Irritating phrases, Americanisms and other mangling of English as she is spoken...

[PHXPhlyer]

Thank goodness for American/British English language translators online.

PP

[Pontius Navigator]

PP, no you are lucky so many Brits are bilingual hough our accents may be funny to Antipodean and American ears.

[k3k3]

It's their use of the word momentarily to mean soon rather than for an instant.

The train will arrive momentarily.
vs.
The train doors will only open momentarily.

[Opsboi]

Or written.

We have found that American paperbacks have a different typeset and sometimes punctuation marks from UK English. And of course we haven't gotten used to it.

Confused now...

[Pinky the pilot]

Another thing that irritates me is the abuse/misuse of the word icon.

[GrumpyOldFart]

I wonder who was the pretentious pseudo-intellectual prat who decided that 'processes' should be pronounced 'pross-ess-eeze'?

[ricardian]

Bombardier - army rank - pronounced bombardeer
Bombardier - Canadian manufacturer of aircraft - pronounced bombardeeay

[llondel]

I have long held this dystopian vision that somewhere in the USA is an underground bunker, wherein there is a group of Harvard/Yale etc., alumni whose job it is to cock-up the English language with new phrases and adaptations of old ones, and release them onto a poorly-educated public. My view of this was reinforced, when having been sent to Little Rock by Raytheon for an induction course, we had to watch a 10-minute video on the origin and use of the word paradigm. This was almost 30 years ago and I have never found an occasion to use the word since.

Oh, and back onto the main theme: At this moment in time (usually used by flight attendants during descent). FFS! What's wrong with NOW!

Why use one word when you can use five?

[EA01]

A recruitment company was chasing me this week. So I gave in and joined her 'Zoom' call. At the end she said

"Thanks for letting me reach out to you Fliegs"....
"Contact...you contacted me"
"....what?"
"You contacted me, you didn't 'reach out to me'"
"Don't you like that word?"
"It's not a word, Krystal, its a phrase, and no, I do not like it"
"Oh...ok...why not"
"Because Krystal it is like every other corporate BS term....and precisely why I am not interested in going back into that field...good day"

She shall not be 'reaching out' to me again.....grumpy old man I must have become!!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Aagh!

From the BBC weather report for my area.!

Today
This morning, very heavy downpours will move in from the south. Thunder and lightening is likely and rain could be torrential at times. The afternoon will see further heavy, thundery spells of rain.

[tango15]

Good for you, Fliegs!

I had the 'lightening' debate on another forum recently, and I was told in no uncertain terms that it can be spelt in two ways. So what is now happening is that if the mis-spelling of a word becomes common enough, it now becomes an alternative spelling. I notice that there is increasing confusion with the use of the word break and brake.

[Boac]

From the BBC weather report for my area

Poor old Beeb - it is OBVIOUS they meant the sky would get brighter, innit?

[CharlieOneSix]

Leicester Tigers hooker and captain Tom Youngs has been labelled a "prostitute" by an American website.

As the United States bids for the 2027 or 2031 men’s World Cups and the 2029 women’s World Cup, it seems the country has a bit to do in learning about rugby terminology. American website, Insider Voice, got mixed up with Young’s front row hooker position in their resulting headline: “Tom Youngs: Leicester Tigers prostitute charged by RFU after Bristol incident”.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Good for you, Fliegs!

I had the 'lightening' debate on another forum recently, and I was told in no uncertain terms that it can be spelt in two ways. So what is now happening is that if the mis-spelling of a word becomes common enough, it now becomes an alternative spelling. I notice that there is increasing confusion with the use of the word break and brake.

Well put and absolutely correct. Thus begins the decline of civilisation and the degradation of our language and our culture, in a world where anything goes, and where ignorance is favoured over standards, linguistic discipline, grammar, correct spelling and precision and clarity in meaningful writing.

Soon the inane wuzz and zonks of the graffiti vandals seen on railway embankments will be our legacy to the future!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Leicester Tigers hooker and captain Tom Youngs has been labelled a "prostitute" by an American website.
1623963216391.jpg

As the United States bids for the 2027 or 2031 men’s World Cups and the 2029 women’s World Cup, it seems the country has a bit to do in learning about rugby terminology. American website, Insider Voice, got mixed up with Young’s front row hooker position in their resulting headline: “Tom Youngs: Leicester Tigers prostitute charged by RFU after Bristol incident”.

I am surprised that the word prop wasn't mangled! A hooker supported by two pimps!

[tango15]

Leicester Tigers hooker and captain Tom Youngs has been labelled a "prostitute" by an American website.
1623963216391.jpg

As the United States bids for the 2027 or 2031 men’s World Cups and the 2029 women’s World Cup, it seems the country has a bit to do in learning about rugby terminology. American website, Insider Voice, got mixed up with Young’s front row hooker position in their resulting headline: “Tom Youngs: Leicester Tigers prostitute charged by RFU after Bristol incident”.

I am surprised that the word prop wasn't mangled! A hooker supported by two pimps!

Love it! Ya don't want a mangled prop though, do ya?

[TheGreenGoblin]

Leicester Tigers hooker and captain Tom Youngs has been labelled a "prostitute" by an American website.
1623963216391.jpg

As the United States bids for the 2027 or 2031 men’s World Cups and the 2029 women’s World Cup, it seems the country has a bit to do in learning about rugby terminology. American website, Insider Voice, got mixed up with Young’s front row hooker position in their resulting headline: “Tom Youngs: Leicester Tigers prostitute charged by RFU after Bristol incident”.

I am surprised that the word prop wasn't mangled! A hooker supported by two pimps!

Love it! Ya don't want a mangled prop though, do ya?

Not to mention the screw on one's boat!

[johngreen]

But one does need to be careful about jumping to conclusions about the English language and how she should ought to be spoke proper...

From the OED the origins of the word 'light' are as thus:

Old English leoht, liht (noun and adjective), lihtan (verb), of Germanic origin.


lightning: noun

1 the occurrence of a brief natural high-voltage electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and often thunder.
2 [as modifier] very quick: lightning speed.

ORIGIN
Middle English: special use of lightening (verbal noun from lighten2).

So that potential spelling has been with us for a long time even if it is now considered rare..

lighten 2: verb
1 make or become lighter or brighter.
2 (it lightens, it is lightening, etc.) rare flash with lightning.
3 archaic enlighten spiritually.

Besides which

lightening: noun
a drop in the level of the womb during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

...and I bet not many of you knew that. Neither did I!

And just before you rant that therein lies another abortion of an Americanism:

fetus: (British (in non-technical use) also foetus) noun (plural fetuses)

an unborn or unhatched offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human more than eight weeks after conception.
ORIGIN
Middle English: from Latin 'fetus' pregnancy, childbirth, offspring


And now I really need to go to do some proper work....

[TheGreenGoblin]

But one does need to be careful about jumping to conclusions about the English language and how she should ought to be spoke proper...

From the OED the origins of the word 'light' are as thus:

Old English leoht, liht (noun and adjective), lihtan (verb), of Germanic origin.


lightning: noun

1 the occurrence of a brief natural high-voltage electrical discharge between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and often thunder.
2 [as modifier] very quick: lightning speed.

ORIGIN
Middle English: special use of lightening (verbal noun from lighten2).

So that potential spelling has been with us for a long time even if it is now considered rare..

lighten 2: verb
1 make or become lighter or brighter.
2 (it lightens, it is lightening, etc.) rare flash with lightning.
3 archaic enlighten spiritually.

Besides which

lightening: noun
a drop in the level of the womb during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis.

...and I bet not many of you knew that. Neither did I!

And just before you rant that therein lies another abortion of an Americanism:

fetus: (British (in non-technical use) also foetus) noun (plural fetuses)

an unborn or unhatched offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human more than eight weeks after conception.
ORIGIN
Middle English: from Latin 'fetus' pregnancy, childbirth, offspring


And now I really need to go to do some proper work....

Forsooth John Green...

You are quite right, of course, but that doesn't make the use of "lightening" for lightning any less irritating in the modern context!

As tango15 pointed out, a large number of people who spell lightning, as lightening, do so because they are wazzocks, and not because they favour archaic English words and spelling!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Here is another intensely irritating word often used, perfectly correctly, by musicians in the modern idiom.

"Gig".....

Am I just turning into a grumpy old man?