Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[teamsaint]

Ginger.

As in todays headline, ( see if you can guess the paper)

" Ginger extremist jailed for 3 years.....,"

[P. G. Tipps]

Ginger.

As in todays headline, ( see if you can guess the paper)

" Ginger extremist jailed for 3 years.....,"

Did he drink an illegal amount of lemonade ... ?

[mangerton]

Did he drink an illegal amount of lemonade ... ?

"Would you like ginger with your melon, sir?"

"Naw, I'll just have wine like everybody else."

[Serial_Apologist]

"Would you like ginger with your melon, sir?"

"Naw, I'll just have wine like everybody else."

"Ground Control to Ginger Tom"

(I'll delete this if anyone is offended).

[P. G. Tipps]

"Would you like ginger with your melon, sir?"

"Naw, I'll just have wine like everybody else."

[Don Petter]

An example on radio just now gave me a tooth erection and reminded me of what seems to me to be a widespread misuse, particularly among sports commentators (not the best arbiters of good English, it must be said).

They refer to 'not getting the rub of the green' when they seem to be making an excuse for a less than ideal performance.

As I understood, the rub of the green is a term derived from golf, where the rub means an unfortunate deflection resulting in a less than desired result. The opposite, when a fortunate effect gives an unexpectedly better result, is getting 'the run of the green'.

So, logically enough, 'run' is good, 'rub' is bad. Why have so many users latched on to 'rub' instead of 'run'?

[I see some on-line sources are now accepting this meaning, probably as a reflection of the current usage, though all references to the derivation of rub, be they from golf, snooker or bowls, seem to indicate a bad effect, equivalent to 'let or hindrance'.]

[french frank]

Interesting, DP. OED seems to suggest that the key idea is that it's an accidental/unintended effect that can therefore technically be in a player's favour or not. It now seems to be mainly used as being a good thing (which is how I'd always understood it - without knowing much about the origin).

[Serial_Apologist]

Re-architect

During an item on encription on this morning's Today, as a consequence of proposed legislation, an 'expert' used this term to describe what firms like Apple will have to do to their systems.

Another useless bit of terminology dreamed up.

Whatever happened to 're-design'?

[ahinton]

During an item on encription on this morning's Today, as a consequence of proposed legislation, an 'expert' used this term to describe what firms like Apple will have to do to their systems.

Another useless bit of terminology dreamed up.

Whatever happened to 're-design'?

Quite - especially since an architect is a person whereas it is architecture that is a task and a process (or at the very least the outcome thereof); perhaps Today should have gone farther and interviewed an encryptologist (encryptographer?) on the subject as well...

[Nick Armstrong]

"Robert Peston reports...."



Completely and absolutely intolerable, that bloke.

Almost makes Waldemar Januszczak seem watchable.

...

Actually, no he doesn't

[Serial_Apologist]

"Robert Peston reports...."



Completely and absolutely intolerable, that bloke.

Almost makes Waldemar Januszczak seem watchable.

...

Actually, no he doesn't

I don't like any of the BBC's so-called "political editors" these days. Not one of them.

[teamsaint]

peston ...and other BBC voices of economic "orthodoxy"......


Anyway....


Brand Management.

Especially , but not only, when the brand is something like " Royal Navy".

[jean]

...an architect is a person whereas it is architecture that is a task and a process (or at the very least the outcome thereof)...

But there ought to be a verb as well, oughtn't there?

Oh wait a minute - there is! Or was, at any rate; it looks like one of those that fell out of use and is just lying around, waiting to be revived.

1818 Keats Let. July (1958) I. 350 This was architected thus By the great Oceanus.

1890 Harper's Mag. Apr. 809/2 We would not give being the author of one of Mr. Aldrich's beautiful sonnets to be the author of many ‘Wyndham Towers’, however skilfully architected.

1913 W. Raleigh Some Authors (1923) 3 He has come out of the prison-house of theological system, nobly and grimly architected.

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't like any of the BBC's so-called "political editors" these days. Not one of them.

True - though Peston has now migrated to ITV News...

[Serial_Apologist]

True - though Peston has now migrated to ITV News...

Then there's Norman Smith, perpetually in the HOC lobby, rubbing his hands in delight at news of some terrible new government dictat. One wonders if his glee is a measure of his own job security.