anybody else some across this forgetty-guessy usage?

Today I spotted 'garagey' in the Guardian in relation to music.

I think that there is a difference beween laziness of speech and the momentarily inability to recall the word that one wants, the "spatula" and "pushy-offy thing" examples falling into the latter category and the "gendery" one into the former (and a somewhat worrying one it is, too, coming as it did from someone preparing to undertake research for a master's degree in Women's Studies!).

What might you consider to be a viable altgernative to "garagey" in the contes in which you read it? "Garage-like"? Or even "garagesque"?

The problem with linguistic metamorphoses is that it needs to be - yet it's hard to see how it can be - tempered with some sense of what enhances the language and what originates from mere laziness of thought.

Another thing worth remembering - since we've only been talking about English here - is that there are around five words in the English language to every one in the French...

[salymap]

Language may have to change but we oldies don't have to like it.

Re egg-lifty, I used to call a fried egg 'An egg on a floor', and a boiled egg an egg in an eggcup when five or so. They didn't catch on tnough.

[amateur51]

I think that there is a difference beween laziness of speech and the momentarily inability to recall the word that one wants, the "spatula" and "pushy-offy thing" examples falling into the latter category and the "gendery" one into the former (and a somewhat worrying one it is, too, coming as it did from someone preparing to undertake research for a master's degree in Women's Studies!).

What might you consider to be a viable altgernative to "garagey" in the contes in which you read it? "Garage-like"? Or even "garagesque"?

The problem with linguistic metamorphoses is that it needs to be - yet it's hard to see how it can be - tempered with some sense of what enhances the language and what originates from mere laziness of thought.

Another thing worth remembering - since we've only been talking about English here - is that there are around five words in the English language to every one in the French...

I like the notion of the need to enhance the language when creating new words. To that end, English sometimes adopts words from other languages to this end, e.g., bricolage or Zeitgeist; and of course other languages 'borrow' from English

[ahinton]

Language may have to change but we oldies don't have to like it.

I don't know your age but I can tell you that it's been a while since I quite my 'teens and, whether anyone of any age "likes" any individual change in language and its use is hardly the point, except in cases where such changes come to invite a majority view that they fall into the laziness of thought category and then they'd likely die a natural death.

[amateur51]

Language may have to change but we oldies don't have to like it.

Re egg-lifty, I used to call a fried egg 'An egg on a floor', and a boiled egg an egg in an eggcup when five or so. They didn't catch on tnough.

You've put it so well, salymap

[ahinton]

I like the notion of the need to enhance the language when creating new words. To that end, English sometimes adopts words from other languages to this end, e.g., bricolage or Zeitgeist; and of course other languages 'borrow' from English

As have the French, perhaps most notably with "le weekend".