It's old now, but I didn't like it when the Pound Sign (#) began to be called a "Hash Tag". I also don't like the phrase "They've got my back" or "I've got their back". And now someone has come up with "OP-ED" which I think is stupid. I'm sure more will come, but I don't have to use 'em! Hal
@Hal Pollner Incorrect grammar bugs us. "Tool's for Sale"..... (Tool is for Sale?). "Trailer's Only" beyond this point.
One night, when I was managaing the food services at a yauht club, I had to take the position of the maitr’e d. It was fairly busy and once, when I was passing through the dining room, an older lady stopped me for a recommendation regarding dessert. I immediately thought of the cherries jubilee and said, “well, I’ve got Cherries Jubilee” and that’s about as far as I went when she stood up and started yelling. “I’VE GOT? I’VE GOT?!!!! SIR, I WOULD THINK THAT IN YOUR PRESENT POSITION YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS I’VE GOT!!!” She furthered her rant with the correct conjugation of “ it is I HAVE, YOU HAVE, HE SHE OR IT HAS!!! After she sat down, I, standing rather red faced because of my obvious mistake and her over zealous teaching moment, gathered my thinking and the only reply I had for her was, “So, I guess that means the Cherries Jubilee are not a preference of yours”? Later, I found out that she was a very, very retired English teacher at some school for young ladies and she was adamant about how the English language was spoken. So adament in fact, that her verbal admonitions were well known throughtout the area. A long story shortened, I still cringe every time I hear someone say, I’ve got. In a way, it’s a form of torture because I hear it every single day from multiple sources.
No reason to blush, I should think, Bobby. It'll be an uphill battle for language purists in any country. Linguists call that contact-induced language change.
I'm with you on this one. I'm, to a point, a "hip Senior", but definitely not that "hip" to understand certain words/phrases of today. When folks, of our age, get around the younger generation, they say words and phrases that we have to look at them and say "what did you just say?". But, then again, look at the phrases that came from our generation, like "cool, daddy O" or Shirley's (Laverne & Shirley Show) words for sex "Vo-dee-o-doe-doe".
The word incentivize bothers me. What's wrong with the word incent? in·cent inˈsent/ verb US provide with an incentive.
IMO the woman was just being ignorant and rude! If you had made your comment to an intelligent human being they would have let it pass without the need to comment.
This word (incent) is not included in any dictionary but incentivize seems to be and, thus, seems to be the older one.
Try these three on for size: "Preventative Maintenance" "Preventive Maintainance" "Preventative Maintainance" There ain't no such words! But many use both words unknowingly. Frank
I have one along those lines: utilize. "John will utilize his pocket knife to pick the lock." ..Why desn't he just use it? Seems like an attempt to either make it sound more important than it is, or to kill more time with the sentence. Maybe it has to do with rhythm? I could see it in a speech, or a poem sometimes, but not just everyday talking.
Yes, because utilize is more formal than use which is also older than utilize. So there's a style difference. And the style should be adjusted to the situation or context.
I've heard some of those hillbillies say "We're gonna have our dog "SPADED" instead of spayed. I guess they thought the Vet would go in there with a spade to remove the uterus. (I should have said "Mountain Williams" instead of Hillbillies.) Hal