Pedants' Paradise

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  • french frank
    Administrator/Moderator
    • Feb 2007
    • 30235

    Originally posted by Padraig View Post

    It's all about 'Free Speech', Isn't it f f? If usage is now a valid reason for change, then next step is to consolidate opening up gramar and speling to similiar acceptibility. Ness pa?
    May wee! Language usage moves on. But I hadn't caught up with this variant until this afternoon. The issue is not whether it's 'right' or 'wrong' but how frequently it appears and when it was first used.
    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

    Comment

    • smittims
      Full Member
      • Aug 2022
      • 4070

      I do think it's a pity, though, when two different words, with different meanings, become confused in that way; I think the language becomes that bit more blunted and impoverished. I feel this with:-

      uninterested - disinterested,

      Oblivious - regardless

      masterful - masterly,

      and so on!

      Comment

      • kernelbogey
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 5735

        Originally posted by french frank View Post
        Interesting to learn how usage overtakes one's personal experience....

        What next?
        One thing that's next, I've been noticing recently, is the increasing use - almost popularisation - of neutral vocabulary to describe something unpleasant or immoral. It's doublespeak (and I can't remember whether that is Orwell or Huxley). I'm thinking of neutralise for kill, collateral damage ditto, situation emergency. They are euphemisms whose usage is designed to obfuscate, or to dull moral outrage. This thought was prompted by a police spokesperson in Sydney yesterday saying that the knife-wielding killer at Bondi Junction had no ideation - then clarifying by saying that means he wasn't a terrorist. (I'm sure he had some ideation.)

        Comment

        • oddoneout
          Full Member
          • Nov 2015
          • 9141

          Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
          One thing that's next, I've been noticing recently, is the increasing use - almost popularisation - of neutral vocabulary to describe something unpleasant or immoral. It's doublespeak (and I can't remember whether that is Orwell or Huxley). I'm thinking of neutralise for kill, collateral damage ditto, situation emergency. They are euphemisms whose usage is designed to obfuscate, or to dull moral outrage. This thought was prompted by a police spokesperson in Sydney yesterday saying that the knife-wielding killer at Bondi Junction had no ideation - then clarifying by saying that means he wasn't a terrorist. (I'm sure he had some ideation.)
          Yes it's something I have noticed. It has the effect of taking a word out of general use, as the thoughtless/ignorant* adoption in one context(often incorrectly) results in too many people thinking that is its only meaning or use.
          Or sometimes deliberate? Woke/wokeism has been taken away from its quite specific meaning to become what in many cases used to be covered(in the same derogatory sense) by the term political correctness.

          Comment

          • kernelbogey
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 5735

            Originally posted by oddoneout View Post
            Or sometimes deliberate? Woke/wokeism has been taken away from its quite specific meaning to become what in many cases used to be covered(in the same derogatory sense) by the term political correctness.
            Yes - exactly so.

            Comment

            • Pulcinella
              Host
              • Feb 2014
              • 10884

              From the Guardian (no surprise there!).
              Presumably they aren't stationary/stationery either.


              A food company has won a sweet-tasting victory against the UK tax authorities after a court decided that it did not have to pay VAT on its marshmallows because they were not confectionary.

              Comment

              • vinteuil
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 12782

                BBC News weebsite - "Prosecutor says Trump is flaunting gag order rule"

                I rather suspect he is flouting it....

                .

                Comment

                • LMcD
                  Full Member
                  • Sep 2017
                  • 8402

                  When did 'multiple' start to displace 'many', 'several' or 'numerous'?

                  Comment

                  • oddoneout
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2015
                    • 9141

                    Originally posted by LMcD View Post
                    When did 'multiple' start to displace 'many', 'several' or 'numerous'?
                    When someone decided it sounded more exciting/attention grabbing than any of those?

                    Comment

                    • Serial_Apologist
                      Full Member
                      • Dec 2010
                      • 37589

                      Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                      BBC News weebsite - "Prosecutor says Trump is flaunting gag order rule"

                      I rather suspect he is flouting it....

                      .


                      Not if it's a brightly coloured gag!

                      Comment

                      • kernelbogey
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 5735

                        'Even' is spreading as an intensifier, as in 'What does that even mean?', where it adds nothing to the substance of the question.

                        Comment

                        • french frank
                          Administrator/Moderator
                          • Feb 2007
                          • 30235

                          Originally posted by kernelbogey View Post
                          'Even' is spreading as an intensifier, as in 'What does that even mean?', where it adds nothing to the substance of the question.
                          I used it once like that. Having noticed and in rebellion against modish neologisms I resolved (pompously?) never to do so again.
                          It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                          Comment

                          • smittims
                            Full Member
                            • Aug 2022
                            • 4070

                            I've noticed 'optically' emerging as a fashion-word. 'How's that going to look optically?' asks a presenter commenting on a government proposal.

                            Comment

                            • vinteuil
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 12782

                              Originally posted by smittims View Post
                              I've noticed 'optically' emerging as a fashion-word. 'How's that going to look optically?' asks a presenter commenting on a government proposal.
                              ... I dunno - I think 'optics' is a useful term - "the aspects of an action, policy, or decision (as in politics or business) that relate to public perceptions."

                              .

                              Comment

                              • AuntDaisy
                                Host
                                • Jun 2018
                                • 1616

                                Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
                                ... I dunno - I think 'optics' is a useful term - "the aspects of an action, policy, or decision (as in politics or business) that relate to public perceptions."
                                Possibly better as spirit measures or Physics?

                                Comment

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