Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Pabmusic]

On R4 earlier this evening I heard an example of history being re-written. I've heard it before, and it's becoming more common.

Reference was made to events during WW2 in "Nazi occupied France". It seems that the allies didn't fight Germany during the war, but the Nazis. I've heard the recording of the egregious N. Chamberlain many times, and he definitely said "Britain is at war with Germany". Closer to home, it was Germany my father joined the RN to fight.

Yes, the Nazis were the ruling party, but we don't (yet at any rate) say that the Conservatives fought Argentina in 1982, or that the Republicans and the Labour party invaded Iraq in 2003.

Too true.

[Pabmusic]

Not at al Pabs - "axing" is in regular use among the Afro-Carribean community to this day in London - eg, angry customer to nervous staff member in Brixton Tesco's this morning: "You is AXING me, or you is TELLING me?"

Which only goes to show just how difficult it is for language to disappear once it's 'out there'.

[Sir Velo]

Sadly, as heard too often on Radio 3:

"Award winning"

"Internationally acclaimed"

[mercia]

I think someone on this forum complained about the phrase 'kicked off' and it didn't really register with me, but I now see it is very prevalent on the BBC news website. They never seem to use the word start or begin, it's always 'kick off', 'kicks off', 'kicked off'. I've just seen "the second world war kicked off in 1939".

[Pabmusic]

I think someone on this forum complained about the phrase 'kicked off' and it didn't really register with me, but I now see it is very prevalent on the BBC news website. They never seem to use the word start or begin, it's always 'kick off', 'kicks off', 'kicked off'. I've just seen "the second world war kicked off in 1939".

Which is a dreadful use of the phrase. If you are going to use it at all, use it for a voluntary beginning, just as you'd find at a football match. "Regular broadcasts of the BBC Symphony Orchestra kicked off in 1930" (or whatever it was) - which is dire writing, but at least retains a sense of the culmination of voluntary effort. To have a war "kicking off" reduces it to the level of a football match.

[Mandryka]

Which is a dreadful use of the phrase. If you are going to use it at all, use it for a voluntary beginning, just as you'd find at a football match. "Regular broadcasts of the BBC Symphony Orchestra kicked off in 1930" (or whatever it was) - which is dire writing, but at least retains a sense of the culmination of voluntary effort. To have a war "kicking off" reduces it to the level of a football match.

I suspect that is the whole point (though I don't like it, either).

[kernelbogey]

I think someone on this forum complained about the phrase 'kicked off' and it didn't really register with me, but I now see it is very prevalent on the BBC news website. They never seem to use the word start or begin, it's always 'kick off', 'kicks off', 'kicked off'. I've just seen "the second world war kicked off in 1939".

Ah yes, and 'kick start'.

I don't know exactly when the manufacture of kick start motorbikes ended - but I'd guess it's now close to fifty years, which makes the persistent use of this lazy and odious phrase extraordinarily anachronistic.

[ahinton]

"Kick into touch" isn't much better either.

That said, it might be argued that there is a certain potential dangerous outcome of the habitual invention and plugging of soundbitten phrases in that the proportion of phraseolgies that thereby get turned into cliché becomes ever greater...

[kernelbogey]

And 'kick into the long grass'.

[ahinton]

And 'kick into the long grass'.

Indeed; whenever I hear that one I feel like asking the perpetrator if his mower's broken down.

Time to kick this habit, though, peut-être...

[kernelbogey]

English is replete with seafaring metaphors from our glorious naval past.... we seem now to be substituting football and other sporting metaphors.

I could be sick as a parrot sometimes.

[mangerton]

English is replete with seafaring metaphors from our glorious naval past.... we seem now to be substituting football and other sporting metaphors.

I could be sick as a parrot sometimes.

So could I, but I try to turn a blind eye to them, or hit them for six.

[kernelbogey]

So could I, but I try to turn a blind eye to them, or hit them for six.

Always clear the decks in case they come out of left field.

[Richard Tarleton]

Another regular weatherman platitude last night - "Not all doom and gloom". But this also turns out to be (almost) the title of the Rolling Stones' latest hit single

Driving to Cardiff yesterday - tiny T-shirt in rear window of passing car emblazoned with "Small dude on board". This and its female equivalent "Little princess on board" fill me with the urge to smash into the back of the car.

[3rd Viennese School]

Quite a few ideas to run up the flag pole here!

What it is is....

And the one the boss uses to justify EVERYTHING

"we're all under pressure!"

3VS