When did X become Y?

They should be you.

I think.

But never mind. I expect ppl know what I mean.

But if you were boning a corset, you would be putting the bones in ?? confusing.

And if you were boning --- better not go there .

Exactly, GrandTea. 'Boning' has an alternative meaning these days as well...

You are obviously very tolerant, thatbags (except perhaps to some of the pedants among us and to our preference for certain ways of using the language) but please note that I started this thread in Pedants' corner just so that it might attract those who might agree with me and if you are more up to date/tolerant, don't let it get to you.

Thank you, hildajenniJ and JackyB for your explanations of tealights; either, or indeed both,would make sense!

You have misunderstood, wheniwas. I am happy that we are free to moan and for people who find the moaning tiresome to freely say what they think. Equally.

You moan. I complain that you moan. You complain that I complain that you moan.

It's called freedom, and Gransnet is a free microcosm

Give me some pedantry about actual meaning and I'll moan with the best.

Words? Tcha! They are just tools to express meaning.

I agree with Lilyflower - "train station" is ugly and clumsy and makes me wince every time I hear it on TV or wherever. As an ex-teacher I have to say that standards or grammar and vocabulary seem a lot lower now than they were in our day!

Very often words that we think of as modern slang or lax English are in fact very old words.
We recently went to a talk about cocktails, and when asked when and where the term became used, most said 1920s America. How surprised we were that the first reference was in the the March 20, 1798, edition of The Morning Post and Gazetteer, a long-defunct London newspaper. It is thought that the term Cocktail referred to the practise of cropping the tail of a mixed breed horse. (hence a mixed drink)
And before you ask, yes we sampled quite a few.

Train station drives me mad!! It's railway station :-)

What I find surprising about this kind of moaning and intense irritation is the very fact that people are willing to express publicly their intolerance of other people's way of speaking. I'd be ashamed to speak of it if I felt such annoyance.

It does give the impression of a high level of grumpiness. There, I've said my bit. I'll leave yous all to be grumpy old women together.

The boning/deboning comment reminded me that inflammable used to mean it would burn. Then people thought it meant the opposite ie flame proof which is obviously potentially dangerous so now labels say 'flammable' which is clear even if it's a made up word!

"Do the math." annoys me although I know it's silly. It's a perfectly good abbreviation, but still.

"grumpiness" now there is a made up word if I ever heard one

I am working on a sentence that includes all of your worst grump words.

When did "patient" become "service user" ?

All words are made up. Every. Single. One.

Full stops after single words like that is a relatively new phenomenon. I think it can be quite effective but do feel free to grump away about it .

Off to the land of nod. Sweet dreams, all. ??

GOW Alert: Can't say I care for that habit of putting stops after single words
??

grandMattie - I'm also extremely irritated by cupcakes instead of fairy cakes

Funny gran,, yes "can I get a. "" really grates, where and how did that come from ,, also when I give my name over the phone to say ,, utilities , they say "fantastic, I never thought my name was fantastic, also I booked my car in for service last week, the receptionist said, Not a problem, !!!

"Can I get ..? comes, I think, from TV series like Friends. DD uses it all the time in coffee shops, to my intense irritation, but all is not lost. In the school tuck shop her son says "Please may I have...?"

Other alternatives:

Could I have x and y, please?

I'd like ... please.

I was taught to say Please may I have...? but I've always thought it had rather a clumsy, contrived feel. Please can I have...? feels more 'comfortable' to me, more natural.

When I was training as a TEFL we were taught that what native speakers say naturally is what we should be aiming to teach as good English. So, for example, when someone asked me during a practice if they could borrow my ruler (rule for the pedants), I responded with "Yeah, sure" and gave it to them. Various other replies would also have been "correct English".

Can I get...? is becoming correct English English (it has been correct American English for ages) because it's what (some) people say. Preference for it is probably a generational thing, as with lots of diction. Minibags uses words that I'm very sparing with in a much more casual way than I do because, among her peers, they simply are more casual.

I find it all very interesting, hearing spoken language evolve, rather than irritating.

that bags your sweet reasonableness is ruining all the grumpy fun of this thread.
Btw, the grin at my own comment is not bad manners, it's to indicate that I consider the comment grin-worthy and not grumpy.
[sweet smiles a-plenty]

My grand children are American/British and live in America, so I don't get to I'm not able to see them more than once a year, if that. So when I visit, I am very happy to use the Americanisms venacular. In fact, I find their accent and way of speaking delightful.

Adaptability is the name of the game.

My sweet reasonableness, as you so sweetly call it, farnorth, needn't be seen as a grumpiness damper. People who want to be grumpy will be and that's fine, but I shall continue to call unreasonbleness/grumpiness what it is if I feel so inclined. No hard feelings at all, I'm just saying what I think, as one does. [friendly wave] ?

I think we most of us appreciate that language changes over time, but does it have to change so flipping fast?

My D announced yesterday that she'd had a 'brain freeze' . Where has that come from?