Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[P. G. Tipps]

A 'slew' of ... ... (heard yet again on Today programme this morning shamelessly uttered by some wretched American-besotted BBC reporter)

Yes, yes, I know this particular Americanism is said to be originally derived from Irish Gaelic but it is still an Americanism ...

I now rest (for the time being at least) my solidly evidence-based and quite unarguable case ...

[gurnemanz]

'Bufton-Tuftonism ... '

A hopelessly outmoded term still used by some on the Classist Left, the only good thing to be said for it is that it is not an Americanism.

As Richard Barrett pointed out, it has been used by Private Eye for decades as shorthand for a type of old-fashioned, traditionally-minded Tory backbencher. I always assumed it was based on the late Tory MP, Tufton Beamish. You might accuse the Eye of resorting to easy stereotyping but since this type still exists, I don't see how it is "outmoded". The fictitious MP, Dave Spart, still regularly fulfils a similar role - as an ideologically blinkered Labour backbencher.

[gurnemanz]

A 'slew' of ... ... (heard yet again on Today programme this morning shamelessly uttered by some wretched American-besotted BBC reporter)

Yes, yes, I know this particular Americanism is said to be originally derived from Irish Gaelic but it is still an Americanism ...

I now rest (for the time being at least) my solidly evidence-based and quite unarguable case ...

I also don't enjoy the word "slew" in this sense, but not because it is of Irish/American derivation. The sound of it does not appeal to me. (I doubt if Wordsworth considered referring to a "slew of golden daffodils"). I think it would be best reserved for use as past tense dragon killing. The speaker in question had probably not given any thought to its etymology - which is available here.

[Richard Barrett]

I know this particular Americanism is said to be originally derived from Irish Gaelic but it is still an Americanism ...

What is it you actually have against "Americanisms"? With many people it seems to derive from a sense of jealousy for the dominance of American popular culture (and technology) and its promotion of a rapidly evolving vocabulary, bringing a new kind of life into the language which conservatively minded people will of course oppose on principle, since it involves the horror of change!!! Jealousy is an ugly emotion.

[vinteuil]

I also don't enjoy the word "slew" in this sense ...The sound of it does not appeal to me. (I doubt if Wordsworth considered referring to a "slew of golden daffodils").

... yes, the sl** sound usually has unattractive associations in English - slug, slime, sloven, Slough, sleaze, slab, slub, slop, sly, slither, slebrity &c.

But there is also : slim, slender...





.

[french frank]

(I doubt if Wordsworth considered referring to a "slew of golden daffodils").

Indicating, like my cookery/cook book, that some examples seem to be 'replacements' rather than 'supplements' - unless there is semantic or etymological evidence that 'slew' fulfils a new need for the usage. That said, there are many similar doublets that seem to cause no offence …

Good example in "slew of golden daffodils" bringing out the semantic similarity of 'host' and 'slew'. Does a Bufton-Tufton prefer a Proto-Celtic term, or Early Germanic - in which case perhaps 'throng' might also be worth consideration?

[greenilex]

Vints doesn't mention slap and slapper, which have sexist connotations...

[jean]

... yes, the sl** sound usually has unattractive associations in English - slug, slime, sloven, Slough, sleaze, slab, slub, slop, sly, slither, slebrity &c...

Not to mention slew itself, the (now obsolete?) past simple of slay.

[Nick Armstrong]

... yes, the sl** sound usually has unattractive associations in English - slug, slime, sloven, Slough, sleaze, slab, slub, slop, sly, slither, slebrity &c.

... and that great word, slattern

[jean]

And slut, which (unlike slattern) moved from mere inadequate housewifery to sexual misbehaviour.

[Serial_Apologist]

And slut, which (unlike slattern) moved from mere inadequate housewifery to sexual misbehaviour.

Slag - for which I'm not aware of a male equivalent.

[Lat-Literal]

"Grow the economy" - and more recently throughout BBC weather forecasts "grow thunderstorms" as in "incoming weather fronts are likely to grow thunderstorms".

Stand by for "new roads will grow traffic", "lower prices will grow buying" and "her gardening pursuits will grow Mary Mary who at the moment is just quite contrary".

[Serial_Apologist]

"Grow the economy" - and more recently throughout BBC weather forecasts "grow thunderstorms" as in "incoming weather fronts are likely to grow thunderstorms".

Thunderstorm-growing frontal systems is an understandable... metaphor? In the same way that compost can, as it were, grow fungi. Perhaps trigger or generate, would be a better word than grow.

Grow/growing is an interesting word, isn't it? "I'm growing fond of her" doesn't mean I'm getting any larger in my size!

[Lat-Literal]

Thunderstorm-growing frontal systems is an understandable... metaphor? In the same way that compost can, as it were, grow fungi. Perhaps trigger or generate, would be a better word than grow.

Thanks.

But I think my issue is with word order.

The economy may grow from certain actions - or inaction -and thunderstorms may, I suppose, grow from weather fronts although in the latter case there isn't a lot of clarity on whether it relates to severity or spread. But we wouldn't say a shower grows a flower. We'd say a flower grows because there is a shower or it grew because there was a shower.

In other words, with broad application, rain doesn't grow plants.

[ahinton]

A 'slew' of ... ... (heard yet again on Today programme this morning shamelessly uttered by some wretched American-besotted BBC reporter)

Yes, yes, I know this particular Americanism is said to be originally derived from Irish Gaelic but it is still an Americanism ...

I now rest (for the time being at least) my solidly evidence-based and quite unarguable case ...

Your expressions here suggest - not for the first time - an attitude towards "Americanisms" that seems to be analogous to member Grew's invariably disparaging references to Americans themselves as "transatlantics" (as though the side of a ocean on which people reside is somehow capable of embracing an inherently pejoriative connotation); why? Moreover, given that the particular "Americanism" to which you refer here "is said to be originally derived from Irish Gaelic but...still an Americanism", do you seek to imply that it was acceptable when confined to Ireland but its American importation somehow automatically rendered it unacceptable? If so, where is the logic in that? Language and its use changes all the time and always has done, in order both to reflect and to take account of changes is human society; such mutations, metamorphoses and the rest are hardly confined to American appropriations of other nations' vocabularies!

No, your observation here is suggestive of racism, not least in your complaint about a word that you assert as having been "shamelessly uttered by some wretched American-besotted BBC reporter". Why should the reported have been ashamed? in what way was he or she "wretched"? In what specific and definable way/s does his or her use of a single word identify him or her as someone "besotted" by America?

If what you write in this post illustrates a "solidly evidence-based and quite unarguable case", I'm Donald J. Trump...