Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Nick Armstrong]

[LezLee]

Prince Harry has a firm grasp of the English language:

"This is definitely my first birth. It was amazing, absolutely incredible and I'm incredibly proud of my wife. As every father and parent will ever say, you know, your baby is absolutely amazing, but this little thing is absolutely to die for, so I'm just over the moon"

[oddoneout]

Prince Harry has a firm grasp of the English language:

"This is definitely my first birth. It was amazing, absolutely incredible and I'm incredibly proud of my wife. As every father and parent will ever say, you know, your baby is absolutely amazing, but this little thing is absolutely to die for, so I'm just over the moon"

I thought 'Meghan and myself had a baby boy' was pretty good too.

[LezLee]

Indeed :rolleyes:

[LezLee]

Not a complaint, just something I've just heard on the news, that's always puzzled me:
"We will be redoubling our efforts....."
Why isn't it just 'doubling'?

[teamsaint]

Not a complaint, just something I've just heard on the news, that's always puzzled me:
"We will be redoubling our efforts....."
Why isn't it just 'doubling'?

well they have redoubling on the railways. Is it connected ? or just sloppy.

[Pulcinella]

Not a complaint, just something I've just heard on the news, that's always puzzled me:
"We will be redoubling our efforts....."
Why isn't it just 'doubling'?

I assume that they've already tried doubling their efforts and it didn't get them very far!

[teamsaint]

I assume that they've already tried doubling their efforts and it didn't get them very far!

Using the power of the exponential then ?

[Serial_Apologist]

Prince Harry has a firm grasp of the English language:

"This is definitely my first birth. It was amazing, absolutely incredible and I'm incredibly proud of my wife. As every father and parent will ever say, you know, your baby is absolutely amazing, but this little thing is absolutely to die for, so I'm just over the moon"

At least he didn't say "definately".

[gurnemanz]

At least he didn't say "definately".

He would definitely say "deffo".

[Richard Tarleton]

And if anyone else on R3 (or elsewhere for that matter) describes themselves as "blown away" by something, I shall start looking online to purchase some Semtex

Cali, I fear this will already have been picked up by anti-terrorism's word recognition web crawlers, who are even now trawling through your posts and emails....

I checked to see how our Spanish friends refer to being blown away (e.g. by music) - they favour "enloquecer" (to go mad, out of one's mind), as in ese tipo de música me enloquece, or better still es que flipo con ese tipo de música.

[Pulcinella]

Cali, I fear this will already have been picked up by anti-terrorism's word recognition web crawlers, who are even now trawling through your posts and emails....

I checked to see how our Spanish friends refer to being blown away (e.g. by music) - they favour "enloquecer" (to go mad, out of one's mind), as in ese tipo de música me enloquece, or better still es que flipo con ese tipo de música.

Well, we all had to flip our LPs to play the other side, but CDs stopped all that!

[oddoneout]

Not a complaint, just something I've just heard on the news, that's always puzzled me:
"We will be redoubling our efforts....."
Why isn't it just 'doubling'?

Part of the general tendency to aggrandisement these days I suspect. No-one has a headache or a cold anymore it's migraine and flu, and if one is 'dealing with' a problem that's seen as synonymous with ignoring it, hence the use of terms such as 'redoubling'. It could also be seen by cynical souls such as I as an admission that it wasn't done properly first time round(situation normal?) and so has to be repeated; trouble is the ever more strenuous assertions of increased effort simply reinforce that interpretation in my mind, and also in themselves become meaningless with repeated use.

[LMcD]

Not a complaint, just something I've just heard on the news, that's always puzzled me:
"We will be redoubling our efforts....."
Why isn't it just 'doubling'?

Perhaps those who are encouraging its use are keen whist players.

[gurnemanz]

Part of the general tendency to aggrandisement these days I suspect.

I'm pretty sure human beings "these days" are not more prone to aggrandisement than in previous centuries. As elucidated here: redouble" has taken over, especially in the combination "redouble one's efforts" where it is clearly popular in use because it emphasises the point more strongly. It seems to me that it has now become a set phrase or idiom rather than a literal statement, to the extent that "double one's efforts" is hardly ever heard. I wouldn't regard this as some kind of abasement of language or symptom of a reprehensible modern human trend but an example of the way languages always have and always will evolve, quite naturally, dynamically and spontaneously. New usage can be objectionable at first but if it catches on it will survive and be incorporated into the standard language, and as time goes by initial objections are forgotten.