Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[Lat-Literal]

I was a bit surprised this week to hear Inspector Morse pronouncing "proffering" as "proffurring" with the accent on the second syllable.

Recognise it was a repeat but that doesn't excuse it. Happily I do like his use of the word "flummery" and "flimflam" isn't too bad either.

[vinteuil]

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... he was prob'ly more used to saying "procuring" ....


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[Lat-Literal]

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... he was prob'ly more used to saying "procuring" ....


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P'raps.

[Nick Armstrong]

One phrase that I seem to come across more frequently is "fall pregnant" Surely women become pregnant, or we are told that they are expecting a baby, but fall pregnant? This phrase suggests that an accident has occured.

I'm glad someone mentioned that - I've noticed it too, and hate it.

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm glad someone mentioned that - I've noticed it too, and hate it.

Falling pregnant would no doubt endanger the foetus.

[Lat-Literal]

Yes - I liked the comment from the discussion you linked to:

'Definitely not considered impolite in British English and may even be a common euphemism so that us sexually-oppressed Brits don't have to consider the fact that one of our English Roses did anything as primitive as engage is messy sexual intercourse.'

You may be right about the medical connexion too, since medical intervention is often thought to be necessary.

Someone else in the discussion objects that if the pregnancy was desired, the wife did not fall pregnant, she just became/got pregnant. But I have never heard anyone use either became or got in that context.

Anything "pregnant" is 21st Century overt just as is the word "died".

I am always struck by the casual directness.

The equivalent to "passed away" is "expecting".

In my humble opinion, time and distance in metaphors for the absolute or finite may not historically be about repression for the latter is principally a fairly modern concept based on looking back. Gentility is a part of it but more so, I think, poverty at a time when more people died in childbirth and died younger in life. That is the connotation with illness plus, of course, medical professionals were an alien breed. "Pregnancy" would have been more of a medical term. And on top of all that, the working classes would have aspired to middle class mores and had some awareness, albeit vague, that gentility was a part of those. Today, everyone from The Only Way Is Essex people to the Made in Chelsea brigade only know a post-1960s let-it-all-out and, crucially, they have professional aspirations. I am in no doubt whatsoever they wouldn't have a clue about what crosses my mind on their vocabulary.

Incidentally, Les Dawson claimed that the manner in which Cissie and Ada mouthed such things rather than actually saying them emanated from the communication methods that by necessity were employed in noisy factories to get things done effectively. That might well have been a part of it too but it seems to me that it would have been a regional variation.

Also, "fall" doesn't just have the connotation of illness. "Fallen woman", "fall from grace", "fall silent" - those sorts of very old concepts would once have been linked to a perception of disgrace but in the modern age the word "fall" is possibly closer to ideas of being "struck down" or "struck down at the wrong time" . Arguably, then, to "fall pregnant" has a slight connotation of the pregnancy in question almost getting in the way. Mostly I would think that the linkage there is to the timing of it during advancement in a profession or career.

Finally, I do hear 1990s onward actual statement or overstatement everywhere in the media and I often find the use of words very alienating. The previous generation spoke about "going out for a beer" or "a few beers" when what they often meant was more than a few. Those under 40 tend to speak in "party party" terms of "going out to get drunk". So there the words are different - and because the ideology is different. More than a few beers did not come with an intention to be in manner very different from sober. But it's all more overt. I believe the origins are ostensibly modern middle class as a lack of sobriety for the working class would again have meant costly illness. Talk of it signposted poverty. In contrast, the way in which young people of very ordinary origins have now taken it fully on board is somewhat bling. It has to them at least the appearance of having few worries about money.

[P. G. Tipps]

Falling pregnant would no doubt endanger the foetus.

No doubt not a particularly huge concern for some these days ... ?

[ahinton]

Falling pregnant would no doubt endanger the foetus.

Now what was it that supposedly "cometh before a fall"?...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Now what was it that supposedly "cometh before a fall"?...

Mother's Pride?

[Serial_Apologist]

Mother's Pride?

Not sufficiently well-bread.

[Pabmusic]

Not sufficiently well-bread.

Crumbs! I really don't knead this - let it rest (about 40 mins, at least). Terrible, terrible buns. Sorry - spelling...

[Serial_Apologist]

Crumbs! I really don't knead this - let it rest (about 40 mins, at least). Terrible, terrible buns. Sorry - spelling...

<Doh>

[ahinton]

<Doh>

And no doubt a sour "<Doh>" at that! Now please don't be so crusty! Don't baguette that rather more floury prose would be most welcome.

[P. G. Tipps]

According to BBCNews24 today there has been an official increase in the crime of 'Homocide'.

Worrying indeed ...

[french frank]

The word 'lawmaker' meaning the elected politicians in various countries seems to be getting commoner. Is it is just a recent journalistic shorthand brought over from the USA? Or did I never notice it before?

[Of course, I know that national legislators are technically lawmakers, but when did the word become commonly used over here e.g. by the BBC?]