The month of Quintilis

[Verbivore]

Irritating words

Because I live and work in Australia's "cosmic capital", Byron Shire, which among other claims to fame includes being the nation's yoga capital (49 varieties on offer AFAIK) and tantra HQ (scores of offerings), there are numerous overdone words that bring out the irritated sceptic in me; I find so much of the promotional lingo to be a modern version of snake-oil salesperson spiel. (I have to edit promotional blurbs for work.)

Some of those "trigger" words for me are:
tantric
yogic
transcend(ental)
spirit(ual)
karmic
enlightenment
guru
shaman(ic)
esoteric (healing)
detox
(healing) journey
intuitive (noun)
psychic
channeller
medium
(im)balance
guide(ance)
transformation
therapist (which comprises two unfortunately adjacent words: the rapist)
empower
holistic
biomimetic
crystal (healings)
energy medicine
sacred arts
meditation
seer
biofeedback
realign(ment)
alchemy
mindfulness
conscious (as in "room available to conscious tenant")
retreat
intensive
somatic
awareness
(life / wellness) coach
workshop
empower
integrity
neurofeedback
reiki
readings
integrative
soul
alternat(iv)e.

[Little Jack Horner]

I can’t compete with that list, Vv, but if they “bring out the irritated sceptic” in you, there cannot be much irritated scepticism left — unless you have more than your fair share of the stuff. Perhaps you do? 

My two “favourite” irritations at the moment are “incredibly” this that and the other, and “absolute priority” referring to almost anything the speaker thinks is important — usually something like customer safety which has clearly not been a priority until that moment and is probably still not so important as reputation.

[Twoddle]

The Contessa and I are back from a few days in a B&B in the Lot area of France, our visit having coincided with the heatwave across most of Europe. On Thursday the temperature reached 42°C, and on Friday, although the temperature was a degree lower, the humidity approached 100%. Thank goodness for car air-conditioning!

We met a somewhat eccentric Irish Scotsman at the house. He was delighted to discover that I'd taken a beginner's course in Scottish Gaelic many years ago, as he spoke both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and we bemused the other guests by talking to each other for a few sentences in the Scottish version until I (swiftly) reached my limit. Then we sang a Gaelic song together. Yes! I actually performed a song in front of other people whom I'd only just met! He at least had the excuse of having downed the best part of three bottles of wine, but goodness knows what possessed me to behave in such an outrageously extrovert fashion. In fact I spoke more Gaelic during our visit than I spoke French because most of the locals seemed to want to practise their English.

[Verbivore]

Comma Queen Mary Norris gets turned on and goes Greek.

[Twoddle]

Jul 6, 2019 7:50:54 GMT Verbivore said:

Comma Queen Mary Norris gets turned on and goes Greek.

It just goes to prove that the Greeks had a word for it.

[Verbivore]

Jul 6, 2019 9:29:09 GMT Twoddle said:

Jul 6, 2019 7:50:54 GMT Verbivore said:

Comma Queen Mary Norris gets turned on and goes Greek.

It just goes to prove that the Greeks had a word for it.

:-)

I should hope so, else it might be the love that can not speak its name.

Mary Norris is most amusing, and has described her job at the New Yorker as variously copyeditor, proofreader, and page okayer. Until I saw her videos, I wasn't sure which of those labels applied to my job (I hadn't even heard of a page okayer!), but that's what I do: after editing copy (for structure, sense, and fit) I return it to the relevant editor or graphic designer. Those persons return the amended copy to me and I proofread it, following which I return the page(s) to the designers / layout persons who produce a "final" version (final is a word it's often unwise to apply prematurely) and print it. I do a final check of the page (including ads, layout, folios, etc.) and then okay it for sending to the printers. Three persons in one, rather like the holy trinity of correctness (oh, god! cried the atheist). Each of the three times I see material it's in a different format, so it's almost as though content is new each time around – else I'd miss a lot of things.

Of course I'd not presume to equate my work – in style or quality – with that of MN, but I know of no other newspaper that has the same person performing all three tasks of copyediting, proofreading, and okaying.

[Little Jack Horner]

To the right of the article from The Comma Queen is a link to another, by Tiger Webb, not someone whose views I share. In his article he mentions George Orwell regarding grammar: 

‘Just ask George Orwell: in his Politics and the English Language (still the basis of the Economist's style guide) he says outright:  "Break any of these rules sooner than utter a barbarism". One might ask: what's the darn use of having rules then, George?’

I suggest that the converse is true; that the avoidance of barbarisms is precisely the reason for having rules. Rules facilitate unambiguous communication (and also provide a reason for employing folk such as Mary Norris and our very own Vv).

[Verbivore]

LJH: I've had many an argument with Tiger Webb – a personal acquaintance. We have agreed to disagree, but that doesn't prevent me from frequently writing to Aunty when she publishes solecisms (the later now a daily event since TW replaced the former stylemeister at the ABC). Your British Aunty appears to have similarly dropped the bucket on good writing.

[Verbivore]

My day wasn’t wasted after all (despite being Saturday) – I learned a new word: Hypocorism, a diminutive form of a name.

[Little Jack Horner]

I was surprised to learn that you hadn’t come across hypocorism before, Vv. I hadn’t either but I had been aware of hypocoristic which seems to be a variant of the noun as well as an adjective. Frequently, after reading one of your posts, I wander about on-line to see what I can find that is relevant. On this occasion, I found this languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5503 which I thought was interesting for several reasons.

Among(st) the usual dross, were thoughtful comments on why some Aussie words are hypocoristically modified with —o and some with —ie. Several suggestions were offered but none seemed wholly convincing.

Also discussed was the pronunciation of Mc and Mac in names originating in Scotland and Ireland and, in particular how those are rendered in the hypocoristics (and pronunciation) of the fast food chain McDonald’s. Most Mc and Mac names seem to be rendered with a schwa but some Americans apparently use an /i/ sound. Most such names seem to have the emphasis on the second syllable of the name but some (e.g. McEnroe, McNamara and McNamee) do not. Some capitalise the second element of the name and some do not.

[Verbivore]

LJH:

Thanks for posting that link – interesting. I particularly got a laugh from the mangled speech-recognition exercise on the McDonald’s jingle. I find sometimes that speech-recognition systems fall down seriously when dealing with Englishes other than “standard” British or US/Canadian speech.

As for Australian hypocoristics/hypocorisms (linked from the original linked site): overall fairly true. And I loved the Douglas Adams quotation:

Every country is like a particular type of person. America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy, Canada is like an intelligent 35 year old woman. Australia is like Jack Nicholson. It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner. In fact it's not so much a country as such, more a sort of thin crust of semi-demented civilisation caked around the edge of a vast, raw wilderness, full of heat and dust and hopping things.

DNA nailed it there!

Because my given name is Gordon, I’m called variously Gordie (perhaps 60% of the time), Gordo maybe 20%, Gord (by only a small number), and Gordon the remainder, usually in formal register. Those who say Gordo tend to be more Ocker / masculine; those who call me Gordie more refined / feminine – FWIW.

Call me anything but late for dinner.

[Verbivore]

It's been a while since film or magnetic tape have been much used to record events, yet recordings are still referred to as footage. Will this stay the same forever and become one of those terms with a tenuous relationship to reality, or will someone come up with a new, more correct term?

[Dave Miller]

I suspect that such changes depend on whether a suitable replacement word is handy.

For a while, people still said they would “tape” some TV programme, when they would actually be using a more modern, digital device. “Tape” has now been replaced by the simple “record”.

However, people still watch films, even when neither the method of original image capture nor the device for viewing involves “film”. (“Movie” would do the trick, but sounds too American, somehow.)

[Little Jack Horner]

I don’t know how to copy and paste the UK roadsigns but the warning for a level crossing without gates is an image of a steam railway locomotive, a warning of speed cameras ahead is an old-fashioned film camera, and campsite directions are indicated by a tepee. 

We still talk of “hanging up” at the end of a phone call and my Aussie daughter-in-law says of a more or less distant place, “Oh, that’s miles away” although she was born long after Oz went metric. Cars in the UK almost always have their performance described in miles per gallon although petrol is only sold by the litre. And at least until recently, and long after we went metric, most babies’ birth weights were given in pounds and ounces. Horse racing distances are still given in furlongs and, I am glad to say, a cricket pitch is still twenty-two yards — the idea of 20.12 metres is anathema. Soccer goal posts are defined worldwide in imperial measure. Even in Aussie rules football, the goal posts are specified in “awkward” metric dimensions which are a conversion of “whole number” imperial feet. In the UK, race horse sale prices are still quoted in guineas.

[Verbivore]

Dave and LJH: Perhaps it's a case of plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.