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Pedants' corner

Unpleasant modern expressions

(241 Posts)
mrsmopp Fri 23-May-14 07:44:05

Up for grabs. I hate it. Let's have your pet hate..

KatyK Mon 26-May-14 20:17:57

River - I was thrilled! grin

Ana Mon 26-May-14 20:24:16

Perhaps I could if I knew what 'blue sky thinking' meant...

annodomini Mon 26-May-14 20:35:10

I was hoping someone could explain that, Ana! Maybe it's thinking up new ideas without conventional notions clouding one's thinking. Oh, it takes a metaphor to try to explain another metaphor!

Riverwalk Mon 26-May-14 20:47:41

De-train and de-plane really get on my pip!

MiceElf Mon 26-May-14 20:49:50

Top of the candle flame?

Edge of the bookshelf

Beyond the suburb

The trowel's tip

Beyond the froth on a macchiato ....

Riverwalk Mon 26-May-14 21:00:00

Mice are they your own inventions .... I've never heard them! grin

No froth on a macchiato ...hmm

MiceElf Mon 26-May-14 21:23:46

All mine I'm afraid. Have I mixed up my macchiato with a cappuccino? I don't like milk in any frm and they're just names to me. I thought a macchiato was a black coffee with a smear of froth, but I expect someone will put me right and rewrite the cliché.

Now, bets on how long it will be before one of them turns up grin

annodomini Mon 26-May-14 21:47:39

If you've just invented them, they aren't clichés - yet!

mrsmopp Thu 29-May-14 21:54:58

Chalkboard instead of blackboard. Political correctness gone mad....

seasider Fri 30-May-14 00:01:08

At work we play bull** bingo where we tick off the number of expressions like "blue sky thinking" that our senior managers use in meetings!

seasider Fri 30-May-14 00:01:57

Sorry should be bull****!

suebailey1 Fri 30-May-14 09:08:08

I do like the expression' starter husband' and hope it applies to one of my SIL's.

jinglbellsfrocks Fri 30-May-14 09:12:55

"starter husband"?! shock That implies you are going to progress on to others!

jinglbellsfrocks Fri 30-May-14 09:14:40

I like "blue sky thinking". And "thinking outside the box".

A lot of these expressions simply apply very well to the way of life we lead nowadays. They are useful.

Agus Fri 30-May-14 10:06:24

It's just not my 'thing' !

jinglbellsfrocks Fri 30-May-14 10:18:31

grin

ffinnochio Fri 30-May-14 10:21:15

I did a lot of 'blue sky thinking' when I went walking early this morning. Nothing better. smile

JackyB Fri 30-May-14 11:51:52

Ooh - goody, a chance to be pedantic!

Right, well, there are several things here being discussed at once.

- Modern expressions which grate because they sound unnatural to us and there were perfectly good expressions already in use. e.g. "What's occurring?"

However, some new expressions are for concepts we just didn't have before, so they had to be invented .. To "text" as a verb is a good example. Much neater than saying "To send an SMS/text message" A couple of nifty new things like "Twenty-four-seven" are really useful.

- Very old expressions which bother some of us. "He turned round and said.." I was always led to believe dates back to the plague years. Although I am rather wary of that theory, this expression is certainly not new! Actually, I would have said that "up for grabs" has been around for a few decades, too.

- Expressions that are grammatically wrong. angry. "I am good" - In my world, that means that "I am well-behaved"!!! And this misuse of the reflexive pronouns "myself" and "yourself" that has been mentioned. It's all down to people not learning grammar at school. Same thing with confusing "me" and "I". Don't get me started on that!

I am sure we all had expressions that our parents found annoying; the way language moves on continually is just exciting. Some new expressions will stick, others will die out, some need renewing.

"You know", "I mean" and "You know what I mean" were already annoying back in the 60s 70s. In my observation, these days they are mainly used by men who were in their prime around that time.

"Pushing the envelope" and "Thinking outside the box" are beautifully expressive and congratulations to whoever coined them.

A Cappucino is originally from Vienna, a "Kapuziner" - meaning a "hooded monk". This is a cup of coffee, which a huge hood of froth (frothed milk or whipped cream) sitting on the top.
A Latte Macchiato means "maculate milk" - i.e. the opposite of immaculate milk. You froth up the milk and then "stain" it by pouring a shot of espresso on to the foam.
And I have no idea what "blue sky thinking" is, either. But, as an expat, I don't get bombarded with this Newspeak quite so much.

Grandmasaregreat Fri 30-May-14 12:51:44

Trouble is when you hear these sayings and your're with younger people they tend to stick and I'm finding myself saying some of them - I've slapped my wrist!!

Ariadne Fri 30-May-14 13:47:55

"U.S. of A." Ugh!

Agus Fri 30-May-14 14:12:41

Also, certain expressions only work with certain accents. Eg. 'Rock On' in an American accent works but sounds ridiculous in a British accent. Same goes for Hey Man!

Wheniwasyourage Fri 30-May-14 19:12:16

Yes, mrsmopp, i agree about "chalkboard", particularly when they now have "whiteboards" in schools!

Also "X impacts people". No it doesn't, it has an impact on people!!

annodomini Fri 30-May-14 20:02:08

JackyB, hello. I don't think we've met, but we are of one mind. Thank you for a nicely balanced post. Not all neologisms are evil!

Wheniwasyourage Sat 07-Jun-14 17:04:39

JackyB, I too appreciate the verb 'to text' but where I would assume that the past tense is 'I texted', I can't understand why some people use 'I text' for the past as well as the present. confused

jinglbellsfrocks Sat 07-Jun-14 19:25:33

JackyB your post, and your profile, are very..... impressive.

I do look forward to hearing more from you.