VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

CWToo · Guest

When we moved to the South in 1979, the local paper had a front page story about a huge dumping ground for used tires catching fire. The headline?

Tar Far

todd ellis · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:59 am Post subject:

working at a country station in the 80's we had a contest with huge prizes where we would give out clues once a day and take guesses till somebody won ... really hard riddles. i gave the clue one morning as "I come from afar".

first guess ... I SWEAR was "A far truck?"
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ronharpervoice · Club 300 Joined: 23 Jan 2007 Posts: 347 Location: Ohio

In Cincinnati, one of the members of the Health Alliance group of hospitals is Christ Hospital. The Business Journal recently had a headline that read;
Christ Wants Out Of Health Alliance
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bobsouer · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:03 am Post subject:

Donovan · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:04 am Post subject:

I know I haven't been around much lately... but this thread got me.

One of my biggest issues: "New and Improved"

It's an impossible statement. Drives me crazy! Or when DJs say "It's 87 degrees outside." or "The weather outside is partly cloudy..." Where else would the weather be?

One more: "The time now is 8:15" When the hell else would you give the time? "The time 17 minutes from now will be 6:23."

That's all for now... sorry for my recent absence.
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Bruce · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:14 am Post subject:

Some words change meaning no matter what...such as "decimate". It used to mean killing one out of every ten soldiers captured, or to destroy 10% of something. But through mis-use it has come to mean wholesale destruction.

I also love hearing "fulsome" used improperly. I guess some folks think it's a cross of "full" and "handsome" or some such. Well, it used to mean (800 years ago) that something was "full some" or abundant or copious. But the last few hundred years it's come to mean "disgusting, sickening, or repulsive".

Yes, she was fulsome and then some.

B
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:02 pm Post subject:

I was pleased to learn that "noisome" has nothing to do with sound and everything to do with smell.
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Vance Elderkin · Contributor IV Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 133

I share your Pittsburgh pain, Bob, along with the pain from chipped chopped ham and Myron.

Forgot about the other one that currently makes me crazy...it's the misue of the word nauseous. As in, "Ooh, I'm feeling nauseous."

As we all know, if you feel like you are about to vomit, you are nauseated. You are only nauseous if you make OTHER people feel sick.

COURVO · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject:

Ahem, well Tom, since you've drawn me into this....

PRE-PLANNING was always one that got me.

INVALUABLE and INFLAMMABLE never made much sense to me...

But I have, and will continue to say: "completely destroyed" on the news. I've gotten into knock-down drag-out fights with people over this. Somehow, though, it conveys more than just "destroyed". And besides...if you agree that something can be "partially destroyed" (which I do), then "completely destroyed" is also valid.

I love these threads, and we all have our own pet peeves. However (as you will find in the VO-BB archives), whenever these things come up, I've always tried to remind that English is a living, changing language that can darn well do what it wants if enough people sign on. Example: "Google" is now a verb.

Reading the book about the making of the Oxford Dictionary changed my thinking on that. The original guys who began the task thought it might take AT THE MOST, maybe 10 years.

80 years later, they finished.

Todoay, a full-time staff of many people still work 'round the clock to update it.

The word with the most definitions, and the longest definitions in the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language: SET.

Courvo
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Brett Mason · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:26 pm Post subject:

Okay, okay...I've been sucked in by this thread. First of all, I want to pay homage to Edwin Newman who is no longer with us, and who I had the pleasure to meet. He was, among other things a Peabody award winning journalist, and the author of "Strickly Speaking; Will America Be the Death of English?"

Among the peeves that I have acquired from his wisdom are: using "preventative" when "preventive" is more succint and not as pretentious, and misuse of "comprise". You'll find it has become acceptable to say, "this category is comprised of....." when they really should use "this category includes, or contains, or embraces". "Comprise" means to encompass, so the zoo comprises many animals, etc. (...or, er, this board comprises many animals, but I digress).
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roger · Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject:

Okay, just a few more:
Pre-recorded
Live audience
Very unique
There, I think I'm about through.
-Roger
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Deirdre · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:23 am Post subject:

I bought Edwin Newman's Strictly Speaking and A Civil Tongue when they were first published, and they've been stalwart pals for 30 years.

I like Richard Lederer's takes on language as well.

Peeve:
Orientated

The comprise/compose jangle is a fight I've given up on. I think common usage of "comprise" when "compose" is meant is quite old.

I lost the fight with "myriad" before I was born as well. Myriad is a word that should be used in the same way "several" is, but common usage allows for "a myriad of" and has for a long time.

Fowler's Moder English Usage is a jim-dandy of a book to set on your nightstand.
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Vance Elderkin · Contributor IV Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Posts: 133

To that excellent list I might add the Lynne Tryss book Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

Bruce · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:52 am Post subject:

I still blame the man who testified during the Watergate hearings for using the phrase, "at that point and time." "At that point" or "at that time" alone will suffice, thank you very much. Now you hear that double-speak in sound bites almost daily on the news. Ugh.

B
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JBarrett · Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject:

One thing that I hear a lot in speech, but thankfully have not yet seen in writing, is the "double-is". The best way I can think of to demonstrate it is by using a comma to represent the brief pause between each "is":

"All you have to do is, is go down to the corner..."

Another common mixup is "careen" vs "career", mentioned on the usage page that DB posted earlier, and explained in further detail in the usage note on this page.
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