Pedants' Paradise

[oddoneout]

Hacks
The Guardian uses this term, for example in the phrase Money Hacks, explained as 'Tips and tricks to boost your finances'. Try as I may, I have been unable to comprehend this term as so used. (They also have 'Beauty hacks'.) I see the heading 'Money hacks' to a piece and am unable to connect the word with this new meaning. Maybe this is just age; but I suspect something else is blocking my understanding of the term.

Has replaced tips and/or tricks - with "of the trade" optional - but like you I have problems with "hack" as to me it conjures up something negative. Visions of an incompetent and damaging approach to a task, which might be warranted in extreme situations, but not where a good or improved outcome is wanted. Not helped by modern usage of hacking in relation to computers, which adds to the negative feel.

[french frank]

Hacks
The Guardian uses this term, for example in the phrase Money Hacks, explained as 'Tips and tricks to boost your finances'. Try as I may, I have been unable to comprehend this term as so used. (They also have 'Beauty hacks'.) I see the heading 'Money hacks' to a piece and am unable to connect the word with this new meaning. Maybe this is just age; but I suspect something else is blocking my understanding of the term.

OED has a verbal usage from 1936: "
III.14.1936– transitive. slang (originally U.S.). To manage, accomplish; to cope with; to tolerate. Frequently in to hack it.

The later noun hack with a similar meaning seems to have been a computer term for 'An inelegant yet effective solution to a computing problem', a workaround.

More generally 7.c. 2005–In extended use: any strategy, adaptation, or expedient solution adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way.

HTH :-)

[Serial_Apologist]

Similarly, people say 'I was lucky to miss that plane, because it crashed'. But in that alternative scenario, where they caught the plane, it might equally not have crashed.

Now, that would be entering a quantum world!

[kernelbogey]

....Either way, the expression "It was going to happen" evaporates by virtue of its tautological inconsequence. Or, as a cynic might say, "Stuff happens".

Similarly, people say 'I was lucky to miss that plane, because it crashed'. But in that alternative scenario, where they caught the plane, it might equally not have crashed.

[kernelbogey]

So long as no one is hacking into your bank accounts... !

That I can understand more easily - like someone using a machete or pickaxe,

[Serial_Apologist]

That reminds me of an article about the late Queen when she had reached one of her anniversaries and was compared with Queen Victoria. It said that they were similar in that when they were born 'neither was destined to be Queen'. On the contrary; they were both destined to be Queen, i.e. that is what eventually happened. They were not expected to be Queen, perhaps, though in Victoria's case it was more of a certainty than in Elizabeth's.

That is what gets me about the idea of Predestination, too. People say, "That was going to happen", when obviously it was going to happen, otherwise it wouldn't! If they were more precise they might instead have given an indication of likelihood, but I suspect some people hold beliefs that everything is pre-planned, although this would amount to reducing our scope for action, and thus freedom of will, since their argument that X was destined to happen made it unavoidable. My guessing is that for some people, whether or not some result (whether negative or positive) occurs is judged more by moral and ethical standards; i.e. it's down to the sufferer's or beneficiary's actions, than by "inevitability". Either way, the expression "It was going to happen" evaporates by virtue of its tautological inconsequence. Or, as a cynic might say, "Stuff happens".

[Old Grumpy]

Similar to side hustle...


...is it not just a second job?

Side hustle makes it sound like something illegal! *


*Which, of course it could be!

[Serial_Apologist]

Hacks
The Guardian uses this term, for example in the phrase Money Hacks, explained as 'Tips and tricks to boost your finances'. Try as I may, I have been unable to comprehend this term as so used. (They also have 'Beauty hacks'.) I see the heading 'Money hacks' to a piece and am unable to connect the word with this new meaning. Maybe this is just age; but I suspect something else is blocking my understanding of the term.

So long as no one is hacking into your bank accounts... !

[kernelbogey]

Hacks
The Guardian uses this term, for example in the phrase Money Hacks, explained as 'Tips and tricks to boost your finances'. Try as I may, I have been unable to comprehend this term as so used. (They also have 'Beauty hacks'.) I see the heading 'Money hacks' to a piece and am unable to connect the word with this new meaning. Maybe this is just age; but I suspect something else is blocking my understanding of the term.

[Old Grumpy]

Rather depends whether one believes in destiny, doesn't it? Strictly, at the time of their births no-one could say with confidence that either was destined to be Queen. One thing's for certain, they both reached their destination!

[smittims]

That reminds me of an article about the late Queen when she had reached one of her anniversaries and was compared with Queen Victoria. It said that they were similar in that when they were born 'neither was destined to be Queen'. On the contrary; they were both destined to be Queen, i.e. that is what eventually happened. They were not expected to be Queen, perhaps, though in Victoria's case it was more of a certainty than in Elizabeth's.

[LMcD]

The caption to an aerial picture of holiday park caravans affected by floodwater says they are submerged by floodwater, which to me implies they are underwater. But they are not - the water comes up to just below the decks around their exteriors, and evidently hasn't been any higher as all the items(furniture, plant pots etc) are still in place. Surely submerged isn't a difficult word to understand the meaning of? If drama was wanted perhaps the caption could have read "Floodwater inundates holiday park".

'Normally dry parts of caravans get wet' - potentially ambiguous but also more accurate?

[oddoneout]

The caption to an aerial picture of holiday park caravans affected by floodwater says they are submerged by floodwater, which to me implies they are underwater. But they are not - the water comes up to just below the decks around their exteriors, and evidently hasn't been any higher as all the items(furniture, plant pots etc) are still in place. Surely submerged isn't a difficult word to understand the meaning of? If drama was wanted perhaps the caption could have read "Floodwater inundates holiday park".

[Serial_Apologist]

I think 'baby shower' is part of the Americanisation of English life, along with Halloween merchandise, which seems to have gone over the top this year. , and 'Christmas Eve boxes' which are for parents to silence the impatiience fo children who cannot wait for Christmas Day. And I hope no-one here is a fan of couples 'renewing' (i.e. restating in public) their marriage vows on their silver or golden anniversaries. For me that ranks with putting up your Xmas lights in November or wearing a poppy from October 1st. Do they still do that on BBC1? I haven't dared to look.

Renew their vows???

[Old Grumpy]

I have just found out the meaning of "baby shower" - one of those expressions (is it recent?) that comes up occasionally (like, on a TV show), prompting one to go to the latest dictionary.

To be honest, I had assumed it to refer to the "breaking of waters" announcing the immediately impending arrival of said baby!


Oh yes - and twens are not people in their twenties, but twins, to a Glaswegian!

As would not be more like twuns from a Glaswegian?