Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[anotherbob]

Nothing wrong with upthread, we say upstream, upriver, don't we?

Indeed we do, but perhaps that doesn't mean we can use "up" as a prefix willy-nilly. "upthread" set my teeth on edge, it belongs in the kind of vocabulary that admits "tasked" and "outwith" IMHO.

[3rd Viennese School]

I went to Hereford in October on an Arriva train, stayed for 20 minutes, crossed the platform and went back down the line.

3VS

[ahinton]

I went to Hereford in October on an Arriva train

Did you arrive there in time for Christmas?

stayed for 20 minutes, crossed the platform and went back down the line.

Why did you do that? Just curious!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I call it cannon fodder, actually, but I realise that not everyone does; it would surely be a shame, though, wouldn't it, if that orotund windbag that is the same composer's G major piano sonata were his sole aberration?...

Tchaikovsky's G major Piano Sonata Op. 37 sounds even better in an amazing orchestration by yours truly.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Fair enough if all the other years were pronounced like this. But we’ve had

Two Thousand and Ten

Two Thousand and Eleven

Twenty Twelve

Why Twenty Twelve? Because it sounds cool? Trendy? This is OUR year!!?!

Conjuring up events like the Jubilee

On the contrary, all years in the 21st century should be described in this way. To their credit, the BBC referred to "twenty fifteen", etc. many years before the millennium.
My mother was not born in "one thousand nine hundred and seventeen". She was born in "nineteen seventeen". William the Conqueror did not fight the Battle of Hastings in "one thousand and sixty-six".
And just because people say other things doesn't make it right. It ends up with silly talk, such as fifty pee, rather than fifty pence. Or worse still "a one pence piece" instead of "a penny".

[ahinton]

Tchaikovsky's G major Piano Sonata Op. 37 sounds even better in an amazing orchestration by yours truly.

I didn't know about that but would like to! Can you be so kind as to point me in its direction, please?

[ahinton]

silly talk, such as fifty pee

Mon Dieu! One's more than enough to get into a rage over, surely?(!)...

[EdgeleyRob]

Well we call Tchaikovsky's overture 1812, isn't that the same ?

He could have rounded it up and called it a quarter past six.

[ahinton]

He could have rounded it up and called it a quarter past six.

He could indeed, but he apparently preferred to defer to Satie when commenting on the first movement of La Mer - De l'aube à midi sur la mer - that he particularly enjoyed the bit at a quarter to eleven; perhaps you're now having second(-hand?) thoughts about quoting Auden's "Music is the best means we have of digesting time"...

Anyway, here's a (hopefully) new one: "a whole new ball game" (when used other than in a certain other thread on this section of the forum, that is)...

[mangerton]

No, that is the famous slogan on the Trekkit shop in Widemarsh Street, Hereford which ran:
"Now is The Winter of our Discounted Tents"

No, no no!

It's Black's of Greenock

Ackcherly, it's probably apocryphal. Really too good to miss.

[Pabmusic]

...Anyway, here's a (hopefully) new one: "a whole new ball game" (when used other than in a certain other thread on this section of the forum, that is)...

I'm not sure I agree. I quite like this expression, though it's so very American that you have to choose the context carefully (we're not such good baseball players, but cricket lovers would get the analogy). Surely the implication is that everything would be so very different - pitch, light, weather, players, audience - that there's no point in comparing it with the present circumstances. I think that's quite good, but I agree that it's easy to over-use, or to misuse as a mere comparison, or to use in an unthinking way.

[ahinton]

I'm not sure I agree. I quite like this expression, though it's so very American that you have to choose the context carefully (we're not such good baseball players, but cricket lovers would get the analogy). Surely the implication is that everything would be so very different - pitch, light, weather, players, audience - that there's no point in comparing it with the present circumstances. I think that's quite good, but I agree that it's easy to over-use, or to misuse as a mere comparison, or to use in an unthinking way.

That's the point; it doesn't actually "set my teeth on edge" (what does? I can't be bothered to ask myself) but overuse turns it, like so much else, into an accepted cliché from which standpoint it becomes someone's bête noire and therefore recommended by those someones to be expunged from customary linguistic use, more than enough of which might ultimately risk ridding the language of too much of itself. I'm not sure to what extent I'd play ball with your thoughts on this, but I'm not having a ball with it and hope not to make a balls-up of it, especially as I appear not to be on the ball here and might even be out first ditto. Anyway, I probably misheard the expression as "a whole new ballgown"...

[handsomefortune]

Nothing to do with this thread but what decade are we in?

We've had the nineties and the noughties.

Is this the tenties?

3VS

bravo!

[Pabmusic]

...Anyway, I probably misheard the expression as "a whole new ballgown"...

Yes, you're right of course - it's overuse and crass usage (for instance, using a sporting metaphor in a piece about the Gaza troubles, or the Savile enquiry) that grates.

[teamsaint]

That's the point; it doesn't actually "set my teeth on edge" (what does? I can't be bothered to ask myself) but overuse turns it, like so much else, into an accepted cliché from which standpoint it becomes someone's bête noire and therefore recommended by those someones to be expunged from customary linguistic use, more than enough of which might ultimately risk ridding the language of too much of itself. I'm not sure to what extent I'd play ball with your thoughts on this, but I'm not having a ball with it and hope not to make a balls-up of it, especially as I appear not to be on the ball here and might even be out first ditto. Anyway, I probably misheard the expression as "a whole new ballgown"...

i like that ......one to use ....sparingly of course...