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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 8:43:43 GMT
Everybody knows that major events can bring new or rare words into common use -- just look at how tsunami has entered news stories to talk about just about any sort of rapid and unexpected change. "A tsunami has swept the management of Wal-Mart..."  The word "revolution" has been in common use for a long time, but in recent years we have had to see advertising slogans along the lines of "a revolution in toilet tissue" or "a revolution in instant coffee" and that sort of use of the word "revolution" makes me want to puke. I am hoping that current events will put the word "revolution" back where it belongs and take it out of my refrigerator or my tube of toothpaste. Does anybody else have any misappropriated words that need to be put back where they belong? |
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 9:17:57 GMT
Hero.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 9:20:03 GMT
Crisis.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 9:23:55 GMT
9/11
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 9:24:32 GMT
Catastrophe
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 9:56:50 GMT
Sometimes I think that the media people and politicians have no idea what some of the words are supposed to designate. I remember that when 9/11 happened, the firemen and rescue squads were labeled "heroes" which is fine. But then people started saying that everybody who died in the towers was a hero as well. Since when did victims become automatic heroes? And it has become more and more common for them to use the word "hero" for any victim of terrorism. I find this extremely demeaning to anybody who has really done something outstanding.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 10:41:10 GMT
Many words have become so devalued as to take away the meaning they originally had. In a way it's just sensationalism and exaggeration. Getting your point across using standard terminology has fallen by the wayside and it seems normal to read something that is peppered with these words and to me they become meaningless.
It's like giving 100% effort in to something - that's not good enough any more is it? You must give 200% or whatever.
Maybe new words ought to be invented that express nowadays what the old words used to. For example, a real hero might now be hero².
But then the Americans would come along and it'd be hero to the power of 10 or something.
I blame it all on the wide usage of "Awesome!"
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 23, 2011 12:00:02 GMT
Celebrity <shudder>
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 12:00:14 GMT
From today's paper: From Libya to Yemen and from Morocco to Bahrain, the tsunami effect of the Tunisian revolution is shaking the Arab world. Talk about mixed metaphors! Shaking the Arab world? |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 23, 2011 12:31:09 GMT
Is it just over-excited journalists who are so darned grateful whenever an 'event' occurs in the world that the general public actually want to read about, that they have to suck as much out of the story as possible?...as if they are feeding us words that they associate with selling a lot of newspapers... They are the sort of words that we traditionally only use for very unusual events, so they're just trying to grab our attention. There are a lot of newspapers/tv channels out there after all...I know I'm just repeating what's already been said...sigh....
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 12:41:34 GMT
Just wait till they write about the upcoming royal wedding.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 12:54:00 GMT
You mean "the wedding of the century"?
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Post by onlymark on Feb 23, 2011 12:56:22 GMT
Which is probably reasonably accurate as this century isn't very old.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 24, 2011 3:32:13 GMT
#8 ~~ ;D Does anybody else have any misappropriated words that need to be put back where they belong? charisma/charismatic unique iconic |
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 24, 2011 13:16:30 GMT
"Most unique"-Aaaarrrrghh!
"Revelatory" or "a revelation", when applied to food.
"Life changing", when applied to food.
"To die for.", WATF. Aaaarrrrghh!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 24, 2011 14:54:35 GMT
Speaking of words....I've always loved the word 'defenestration' but have yet to have the opportunity to use it in a sentence... ;D
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Post by onlymark on Feb 24, 2011 14:59:22 GMT
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Post by onlymark on Feb 24, 2011 15:08:10 GMT
Antidisestablishmentarianism.
That never gets used properly either. The amount of times it crops up in day to day conversation is beyond belief.
Just like floccinaucinihilipilification.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2011 15:37:20 GMT
Speaking of words....I've always loved the word 'defenestration' but have yet to have the opportunity to use it in a sentence... ;D Actually, we had a period about 15 years ago in France where the word became very common. There was some sort of underhanded arms deal between France and Taiwan, and at least five people accidentally fell to their deaths out of windows in various cities of the world. Some of them may have had a little help. |
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 25, 2011 21:48:28 GMT
One of my bugbears is "solutions" - suddenly no-one sells product X, they "offer X solutions" - the most extreme example I once saw was a business offering "fenestration solutions". (Come to think of it, why do we say "defenestration", which could mean removing the windows - shouldn't it be "exfenestration"?)
One word is that an overused exaggeration in far too many newspaper headlines in the UK is "chaos". Bit of a traffic jam or trains delayed? "RAIL CHAOS" or "MY COMMUTING HELL", and so on ad infinitum. Of course, it's a nice short word that fits better into headlines.
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 26, 2011 12:29:10 GMT
Here's another - there are one or two sports commentators who are over-fond of "quite literally" as an emphatic modifier (in other words, the exact opposite of "literally"). "The tension is quite literally heart-stopping" (oh really, where are all the dead bodies, then?). "That goal was quite literally earth-shattering" (the ground looks quite solid round here, thank you very much).
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Post by onlymark on Feb 26, 2011 12:59:09 GMT
And 'passion' seems to be overused and diluted to anything someone feels a little more than neutral about.
Never mind 'in the interests of national security'.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 26, 2011 13:12:51 GMT
However, imagine if the USA had never been invented and it was up to the British to mainly influence the English language. With our capacity for understatement surely the opposite would occur? The direst emotion or occurrence would be underplayed so as not to interfere with the cricket or discussion of the weather. One thing that made me chuckle a bit was a reference to Threat Levels (e.g. amber, red, etc) stated by different countries. For example, the English - The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.If you are not offended by stereotypes then - bussorah.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/different-terror-threat-levels-around-the-world/ |
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 26, 2011 16:41:30 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 26, 2011 16:43:29 GMT
However, imagine if the USA had never been invented and it was up to the British to mainly influence the English language. With our capacity for understatement surely the opposite would occur? The direst emotion or occurrence would be underplayed so as not to interfere with the cricket or discussion of the weather. One thing that made me chuckle a bit was a reference to Threat Levels (e.g. amber, red, etc) stated by different countries. For example, the English - The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.If you are not offended by stereotypes then - bussorah.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/different-terror-threat-levels-around-the-world/You've met my Dad then Mark? |
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Post by onlymark on Feb 26, 2011 16:53:05 GMT
I think we must have the same one.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 26, 2011 17:05:53 GMT
;D
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