Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Pabmusic]

I dislike the expression 'just shy of' . What's wrong with 'just under'?

I have no opinion either way, but this discussion of 'shy' is interesting:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/56147/is-there-a-connection-between-shy-adj-and-shy-v-meaning-throw

[teamsaint]

Of come on Scotty ......

I inadvertantly stumbled on an online daily mail article about Middleton's recent public engagements this week.( they involved seeing a movie , being given dinner, and throwing wellington booots around, all in under a fortnight).

...and found myself looking for an advance on Pab'sWTF smiley.
Maybe a " what planet are they on" smiley?

[ahinton]

'Kate' ... when one is rudely and most disrespectfully referring to Her Royal Highness Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge & Countess of Strathearn.

Well, of course "Her Royal Highness Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge & Countess of Strathearn" is vastly more succint than "Kate"!

Do you seriously expect people to refer to her thus? What's wrong with "Kate", anyway - by which I specifically mean what's so "rude" and/or "disrespectful" about calling her that? Is it "rude" or "disrespectful" to call anyone else named "Catherine" as "Kate"? Would you prefer "Cathy"? I wonder (not!) what the illustrious Cole Porter wuld have made of Kiss me, Your Royal Highness Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge & Countess of Strathearn? Given its Brush-up-your-Shakespearean reference along with the Shakespearean example of the sonnet, it might well have been "let me count the syllables"...

And why on earth in any case have she and her husband been made Countess and Earl (respectively) of that wee Scottish place with a penchant for small-scale gin-making? http://www.strathearndistillery.com/our-gin/ .

And, come to that, why is she "Duchess of Cambridge"? For what particular reason has this title been conferred upon her, in terms of her relationship with that city? If you're looking for inappropriate modes of address (and which also have the potential for setting teeth on edge) where she and/or her husband are concerned, you need look no further than that absurd and absurdly oft-used epithet (if indeed it merits such a description) "the Cambridges", an expression whose only sensible use would be when referring at one and the same time (in the unlikely event of having reason to do so) to the city in south-east England and the town in Massachusetts, in the former of which at least something useful is going on without the direct assistance of its "Duke" and "Duchess" - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/149ca550-7...#axzz3q89B2iOR . It's not even as though one could call her "Mrs Windsor" or something (even though I do recall her being referred to as "Ms Middleclass" while she was still single).

In none of the above do I intend anything "rude" or "disrespectful" towards Kate or William - or indeed anyone else - but a sense of proportion, please!

[ahinton]

I inadvertantly stumbled on an online daily mail article about Middleton's recent public engagements this week.( they involved seeing a movie , being given dinner, and throwing wellinton booots around, all in under a fortnight).

...and found myself looking for an advance on Pab'sWTF smiley.
Maybe a " what planet are they on" smiley?

Planet Cambridge, presumably - although I somehow doubt that any of the other residents of Cambridge would recognise it. That said, please let's not advocate adding to the already over-extended emoticon vocabulary!...

[ahinton]

Of come on Scotty ......

Scotty or no Scotty, how much on average do they earn in Strathearn? - and do amateur chamber groups get together to play Bridge in Cambridge?

I hear that they were going to call Kate "Cam" for short but that Sam, Dowager Duchess of Witney, didn't approve...

Anyway, don't you realise tht it's rude and disrespectful to refer to "Scotty" as "Scotty", whoever and wherever he may be? His proper title is, after all, "His Right Royal Tippness, the Duke of Perth and Glasgow & (post) Count of 1,461".

By the way, does Strathearn gin make its imbibers Tippsy?

[french frank]

I dislike the expression 'just shy of' . What's wrong with 'just under'?

Or in terms of cost/earnings &c - 'just north of'. Do they say 'just south of' as well?

[cloughie]

Or in terms of cost/earnings &c - 'just north of'. Do they say 'just south of' as well?

...and ff I have to say these are equally annoying!

[french frank]

...and ff I have to say these are equally annoying!

I haven't heard 'just south of'. But 'He takes home just north of 150 Kay per annum' is, I assumed, probably about £200,000, if the idea is to play down the amount.

[ahinton]

Or in terms of cost/earnings &c - 'just north of'. Do they say 'just south of' as well?

I don't know for sure, but I imagine that the man on the Clapham omnibus (there's another one, albeit heard far more rarely these days than was once the case!) does so - or did so...

[P. G. Tipps]

I don't know for sure, but I imagine that the man on the Clapham omnibus (there's another one, albeit heard far more rarely these days than was once the case!) does so - or did so...

It's probably rarely heard these days because the phrase is absurdly sexist.

The grossly outmoded phrase suggests that only men are capable of boarding a Clapham omnibus as if members of the fairer sex are somehow incapable of doing so.

Please get up to speed with the times, Ally! (no rudeness or disrespect intended)

[P. G. Tipps]

'up to speed' ...

[ahinton]

It's probably rarely heard these days because the phrase is absurdly sexist.

That's very probably one reason, but not the only one; for starters, who ever refers to an "omnibus" these days?

The grossly outmoded phrase suggests that only men are capable of boarding a Clapham omnibus

Grossly outmoded though it is indeed, it would suggest this only to those with preordained susceptibility to such suggestion, methinks; furthermore, it's difficult to board such a vehicle if one is elsewhere than Clapham - and why Clapham anyway?

the fairer sex

A phrase your use of which demonstrates not only inaccuracy but also the very sexism which you purport to deprecate above! "Fairer" than what, pray?

Please get up to speed with the times

In case you'd not noticed, I wrote
I imagine that the man on the Clapham omnibus (there's another one, albeit heard far more rarely these days than was once the case!) does so - or did so
and if that doesn't clarify the antediluvian nature of the phrase and my awareness of same I don't know quite what would; do please read posts before commenting on them!

Ally! (no rudeness or disrespect intended)

I perceive no obvious rudeness or disrespect in describing anyone as an ally, whether or not or to what extent the person so described might actually be one.

[LeMartinPecheur]

It's probably rarely heard these days because the phrase is absurdly sexist.

The grossly outmoded phrase suggests that only men are capable of boarding a Clapham omnibus as if members of the fairer sex are somehow incapable of doing so.

Please get up to speed with the times, Ally! (no rudeness or disrespect intended)

This is true only for those who fail to understand that the word 'man' frequently meant all of humankind, male and female.

Yes, of course one can argue that this is yet another demonstration of the sexism of previous ages. But hey, nobody can change this now, and constantly tripping over the same stumbling-block is just stupid and isolates us from so much of our greatest literature. Just get over it guys! (And gals of course, if 'guys' is still seen as a non-gender-neutral term)

[Serial_Apologist]

I perceive no obvious rudeness or disrespect in describing anyone as an ally, whether or not or to what extent the person so described might actually be one.

You could be nicknamed Tin Pan Ally if you wrote songs, I suppose!

[ahinton]

You could be nicknamed Tin Pan Ally if you wrote songs, I suppose!

I have written a handful of songs but I am unaware that anyone has nicknamed me thus, either as a consequence of this or otherwise!