Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[mangerton]

The BBC News website has this passage about Romney's conceding defeat:

"In Boston, where his campaign was headquartered, Mr Romney congratulated the president in an emotional concession speech.

He said he and Vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan had "left everything on the field" and had given their all in the campaign."

Headquartered?? Left everything on the field????

Is that for real?

And the other one that I don't remember seeing above - the even more common "for free".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Is that for real?

And the other one that I don't remember seeing above - the even more common "for free".

I thought about that one, but I've mentioned it before on another thread (... an adjective governed by a preposition.. mutter, mutter...)

[jean]

"In Boston, where his campaign was headquartered..."

Headquartered??

Why not? We've been using quartered for long enough!

[Flosshilde]

Why not? We've been using quartered for long enough!

Hung, drawn, and ... ?

[amateur51]

When I was a student, there were notices all over the place saying 'The University is not responsible for any personal belongings left unattended'. The two letters 'BE' were frequently obliterated...

Lovely

[scottycelt]

You're nearest, I think. Tad comes from tad, tade, tadde, or tadige (flat Dutch 'a' sound - think of Omsterdom), which is Anglo-Saxon for small or tiny. Presumably, people a thousand years ago thought that tadpoles looked like little heads swimming about (tad + poll). Somehow the word became linked with the parents of the tadpoles, and gave us the word 'toad'.

It was undoubtedly known in lowland Scotland, which was largely Anglo-Saxon (and has helped the Scots preserve many old AS pronunciations, such as the guttural 'ch' of loch, and the aspirate 'why' and 'which', better than their English counterparts.)

Apparently, the word gained a new lease of life in the 1870s, after Abraham Lincoln's youngest son, Tad, died in his teens.

Interesting, Pab ... I'd never heard the word growing up in lowland Scotland but it may well have fallen into temporary disuse.

I suspected there was an American connection somewhere. Such previously unfamiliar words seem to first emerge from more youthful sections of the population, almost always originating from across the Atlantic.

[Mary Chambers]

I may easily have missed something, but has anyone mentioned 'roller coaster of emotions'?

[mercia]

'swings and roundabouts'

[Serial_Apologist]

Hung, drawn, and ... ?

You got there first, Floss!

[french frank]

No 'e'.

'E' . Goes back to my sub-editing days (ageing, axeing) where different papers had their 'house styles'. One insisted on 'Rumania' (obviously hadn't been updated for some time), the other on 'protestor'. I had to alter spellings that I considered 'correct' to alternatives which were 'less usual'.

I don't like 'any time soon'.

[scottycelt]

Female reporter on a TV news channel yesterday afternoon ...

'Neither of the two presidential candidates wants to be seen kicking the issue down the can ... '

[teamsaint]

five live weather reporter informed yesterday AM us that the night time /early morning mist on the night of 5/6 november had been "exasperated" by the particulates from fireworks an bonfires.

[teamsaint]

Oh yes... of course...
"Ironically..." when it isn't ironic.

[Stanfordian]

My wife hates the phrase "if memory serves". I use it now for devilment. Then stand back and watch her expression.

[EdgeleyRob]

These things have a habit of evening themselves out over the course of a season.