Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[french frank]

It's a dialect thing(!) in these parts although more closely rendered as "offa" in terms of pronunciation by the native speakers. It wasn't until I heard some of my 'bilingual' friends saying "off of" that I made the connection.

Following an online discussion, I see someone suggested the only common 'double preposition' of standard English was 'out of' (where the Americans and some dialects would say, for example, 'out the window'). There seems to be analogy here with 'off of' conveying 'movement from'. I think 'into' or 'in to', often heard locally ('I was into Marks and Spencers yesterday') might have a similar explanation of 'movement towards'. Any other regions where 'into' is used for simple 'in'?

[Serial_Apologist]

Following an online discussion, I see someone suggested the only common 'double preposition' of standard English was 'out of' (where the Americans and some dialects would say, for example, 'out the window'). There seems to be analogy here with 'off of' conveying 'movement from'. I think 'into' or 'in to', often heard locally ('I was into Marks and Spencers yesterday') might have a similar explanation of 'movement towards'. Any other regions where 'into' is used for simple 'in'?

I wonder when the term "into" became a popular way of saying "enthusiastic for" - as in "I am really into Kaija Saariaho's music at the moment". I think I first noticed the expression in the 1970s.

[LezLee]

My husband (a Scouser) lived in Cambridge for a while in the '60s and said the use of 'off of' drove him mad.

[Serial_Apologist]

My husband (a Scouser) lived in Cambridge for a while in the '60s and said the use of 'off of' drove him mad.

Those students, eh???

[Padraig]

the use of 'off of' drove him mad.

Today's NI News. . ." the idea that they would have tried to block a paper signed off on by their own First Minister is unthinkable."

When I'm at it, as I do off and on, there is a local expression for the verbs doff and don, eg 'Get off you and go to bed' or 'Get up and get on you.'

[cloughie]

My husband (a Scouser) lived in Cambridge for a while in the '60s and said the use of 'off of' drove him mad.

I blame the Stones!

[kernelbogey]

...I think 'into' or 'in to', often heard locally ('I was into Marks and Spencers yesterday') might have a similar explanation of 'movement towards'. Any other regions where 'into' is used for simple 'in'?

This is similar to a point I made earlier (here or on the Pedants' patch) that the railwayspeak usage 'We shall shortly be arriving into [e.g.] King's Cross' has evolved to distinguish the sense of arrival in the station itself, where passengers may alight , and so distinguished from the common experience of arriving at a tantalsing distance from the ends of platforms, while the train is held at a signal.

[kernelbogey]

....now joined by the contemporary use, often with a capital letter: "Porridge shops have become a Thing."

Though mildly irritating, the neologism 'Thing' (as quoted by FF above) serves the useful purpose, it seems to me, of indicating something that cannot adequately be descrbed by other usages. Would a Porridge shop be... a retail outlet, a trend, an SNP fundraiser, a fashion, a police station, a scam, a marketing triumph, etc etc or several or all of the above? Hence, it's a Thing.

[Richard Barrett]

I blame the Stones!

[french frank]

Though mildly irritating, the neologism 'Thing' (as quoted by FF above) serves the useful purpose, it seems to me, of indicating something that cannot adequately be descrbed by other usages. Would a Porridge shop be... a retail outlet, a trend, an SNP fundraiser, a fashion, a police station, a scam, a marketing triumph, etc etc or several or all of the above? Hence, it's a Thing.

I thought Richard's definition was pretty neat:"Being a thing is more like many people having a thing about the same thing at the same time..." and Porridge Shops seem to be springing up in many places. As ours is on the local delivery circuit I get oat milk and their in-house muesli delivered to my door - on the velocipede Very much The Thing de nos jours chez moi

[Serial_Apologist]

Though mildly irritating, the neologism 'Thing' (as quoted by FF above) serves the useful purpose, it seems to me, of indicating something that cannot adequately be descrbed by other usages. Would a Porridge shop be... a retail outlet, a trend, an SNP fundraiser, a fashion, a police station, a scam, a marketing triumph, etc etc or several or all of the above? Hence, it's a Thing.

An oat fitter, maybe.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We have yet to found an Académie anglaise to rule on what we should be saying.

I admire the French for their attempts to nurture their language. Mind you, their spelling is as unphonetic as ours.

[gurnemanz]

I admire the French for their attempts to nurture their language. Mind you, their spelling is as unphonetic as ours.

A group of no doubt well-meaning mostly elderly white men attempting to tell the rest of the population not to say "le weekend" strikes me as presumptuous and futile rather than admirable. Languages flow freely like rivers finding their own path. Academicians attempt to impose on them the concrete banks of a canal.

[french frank]

I admire the French for their attempts to nurture their language.

You think of it as a nurturing, I would say a stagnation. It's akin to multiculturalism, only it's multigenerational, egalitarian. No generation can say, "Our way is the only way - the correct way." Each generation adjusts it in ways that suit their society. Language never stands still.

Add: what gurnemanz said.

[oddoneout]

I thought Richard's definition was pretty neat:"Being a thing is more like many people having a thing about the same thing at the same time..." and Porridge Shops seem to be springing up in many places. As ours is on the local delivery circuit I get oat milk and their in-house muesli delivered to my door - on the velocipede Very much The Thing de nos jours chez moi

Sounds like The Thing has become a zeitgeist.
Porridge shop is a new one(thing?) on me I must admit.