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Words we've ruined

  

Category:  History & Sociology

By:  outis  •  9 months ago  •  18 comments

Words we've ruined



Let's explore the words that we've destroyed through misuse.



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Etymology is fun. Yup, I really believe that. Where words were born and how they got to be where they are now.

Clear, concise communication requires all parties to understand the same things from the same words. Sloppy speech is anti-social. Then again... I've been called a grammar-Nazi .



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Outis
Freshman Expert
1  author  Outis    9 months ago

The use of vocabulary on NewsTalkers is... interesting...

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Outis @1    9 months ago

Interesting?  Often I've found it to be misleading to the extent of incompetent, but perhaps I'm being unfair because I majored in English Literature and taught English in a high school for 6 years and privately after that.  The only time I'll use words that have been misused and misconstrued, especially politicized, such as "woke" is to say what they really mean, because to me it means having ended sleep, and nobody is going to stop me from using the usual masculine and feminine words.

Thank you for posting interesting topics.  Sorry if I can't comment intelligently on them since you mostly use YouTube and web sites that I'm unable to open.  I'm quite happy that your articles push political topics off the page, but please go easy on my movie quizzes and jokes.  

 
 
 
Thomas
Masters Guide
2  Thomas    9 months ago

A show that I found on NPR called " A Way with Words " swims in a common stream...

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
3  Krishna    9 months ago

      I’ve been called a grammar Nazi”.

I’ve been called many things online. Even accused of being “Anti-Semantic”. 

Which is totally false.

OTOH some people have said I’m actually a very cunning linguist!

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
3.1  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Krishna @3    9 months ago

You're lucky.  I've been called worse than that.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
3.1.1  Krishna  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @3.1    9 months ago

"Country humor":

Call me anything you want-- just don't call me late for dinner!

(Or maybe that was third grade humor, I ferget)

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
4  Kavika     9 months ago

As an ''English is my second language'' person I recognize that I do make mistakes with the language from time to time but there are some English words that I just love, the word ''cockwobble'' is a classic. 

I've tried to teach some of our members a few words or phrases in my native language but in some cases, it hasn't worked out too well...I most likely started with words much too difficult such as miinibaashkiminasiganibiitoosijiganibadagwiingweshiganibakwezhigan, which most of the English speakers just murdered..

Actually, I'm having a bit of fun Outis, I have a keen interest in language, including English. The intricacies of each language are fascinating. Language is, IMO the heart of a culture of the speakers, kill the language and you've killed the culture. 

 
 
 
Outis
Freshman Expert
4.1  author  Outis  replied to  Kavika @4    9 months ago
kill the language and you've killed the culture

This is why language must defended.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
4.1.1  Krishna  replied to  Outis @4.1    9 months ago
kill the language and you've killed the culture
This is why language must defended.

Some things that used to be considered unacceptable are now generally accepted.

For example, it used to be considered very incorrect to ever split infinitives-- now I believe its generally accepted OK.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
4.1.2  Krishna  replied to  Outis @4.1    9 months ago
This is why language must defended.

The French are very proud (and sometimes even arrogant) of various aspects of French culture. And this incluces the French language.

They even have an institution called the  Académie Française:

The  Académie Française [a] , also known as the  French Academy , is the principal  French  council for matters pertaining to the  French language . The Académie was officially established in 1635 by  Cardinal Richelieu , the chief minister to  King Louis XIII . [1]  

Suppressed in 1793 during the  French Revolution , it was restored as a division of the  Institut de France  in 1803 by  Napoleon Bonaparte . [1]  It is the oldest of the five  académies  of the institute. The body has the duty of acting as an official authority on the language; it is tasked with publishing an official dictionary of the language.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
4.2  Krishna  replied to  Kavika @4    9 months ago
'cockwobble'

That sounds like a word from British English, not American English (?)

Of course most words in American English are the same in English as spoken in other countries-- but in some other English speaking countries there are different words.

Especially Australian English! How many of these words are Amiericans familiar with?

Waltzing Matilda

Once a jolly swagman camped by a Billabong
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

Down come a jumbuck to drink at the water hole
Up jumped a swagman and grabbed him in glee
And he sang as he stowed him away in his tucker bag
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me'".

Up rode the Squatter a riding his thoroughbred
Up rode the Trooper - one, two, three
"Where's that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?",
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me"

But the swagman he up and jumped in the water hole
Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree,
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
4.2.1  Kavika   replied to  Krishna @4.2    9 months ago

The unoffical Australian National Anthem. I love it having lived in Oz for years (my kids, grandkids and greatgrand kids still live there) it's a great place with their own version of English.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
4.3  Krishna  replied to  Kavika @4    9 months ago
As an ''English is my second language'' person I recognize that I do make mistakes with the language from time to time but there are some English words that I just love, the word ''cockwobble'' is a classic. 

Here are a few more unusual/interesting words:

Nippy, palaver and cockwomble: Greatest words in English?

Indubitably coruscating lingo, but what are your comely faves?

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4.4  Trout Giggles  replied to  Kavika @4    9 months ago

I can't even pronounce that

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
5  Krishna    9 months ago

A while back I almost bought this book:

Eats, Shoots and leaves: The Zero Toler4ance Approach to Punctuation

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation  is a  non-fiction  book written by  Lynne Truss , the former host of  BBC Radio 4 's  Cutting a Dash  programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of  punctuation  in the United Kingdom and the United States and describes how rules are being relaxed in today's society. Her goal is to remind readers of the impor tance of punctuation in the English language by mixing humour and instruction.

The book was a commercial success. In 2004, the US edition became a  New York Times   best-seller .

 
 
 
Outis
Freshman Expert
5.1  author  Outis  replied to  Krishna @5    9 months ago
Eats, shoots and leaves.
 
 
 
Igknorantzruls
Sophomore Quiet
6  Igknorantzruls    9 months ago

i prefer making the rules whence using the English language, and am off X criter sized four my mannerism/,N eye can't C moi' being in flEWenced , irregardles of n e consequences , for consequences coincidentally are inconsequential whence

con sidered buy prose un like me biing a vowel 4 too hundred 50, and i will put it on my wedding cake, baked inn an E Z baked oven, like my mind at the moment , cuz eye saw myself tellin till tolled by a John wilks phoney phone booth win that tolled a pa speaker that blew  off there Jersey not knew, yet known like a clown lookin for a clone that smelt like sully fir pelt tin roof wit a cat that danced, till pause went knumb, 4 the cold caught the kitty buy the pus in boots booted cuz knot suited fore ware tale rooted N BEER 

 
 
 
Outis
Freshman Expert
6.1  author  Outis  replied to  Igknorantzruls @6    9 months ago

Poetry is free to do as it pleases.

 
 

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