Monday, February 22, 2010

Annoying Words

Here are some thoughts on the abuse and overuse of certain words. (Via Lew Rockwell.) Share

3 comments:

Julygirl said...

This is becoming merely an academic problem since the younger genertion do more texting than speaking and do not even spell out the word much less concern themselves with proper usage of the word.

tubbs said...

ALAS, we don't have an Academy (or similar institution) to set down some final rules! It would be great if we had a governing institution that could set the rules for global English.
Here's an example: the British tend to say "the younger generation do more texting" or "the family do not like him", and the Yanks tend to treat these subject nouns as singular.
I'm a Yank, but I do think we should defer to the British on these things.

J.K. Baltzersen said...

Ladies and gentlemen, Norway has a government institution for "maintaining" language, and it's not all that positive.

As for Sobran's collection of words, it is a good collection. I would add the abuse of "focus."

People have so many focal points these days, it's a wonder their eyes are not completely worn out by the time they reach 25.