Language Peeves

[Sherry]

I think I must be wrong about "quality" being used as a modifier, but it still grates on my ears. I don't mind "a wide choice of quality wine" so much (as I just saw in a dictionary), but I do want them to put "fine" in there.

[Ruth]

I agree with you on both points, Sherry. Every time I hear someone say "it's really unique," or "it's sort of unique," I start pulling out my hair.

And in my mind "quality" needs a modifier. What kind of quality time are you supposed to spend with your kids? Bad quality? Good quality? Shoddy quality?

R

[Sherry]

That's why I think "quality time" sounds smug. I've heard people say things like "I only had fifteen minutes to spend with my daughter yesterday, but it was quality time." I look at them and want to say: "Changing dirty diapers is quality time; swiping runny noses, getting them to pick up a mess---that's quality time to me." Fifteen minutes ain't enough.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Hear, hear Donna and Sherry. "Quality time" as used by a career-oriented mother is a sop thrown out to disguise guilt! All time that parents spend with their children is 'quality'....I deal with enough children who suffer from parental-time deprivation and are babysat by electronic devices..

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Hear, hear Donna and Sherry. "Quality time" as used by a career-oriented mother is a sop thrown out to disguise guilt! All time that parents spend with their children is 'quality'....I deal with enough children who suffer from parental-time deprivation and are babysat by electronic devices..

[Jeannette]

Here's one I hear from girls in the 10-11 year old range: "No offense, but...", which is followed by an offensive comment. I don't think (!) they are actually speaking to the offensive person, but making a comment to a buddy.

No offense, but that hair clip does not look good on her.
No offense, but her boyfriend is really ugly.

When I hear that phrase start out of my daughter's mouth, I interrupt with, "... but I am about to offend you!"

"Mo -om!"

[Symbol]

I heard that phrase ("No offense, but..") a lot when I was in the 10-12 range and it was spoken to the offensive person. I guess pre-teen etiquette has been updated somewhat since then.

[Inky]

I just had a car mechanic hit me with the phrase: "more better." I think I left an eyebrow on the garage ceiling...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

...I can go one better! How about 'more betterer' (from a child admittedly)!!

[Inky]

I think my mechanic (who's well into adulthood) would begin looking for a new type of filter if I started talking about cumulative emphasis:)

And I don't think math types should get involved in the rules of language. Nay, not never. It's like blurring the 38th parallel. That no man's land between the right and left brain must be maintained.

[Izzy]

Okay, so the saddest thing to ever happen to the English language, as mentioned before, is surely B-school. No one is actually granted an MBA without swearing to evermore be proactive in creating strategic solutions that leverage detailed SWOT analyses (or maybe Porter's 5 force if you lean that way) in every future venture.

Which I really don't mind. It's kinda funny, right? I mean, except when people believe themselves too much. But what I do hate is the sacrifice of flow. There is a lot of focus on transitional words, but never a focus on truly drafting outstanding documents (this is true in law school as well, sadly (how any of them go on to become Grishams is a mystery to me)) that lead a reader to a logical conclusion. So, the transition of ideas normally doesn't exist - it's like today's political campaigns - today, in the opinion section of my newspaper was something like "if we don't fight tooth and nail for religion our families will fall apart." Um, huh? But people just shove two ideas next to one another, and because of the lack of training in philosophy or something... people don't notice that A doesn't neccesarily imply B.

Anyway, all of this lead up, and to what? A pet peeve that is maybe not important. Maybe not even real. I have mentioned it to approximately, oh, 700 or so people in the past, and most have looked at me blankly, and the rest have said something to the effect of "oh, I think that's correct. I don't understand your problem." It's the meaningless transitional roadmap - first, second, third... finally, etc.

And if that weren't bad enough (it really is, you know?)the world is full of those who mess it up - first, second, lastly... lastly. Sometimes you see firstly or secondly or thirdly. And these people, these people are succeeding at B-school and law school in ways that I am not. Seriously. At reputable universities.

I was told, clearly and explicitly, if I did not learn to use those indicators in my writing (learn... yes, because in proper schooling we weren't all taught at 8 to unlearn that type of oversimplification and not to use cheap ploys like 'it was only a dream...') I would likely not pass legal writing and get my JD. Um, yeah, so I do, and I will, but, lastly, for 100 thousand dollars, I really think I deserve better.

[Ruth]

Firstly I was floored by the length of your comment. Secondly I read it. Thirdly and was vastly amused.

R

[Sherry]

Eleventhly, I laughed.

[Ken, Moderator]

Lastly, when she posts, our 100th member doesn't disappoint.

[[deleted user]]

rubber biscuit
bauh bauh bauh

[Ken, Moderator]

Peeves, I think. Not Jeeves. He's the butler passing the canapes while we complain about our language peeves.

Irregardless, anyone?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

A lot of literal alliteration by the sound of it!

[[deleted user]]

i was riffin on the blues brothers
"what do you want for nothing"
when indeed izzy is paying 100K for her biznezz degree
"your money back?"
as in she spent all that money for...verbiage (sp?)
and a rubber biscuit would bounce into your mouth and out again
just like said degree

song lyrics don't nec. have to be cognizable
(is that a word or did i just make it up?)

bauh bauh bauh

[[deleted user]]

no no let me...huh?

[[deleted user]]

there yah go donna
me and you
thin black ties
black suits
black sunglasses
and an old chevy impala

or caprice classic

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/t...

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Blues+Br...

[Lara]

Rawhide!

[[deleted user]]

haha
hi lara
i just had to see what the x-ray of the butterfly was about (i keep seeing your pic but hadn't yet clicked to see what it was-just mentally kept saying x-ray of a butterfly subliminally, subconsciously, sub...)
started reading your blog
will get back to it
sounds like you are having a fascinating time in china

[[deleted user]]

I've always thought Lara's pic was a close up of the bridge of someone's nose . . . go figure.

Catching up on this thread I see "more betterer" and I am reminded of something a student said the other day:

"Miss, we is so much smarterer than we was at the beginning of this year."

It was all I could do to keep from rolling on the floor. But then I thought-- oh God, these are the scores that will be attached to MY NAME this year!

GADS!

[[deleted user]]

when i did my student teaching i had a student say in the middle of a class discussion on animal farm say..."my head hurts, it's all this thinking" as he held his head in his hands :) heehee

[Dawn]

I found a typo while I was reading New Moon last night. "I do spent most of my time with Jacob, though."
I read it over a few times cause I was sure I was just reading it wrong but I'm pretty sure that's not what she meant to write! lol

[Ken, Moderator]

Morning, Dawn (but I wax repetitive). I think it's almost impossible to find a book without a typo nowadays. Copy editors ain't what they used to be, I'll tell you.

And man, is that Stephenie Meyer trilogy (soon to be a quartet) selling like hotcakes. Only, have you ever seen anyone selling a single hotcake? I haven't, either. Weird. Where do these expressions come from?

Thanks, Donna, for pausing to complain about clausing....

[Marcus]

In many of the recent articles about Barack Obama's allegedly condescending remarks about rural whites, his speech has been called " inartful". I do not believe that this monstrosity is a word, but rather a bumbling conflation of 'artless' and 'inexpert'. Has anyone else's taste and sensibility been injured by this beastly non-word?
Marcus, fainting from the painful sensations received on continually encountering this ugly thing...

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Do you wanna know how Obama comes across to someone sitting objectively on the other side of the world? A lightweight who happens to have a gift for rhetoric (and some talented speechwriters). What are his policies?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Oh my god!! I think I must be Republican!!!!!!

[Ken, Moderator]

Inartful? Haven't heard that one, but I'm with you, Marcus. BAD FORM. Unartful is a word, according to dictionary.com (but not my spell check). Artful Dodger is a word (actually two -- and a Dickens character to boot). If he gets caught for pickpocketing, is he the Inartful Dodger, then?

Debbie -- Good thing you can't vote! Republicans are the authors of this fine mess we call Iraq. Ole Man McCain wants to keep it going to save face. Imagine if they kept thinking this way about Vietnam.

But wait, this is the LANGUAGE Peeve thread, not the Republican Peeve thread, so I will cease and desist and stop, et cetera, et ceter-sis-boom-bah...

[Ken, Moderator]

That was in-un-anti-dis-called for-ic-ist-er-cial.

[[deleted user]]

huh?
this new job is sapping my brain
i can't understand a thing you are saying :)

[Ken, Moderator]

... T'is all the jigging (or possibly waltzing or vogueing).

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Now isn't diaper an interesting word...etymology please Donna? Everyone else in the English-speaking world calls them nappies.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Ah...thankyou ma'am!

[Ruth]

Speaking of unnecessary additions to words, my husband, the doctor, is driven up the wall by preventative care. What's wrong with preventive?

That's not a suffix or prefix, though. Can we call it a midfix?

R

[Sheila]

Ok. How do I put this so it makes sense to you all (and I don't make myself sound like an idiot)...

I want someone to tell me about the word "rote". I've never heard it used separate from the phrase "rote memorization". But apparently it's a noun MEANING memorization, specifically by repetition.

So why do we say "rote memorization" rather than just "rote"?

[[deleted user]]

Good question! It seems we are a society bent on redundency!

[Sheila]

I'm sorry, could you repeat that? :)

Yeah, I was using the term the other day and it occurred to me I really didn't know what "rote" even meant. One of those phrases you get used to saying without even thinking about it.

[Ruth]

Oh! You mean the multiplication tables!

R

[[deleted user]]

8's and 9's
my theory is if you learn them once by rote they stick
there is only a finite number of those things after all and yet...
if i don't use them
they slip away

[Sheila]

Damn, Donna. You got me there. I even looked it up online and I can't find a definition.

Dysrotic....? Someone who has a hard time learning by rote?

[Sheila]

Oh. I get it. Now.

:P

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

Never heard 'rote memorisation' before...must be like having serial deja vu!! Donna is right about repetition....we learn things like tables (in Room 12 at MPS, anyway!!) by rote. I should also be learning the latin dirges from Sound of Music by rote, but it's far more entertaining here!

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

And thanks for reviving this thread Sheila!

[Lara]

I'm a little late, but a diaper changing table is a "Wickeltisch" in German. If you add the "diaper" bit, I guess you could say "Windelnwickeltisch."

[M.D.]

Dysrotic. I love it! I'll be using it (since I have the same problem) and watch people's eyes glaze over. There goes the weirdo again, they'll say.

[Mary]

Eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww...math again! ;)

[Nathan]

I didn't read all ten pages, so I apologize if someone has covered this already. I got involved in a completely inappropriate debate about language on a TV forum because of a peeve. The general topic is hyper-exaggeration for effect, and in this instance it was the use of the word 'literal'. One person had made a comment like "TV 1 literally knocked TV 2 out of the store," and it was downhill from there.

But the real highlights don't start until the culprit (in response to someone pointing out the misuse of the word literal) says:

There isn't a person alive who would possibly try to decode that statement using a literal translation of the word "literally". Of course a TV could never knock another TV out of a store. To appease the unimaginative, I suppose I should have written, "The Pioneer FHD-1 figuratively knocked it out of the store". That's really kind of redundant though, since you need to understand that the phrase is figurative to decode its meaning.

In my mind the use of the word "literally" communicates that the performance actually (literally) met the criteria necessary to fully justify the use of the figurative statement."

I believe that speaks for itself on a forum like this. I'm not posting this to pick on one person - it seems to me that thinking like this has infiltrated a large portion of the population. In case you're interested, here is my response

[[deleted user]]

hi nathan
veeerrrryyyy in ter est ting
i agree
i abhor the continued bastardization of the language
and know i am powerless to prevent it
your comments provoked me to ponder
we all practice language at different levels
literally means literally to me and you
however to others it may indeed mean merely "really" or "like" or "as if"
it's those clashes that create new language forms
i hate it
i don't want literally to mean really, sort of, like, or as if
but the tv person wanted it to
darn them
part of it is laziness, willfulness, carelessness but who am i to say, you should smarten up when i don't necessarily want to smarten up in some instances myself?