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Post by Verbivore on Dec 1, 2022 8:15:53 GMT
To start the month, I learned a new euphemism for dead: silent key. The term refers to a radio operator (amateur / ham etc) who has died. In another article, the explanation is given: "silent key = passed away". One euphemism to explain another. One of my pet annoyances is the obsessive euphemising of death. When someone is reported to have "passed" I have to restrain myself from asking whom or what they passed; apparently it's the dead person's use-by date that has passed.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Dec 1, 2022 21:46:50 GMT
I am not sure that “silent key” ia a euphemism. It sounds like an in-joke to me. A euphemism that I have seen on a tomb in a local church is “entered into rest”. Whenever I hear anyone refer to somebody as having, for example, “lost her husband” I have to fight hard to avoid saying “how careless”. On many occasions I have had to bite my tongue to avoid giving offence. Is “bite my tongue” an idiom or a cliché?
I have to say I would rather hear egregious euphemisms than to hear someone using the verb “euphemise”. There cannot be many more ugly words in the language and I am glad to say that my spellchecker doesn’t recognise it.
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 2, 2022 5:08:33 GMT
[…]Whenever I hear anyone refer to somebody as having, for example, “lost her husband” I have to fight hard to avoid saying “how careless”. On many occasions I have had to bite my tongue to avoid giving offence. … Ditto here, LJH. Losing one's partner is the result either of carelessness or Alzheimer's. I have to say I would rather hear egregious euphemisms than to hear someone using the verb “euphemise”. There cannot be many more ugly words in the language and I am glad to say that my spellchecker doesn’t recognise it. Mine does, and that's based on the Oxford Dictionary (both British and US versions).
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 6, 2022 10:54:23 GMT
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 6, 2022 19:42:45 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Dec 7, 2022 16:25:33 GMT
I have attended lunch with two sets of friends in the last two days. That is a dozen people. I have asked everyone about “goblin mode” and although two people had heard the expression because they had read about its being the phrase of the year, nobody had heard it used in conversation or in writing. It would be interesting to know how these phrases and words of the year are selected. Not, it seems, on the basis of phrases or words being frequently used in new contexts.
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 7, 2022 19:27:46 GMT
I have attended lunch with two sets of friends in the last two days. That is a dozen people. I have asked everyone about “goblin mode” and although two people had heard the expression because they had read about its being the phrase of the year, nobody had heard it used in conversation or in writing. It would be interesting to know how these phrases and words of the year are selected. Not, it seems, on the basis of phrases or words being frequently used in new contexts. LJH: If you have a spare hour: Oxford Word of the Year launch event goes some way to explain how the selections are made.
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 8, 2022 20:44:55 GMT
Celine Dion strikes a chord.It’s a common error: chord for cord, yet it seems almost appropriate because one uses the vocal cords to sing notes that may be part of a chord (though I know of no singers who can sing a chord by themselves).
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Post by Dave Miller on Dec 8, 2022 23:18:02 GMT
Celine Dion strikes a chord.It’s a common error: chord for cord, yet it seems almost appropriate because one uses the vocal cords to sing notes that may be part of a chord (though I know of no singers who can sing a chord by themselves). I reckon you’re out on your own with that one, Vv. I’ve always known it as “strike a chord” (but then that proves nothing). More meaningfully, the five dictionaries I just checked all have it as “strike a chord”. It makes more sense, too: surely the phrase is not about hitting strings, but about resonating well with someone. Edit: (I’ve only now read the article.) Sorry - you were making a joke on the error within the article, which says "Unfortunately these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal chords to sing the way I'm used to." Write out 100 times “I will read the question and its references”
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 9, 2022 19:59:12 GMT
In a news article this morning I learned a word previously unknown to me: omnishambles.
From the OED omnishambles | ˈɒmnɪʃamblz | noun British informal a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations: anyone with five minutes to spare, a Maths GCSE, and a calculator could have averted the entire omnishambles by checking the civil servants' sums. ORIGIN early 21st century: from omni- + shambles, first used in the British satirical television series The Thick of It.
From Wikipedia Omnishambles is a neologism first used in the BBC political satire The Thick of It in 2009. The word is compounded from the Latin prefix omni-, meaning "all", and the word shambles, a term for a situation of total disorder. Originally a "shambles" denoted the designated stock-felling and butchery zone of a medieval street market, from the butchers' benches (Latin scamillus "low stool, a little bench"). The word refers to a situation that is seen as shambolic from all possible perspectives. It gained popularity in 2012 after sustained usage in the political sphere led to its being named Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year, and it was formally added to the online editions of the Oxford Dictionary of English in August 2013.
I take it that omnishambles is a more polite term for what is otherwise known as a fustercluck* (US naval slang from the 1960s). * ˈklʌstəfʌk – spoonerised to foil the net nanny.
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Dec 9, 2022 20:25:44 GMT
Omnishambles is encountered very frequently, to the point of cliché, in the UK, nearly always by the representative of a political party criticising the slightest misadventure of the government.
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 9, 2022 20:54:20 GMT
Omnishambles is encountered very frequently, to the point of cliché, in the UK, nearly always by the representative of a political party criticising the slightest misadventure of the government. Perhaps it's more a feature of UK political language than that of AU. Or maybe I'm just behind the times; I've been familiar only with that other, ’60s, US term. I am rather out of touch with broadcast TV, having not lived with it since 1977, so had not heard of The Thick of It.
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Post by Verbivore on Dec 9, 2022 21:36:40 GMT
Pronunciation of ŋI’ve noticed that some Brits pronounce words such as ganger as ɡaŋ-gher. How widespread is this? I never hear Aussies or Americans use this ‘ŋ-g’ pronunciation. Two examples:@ 0:21 – measuring-ghin (measuring in) @ 0:51 and 0:56 – gang-ghers (gangers)
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Post by Trevor on Dec 12, 2022 8:12:24 GMT
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Post by Little Jack Horner on Dec 12, 2022 9:56:27 GMT
Referring to the Vv’s post about the pronunciation of words like ganger as gang-ger, I do not think that it is uncommon. Certainly I do it. Maybe it is a north country thing. I know I say young-ger as well. Similarly, I say eight-teen and eight-ty.
Have we spoken about the pronunciation of “when”? Although I usually saying WEN, I was actually taught that careful speakers pronounce it HWEN and I pronounce it thus in formal situations. I recently discovered that this is regarded as dialectal and is more or less restricted to Scotland, some of the north country of England and, perhaps, the Gulf states of USA. I have noticed that a Scottish presenter on the BBC who I regard as speaking clear and carefully articulated English also pronounces it HWEN.
And then there is “Wednesday”. For most people the D is silent but I always pronounce it. As a noted pedant, should I try to change?
Another thought. The word “ganger” can be used without the initial G. How is that pronounced? Surely it just has to be ANG-GER? I could never learn to say ANG-ER.
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