Newspeak

[Peter Ward]

Aside from all the angst the current fires and weather events is causing .. it’s amusing to see how many of the media commentators and politicians bang on about things being “impacted”

Synonyms being: bump, collision, concussion, crash, impingement, jar, jolt, jounce, kick, shock, slam, smash, strike, wallop.

“Affected“ might have been be a better descriptive.....but I guess, at the end of the day, people might have polarised opinions and it doesn’t have that snappy buzz phrasing :)

[multiweb]

I reckon if you lose everything in a fire it's got to hit you like a ton of bricks so the term is on the money IMHO.

[Peter Ward]

Mon Dieu! Frapper!? But, hey , my French sucks :)

[LewisM]

Some Faceless Moron aka "journalist" asked SloMo at his JOC talk something I sure the hell could not even begin to comprehend using some throw-away jargonism jingo. Even SloMo had a quizical look on his face but I think he then had a reboot :P

I give up on the Main Stream Media altogether - bunch of snowflake twats.

[blink138]

welcome back lewis lol!
pat

[Peter Ward]

Don't mind me...just poking a bit of fun at those for whom English is their first language, work as wordsmiths, who perhaps should know better.

i'm officially a level 6 English speaker! (aviation people will get the joke)

I have noticed the NSW Premier likes to say "impordent" for things that are important....

Then again...poking fun is terribly non PC these days.

[Peter Ward]

Nah. A fire is a rapid exothermic reaction. Not an impact . But the analogy of being struck, well , fair ‘nuff.

[LewisM]

Q-Effer, level 6? You ARE an over-acheiver! :lol:

[Peter Ward]

Yeh, nah, yeah :lol:

[ngcles]

Hi Peter & All,

The one that makes me chuckle loudest is the word "evacuated" used in the media, frequently in the following way

"Fifteen people in Smithtown today were evacuated when a fire broke-out in ..."

No. No. No.

They weren't evacuated in Smithtown, they were evacuated from Smithtown -- unless of course there was a large industrial-strength sucking machine that was attached to the individuals in question, removing their inside-bits.

I bemoan the apparent disappearance of sub-editors.


Best,

L.

[DarkArts]

Oh, my word, yes. I have to pinch myself in order to resist the urge to print out errant articles, red-pen and post them back to their authors. Amongst journalists, spelling, grammar, vocabulary and comprehension are all clearly deficient. I'm most disappointed in flagship publications or national broadcasters, such as the ABC.

Have at them, I say!

Having said that, I take many shortcuts in posts and seldom proofread. Do what I say, not what I do. :)

[Peter Ward]

:lol: Indeed. I find that my keyboard clearly has this random re-mapping bug,
that I only pick up after a post :doh:

[astroron]

Mine as well.:mad2:

[N1]

Just curious - if the whole thing had happened within the limits of Smithtown - for example to the local RSL, would you still say from Smithtown, which seems to suggest they went somewhere else?

[ngcles]

Hi Mirko,



In that case you would specify a location within Smithtown to another location.

i.e "When a fire broke-out at Smithtown McDonalds, fifteen people were evacuated to the nearby RSL club ..."

Best,

L.

[raymo]

I remember back in the forties and fifties, and probably earlier, the BBC newsreaders used to have to look through the upcoming news bulletin and find out how to correctly pronounce any word or name that they were not
familiar with. There would be tut tut letters in the readers' letters the next day
if a newsreader made a slip up.
raymo

[Wavytone]

What really grates are those who persistently mis-pronounce “nuclear” as “nucular”, “mischievous” as “mischievious” (extraneous i) or “films” as “fillums” and the letters “h” as “Haitch” or “l” as “w” (also known as ‘Waynespeak’).

Or writing the number 7 with an extra slash.

One can only guess they attended schools of a specific religious denomination.

[LewisM]

I am NOT bringing back up the grating mispronunciation of kilometers (as kilom-eter) again :P I think too many were perplexed :lol:

I must tell the S.I community they got it all wrong and that kilo was actually kilom... :P

[Rainmaker]

Having had to learn several new languages in my lifetime I can understand the difficulties people face but one thing that annoys me is media discussing “Warder” and “Warder sports” when the are referring to H2O.....

[Peter Ward]

Kilometer? Is that like a 1000 water meters or similar? That's a lot!

There might be enough to stretch for a kilometre :D

[LewisM]

See now there is the rub el capitan - if we introduce the CORRECT spelling as you have, the ninnies will pronounce it kilom-e-tre ...

You are a bad influence Mr. Ward :P

[LewisM]

Is a Warder sport where we take Peter and give him some gip? :P

[Wavytone]

Nah... it’s definitely “killer-meter”.:lol:

Many more:

“our”, “hour” or “ours” etc... mysteriously acquiring an extra W to rhyme with “shower”/“showers”

“Cool” and “school” becoming “kewel” and “skew-well”,

“Girl” becoming “grill”...

Take a train trip on the Bankstown line mid afternoon (say 3-4pm) and keep your ears open. It’s sad to hear such mangled English, yet that from lot the next generation of teachers will be spawned.

Whatever happened to good ol’ ‘strine.

[RB]

You nut !

:lol:

[raymo]

I can forgive the 7 slashers, as most European languages do that.
raymo

[Wavytone]

No.. those who are catholic...

[multiweb]

:lol::lol::lol:

[AstralTraveller]

Of course there is the line in Spike Milligan's "Rommel? ... Gunner who??" where the reader is told that 'captured German underpants revealed that they were evacuating all along the line'. I believe that is termed self-evacuation and it doesn't involve sucking.

[LewisM]

Yep, actually Australia is one of the FEW countries that traditionally DON'T slash the 7.

USA, Russia, Canada, most of Europe slash the 7 for the most part. My wife does (as well as the wavy upper stroke of the 7).

[billdan]

When I first joined the RAAF in the 1968, we were told to put a slash through a zero (0), so it could not be confused with the letter O.

[billdan]

That advert for Uber Eats featuring Magda Szubanski is not helpful when she says the correct way to say Nice is "Noise".

[LewisM]

Since when did ANYONE listen to Magda Szubanski? Just another worthless has-been/never-was "celebrity"

[multiweb]

:eyepop::lol: Don't hold back...

[LewisM]

Me? Hold back? That's like calling you "Amateur vert" :P

I know I likely offended the Magda Fan Club. I should be banned again :D

[Peter Ward]

Ah..the dumbing down continues.....

None other than the SMH ran a headline today announcing the Army Reserve were "Chewing at the bit"

The correct expression is "champing at the bit". :doh:

[The_bluester]

What I detest in the way of signs of the times is even the abc descending into clickbait’y link titles.

“Blablablabla, here’s what you need to know” etc

[RB]

Oh how I hate that too Paul...

:thumbsup:

[The_bluester]

The other current ABC gripe is how often they often now have multiple links to the same story on one page, with different titles so you click on two and wonder why you are reading the same story again.