Used and Abused: Words and Cliches

[Cheryl]

yes, a simple oriental vs. occidental

But I still don't like healthy salads. It's dead, y'know. So say that it's healthful, ty.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Cheryl wrote: "But I still don't like healthy salads. It's dead, y'know. So say that it's healthful, ty."

haaaahahaha! That made me chuckle.

[Soo]

The Reality Dysfunction was published around 1997 and Hamilton called a character oriental. I did not learn about the word use until my early teens. Mid 80's. It was very common for people to call asian/etc people oriental in Low Country area. Around Charleston, SC.

[Becky]

Trike wrote: "The thing that’s been bothering me quite a bit over the past few years is the simplifying of words. The two which really grate on my ears and make the speakers sound like bumpkins are “verse” inste..."

YES!

CBRetriever wrote: "The misspellings of Voilà bother me a lot. Wa-la or wah-la just jar when I see them and the people that spell the word that way often insist it's an English or American word (maybe in the Urban Dic..."

Oh, I completely agree with this. This bugs me so much!

[Becky]

One that annoys the hell out of me is when "weary" is used instead of "wary".

"I was weary of the strange man following me down the dark alley."

Oh, you were tired of him? Just exhausted by this man you've never seen before? NO. You're WARY of him, alert to the possible danger or threat he may be to you. GAH!

[Soo]

Becky wrote: "One that annoys the hell out of me is when "weary" is used instead of "wary".

"I was weary of the strange man following me down the dark alley."

Oh, you were tired of him? Just exhausted by this..."

LoL

[Michelle]

What also drives me crazy is when an author misuses their, there and they're. It never fails to knock me right out of the story. And don't get me started with its and it's!

[Michelle]

And what is going on with the- what appears to be- made up vulgarity ? I read a--hat in a book. What? There are plenty of expletives to choose from, so why invent something so silly?

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Asshat's a word! Or, a term anyways. But I also love made up vulgarity, so maybe ask someone who doesn't trawl Scottish twitter for the latest insults. :)

[Soo]

Yup. Asshat is not made up. Another oldie made popular again I believe.

[Phillip]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "According to this article http://mentalfloss.com/article/66196/..., the mike version actually came first, in the way that abbreviations of words are often spelled as they sound and not just as shortened forms of the words - such as nuke for nuclear."

Cool article.

[Micah]

Phillip wrote: "If it's in the dictionary, it counts..."

Not with me it don't. I'm too much a music gear geek to suffer any mikes that aren't actual human beings.

That would be like using "data" as a singular rather than a plural when talking to statisticians. Or "math" instead of "maths" among a bunch of mathematicians.

**You kids get off my yard!**

[Micah]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "...such as nuke for nuclear."

Uh, sorry, the word is nukuler

[Micah]

Soo wrote: "The Reality Dysfunction was published around 1997 and Hamilton called a character oriental. I did not learn about the word use until my early teens. Mid 80's. It was very common for pe..."

Peter F. Hamilton is British. Don't know if that matters in this case.

[Micah]

Soo wrote: "Yup. Asshat is not made up. Another oldie made popular again I believe."

I suspect it's regional as well. Personally I've adopted UK curse words because profanity filters (like on email and IM at where I work) in the US don't pick it up. I've even got normal middle aged women using "wanker" all the time on IM. I know. I'm a bad influence.

[Tamara]

Here's another one for the list--assuming someone is compiling one :)

irregardless

[Trike]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "Phillip wrote: "If it's in the dictionary, it counts. Therefore, "mike" made the same progression as "ain't" at some point. "

According to this article http://mentalfloss.com/article/66196/...... the mike version actually came first, in the way that abbreviations of words are often spelled as they sound and not just as shortened forms of the words - such as nuke for nuclear."

Weird, but that’s also wrong.

The earliest days of recording all follow the same “turn the word into a 3-letter abbreviation” rule, to save space. Mic for microphone. Rec for record. Mon for monitor. Etc. The only exceptions I’ve ever seen to this rule are “in” for “input” and “head” for “headphone” (more rarely used is “phone”).

I’m not saying “mike” is incorrect. I’m agnostic on it. I’m just saying it didn’t come first in the technical field in which it was used for that specific purpose. This is one of those cases where it’s hard to search online for usage stats because the search algorithms tend to be case insensitive, so it also picks up the name Mike.

I suspect that in the industry it was used as “mic” while outside of it, such as in general explanations in newspapers and magazines and in advertisements, it was probably spelled “mike”.

As for “nuke”, that also followed the same linguistic path, where “nuc” was used as the abbreviated form of “nuclear”, which also morphed into “nuke”.

We do this sort of thing in English quite a lot. It’s part of the glittery magic that is our language.

[Trike]

Becky wrote: "One that annoys the hell out of me is when "weary" is used instead of "wary".

"I was weary of the strange man following me down the dark alley."

Oh, you were tired of him? Just exhausted by this..."

The one I see most often is “lead” when they mean “led”.

I get that the issue is because the two versions can be homophones, but it’s no excuse. I see it in news articles, novels, even non-fiction books.

But now we LEDs and people call them “leds”, which has led (ha) to people actually writing down the words “lead lights”. The first time I saw that I was completely baffled. It took me days before it dawned on me they meant “Ell Ee Dee lights”. (Which has its own issues, because the acronym LED has the word “light” right in it: Light Emitting Diode.)

[Trike]

Addendum on “mike” and “nuke”:

Those of us who are about 50 and older remember when the first consumer microwave ovens were introduced. Because English is like water after a rainstorm, always seeking the lowest spot, people immediately started shortening the phrase “microwave it” (“cook it in the microwave oven”) to “mike it”. At some point this switched to “nuke it”.

I have no idea why, but the changeover was rapid and came within a few years of microwaves being introduced. I would guess it was because of some wag being clever since the ovens use radiation to cook food (which was a huge deal back then, and the topic of much fearful discussion), so saying “nuke it” became the cool, clever way to say it. Now everyone uses it unironically. It’s just what we say when we mean “cook it in the microwave oven”.

[Beth]

Trike wrote: "(Which has its own issues, because the acronym LED has the word “light” right in it: Light Emitting Diode.) "

Be right back, going to get some cash from the ATM by entering my PIN number.

[Cheryl]

you mean from the ATM machine, of course...

[Becky]

Tamara wrote: "Here's another one for the list--assuming someone is compiling one :)

irregardless"

This was said in a work call today, and it was all I could do not to say something.

[Tamara]

Becky wrote: "Tamara wrote: "Here's another one for the list--assuming someone is compiling one :)

irregardless"

This was said in a work call today, and it was all I could do not to say something."

That word "greats" on my nerves.

[Becky]

Tamara wrote: "That word "greats" on my nerves."

Mine too, eXpecially when the person is actually really intelligent. LOL

[Melinda]

"It's a gift...and a curse." I liked it when Monk said it, but it's way overused.

[Michele]

colleen the convivial curmudgeon wrote: "...such as nuke for nuclear."

Micah wrote: "Uh, sorry, the word is nukuler"

Auuuggghhhhhhh...

[Ada]

So this is very my country specific but it annoys me to no end when we use English words instead of our own native words. Take the word 'journal'. I get it, on the internet you get more hits when you use that instead of 'dagboek' (literal translation is day book). Also 'dagboek' sounds a bit... juvenile? oldish? but still it drives me nuts.
We do this all the time. Even in news papers. And while I do get where it comes from, I don't think we should just use English words while we have perfect Dutch words that works just as well. Besides. Even though lots of people can understand English, most of the time our accent is horrible.

On a side note: On Icelandic names I listened to an excellent podcast that explained how that worked and the positive and negative sides of that practice: Allusionist 87. Name v. Law

Another side note: The same podcaster had a very interesting episode about why the English language is different in the UK and the USA: Allusionist 76. Across the Pond

[Trike]

The Allusionist is an awesome podcast.

[Ada]

Trike wrote: "The Allusionist is an awesome podcast."

Jeej! A fellow ... Word nerd? Linguistics lover?

Doesn't matter. It rare to find someone who likes this podcast!