Pet word hates

michael

Bring out the vacuum
One that I certainly have no justification for hating as much as I do is "grow" when used in phrases like "grow the business" and "grow our assets".

It sounds like the business speak practice of verbing nouns. I think that's what bugs me. But of course "grow" already exists as a transitive verb, eg. you can grow a tree or crops. So I dunno...
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Just one more...

A former speech writer in Australia, Don Watson, has done a couple of books about the death of public language here. I've got 'Death Sentence' at home, but haven't read it yet.

One thing I thought was interesting was that in an interview he was stressing how he wasn't anti language change, just anti a certain shift in what's expected in public speaking. His example of language change he liked was putting "as" after an adjective with nothing following it. The classic being "that's sweet as", but I think the example he used was someone commenting on a dog's coat being "soft as".

The main reason I thought it was interesting that he was lauding that is that I thought it was a Kiwi thing. I've heard Australians say "sweet as", but it's rare as to hear them use it with just any adjective.
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
michael said:
A former speech writer in Australia, Don Watson, has done a couple of books about the death of public language here. I've got 'Death Sentence' at home, but haven't read it yet.

It's over rated and over stated.
 

Dan I.

New member
Yo I think maybe the people up in this thread who are annoyed by supposed errors involving obligated/obliged and botanic/botanical are themselves in error.
What annoys about the word “burglarized”? It’s useful.
I am with you all on the ugsome use of language in business though.
Personally, I find the favorite adjectives of language mavens irritating. They’re overly fond of words like “wretched”, “slovenly”, and (horrors!) “beastly”. They’re also prone to saying “horrors!” in parentheses.
 

Helen

Tumbling Dice
Dan I. said:
Yo I think maybe the people up in this thread who are annoyed by supposed errors involving obligated/obliged and botanic/botanical are themselves in error.

Depends on the context.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Dan I. said:
What annoys about the word “burglarized”? It’s useful.
Is it the same as "burgled"? If so, I guess that's what people are complaining about - a back-formation of a verb from a noun when another verb was already in common use.

I don't think I've heard or seen it used.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
americans use burglarized instead of burgled. it's ridiculous. there's no reason for it at all.
we, out of the goodness of our imperialist heart, give them a perfectly good language and . . .
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
stelfox said:
americans use burglarized instead of burgled. it's ridiculous. there's no reason for it at all.
we, out of the goodness of our imperialist heart, give them a perfectly good language and . . .

BASTARDS! They burglarized the colonies off you too.
 

Randy Watson

Well-known member
"Last week as I walklarised down the street I sawarised a big pile of dogshit. Fortunately, I steplarised right over it"

For Fuck's sake.
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
Dan I. said:
What annoys about the word “burglarized”? It’s useful.

But there's a perfectly good verb already - "burgle". Why the extra syllable? It just sounds silly.* It's precisely the same as saying that painters "painterize". You're inventing a word for what those-people-we-call-burglars do, when, etymologically I'd have thought it was the other way around - burglars are those who burgle. It sounds artificial, awkward, and is completely unnecessary.

[And I know, "burglarize" is the accepted US form, but that still doesn't explain the invention of a longer, more awkward version of a word that is already in common usage.]

*This is not to say that "burgle" doesn't have its own comic sound...
 

mms

sometimes
'can i get '
where did that come from, and everyone uses it now, even right thinking people
"i don't know why are you asking me this question?"

may i have ?

this is the book to combat carrerist idiot language etc,http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...0255/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/202-6490766-5649447
over complication, legalese and middle management gob shiteness.

people asking you to action things etc
it's little micro additions to te bluff and the rat race.
 
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mms said:
'can i get '

'Can I get a witness?'
   \
hammertime.gif
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
mms said:
'can i get '
where did that come from, and everyone uses it now, even right thinking people
"i don't know why are you asking me this question?"

may i have ?
I don't really get why this is so painful. "Can" has been synonymous with "may" for a dumb number of years in English. Can I go to the bathroom? Can I get some help with this? Can we talk about it later?

As for the "get" bit, asking to receive something makes more sense to me than asking for permission to possess something. I'm probably dissecting a phrase in a way more literal level than I should. :)

Actually you're not German are you? ;) I remember asking someone in Germany "Can I talk in English with you?" and him laughing and laughing. "I don't know, that all depends on your English", he said. dürfen vs. können if I remember rightly...
 
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mms

sometimes
michael said:
I don't really get why this is so painful. "Can" has been synonymous with "may" for a dumb number of years in English. Can I go to the bathroom? Can I get some help with this? Can we talk about it later?

As for the "get" bit, asking to receive something makes more sense to me than asking for permission to possess something. I'm probably dissecting a phrase in a way more literal level than I should. :)

Actually you're not German are you? ;) I remember asking someone in Germany "Can I talk in English with you?" and him laughing and laughing. "I don't know, that all depends on your English", he said. dürfen vs. können if I remember rightly...

can and get together, it's so ugly and so wrong, asking someone for something like that, it's the other person that is getting the thing afterall
can i have would be better, but may i have is gentle and best.
 

Gerard

Well-known member
The phone rings, you answer. The voice at the other end says: " Is Mrs Gerard there at all?"

UH?

Is there a chance of her only being "slightly here" or "nearly completely here but her voice may be a tad faint"?


Also the incessant use of "in terms of". This is worst in the work place. For example:

" Now, in terms of lunch, would you like a sandwich? And what would you like in terms of something to drink?"
 
S

simon silverdollar

Guest
'sexed up'.

at the time of the hutton inquiry, i wanted to punch the tv everytime some one said it.
 

Tweak Head

Well-known member
Rambler - totally with you on "out there" when used by radio "personalities", because it completely destroys the one-to-one relationship between the radio and the listener and demonstrates a tragic lack of understanding of this relationship on the part of the presenter.

MMS - completetly agree with "can I get", in fact I was scrolling to the end of this thread to see if anyone had addeed it and if not was going to do so myself. It's not so much the grammar of the phrase itself (though I think it's ugly) but the use of it by non-Americans. As far as I can tell it is in common use in the US but has come to the UK via "Friends" and for this reason it makes me cringe when British people use it. I'm not against the use of Americanisms per se but this one really grates.

Corporate speak ... I work in an American company which, whilst it is a very good company IMHO, seems to be a haven for people that use this shameful way of speaking. Current bugbear is "reach out [to]". WTF is wrong with "ask"? Someone recently said "reach out and touch" to mean the same thing, which had me gagging and retching.

Can I also request the death penalty for people who say "what are you like?" when intending a mild or jocular scolding?

And finally, people who end a phone call by saying "bah" instead of "bye". Grow up. It's not big and it's not clever.
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Ahhh... "can I get" has other implications!! Now I see. Grammatically the construction is consistent with a million other phrases that I'm sure wouldn't offend anyone, so I was a bit baffled as to why this particular combo rankled.

There was another figure of speech popularised by 'Friends' that was <i>so</i> not cool, but I can't think what it was. ;)
 
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