"Gernade" and other terminology pet peeves

[Rabid Rabbit]

Comparing two items, one weighs 10 lbs. the other weighs 1 pound or 10 times less than the 10 lbs item. Its 1/10 not 10 times.

 

[rust collector]

I worry about strange ways to spell familiar words

You can't trademark or protect a term that's been widely used for hundreds of years, so now marketing types are inventing new spellings for old words. These abominations are hyped, then adopted by those who see the ads. Thus we have Baretta, the old TV show; "Nexis" by the legal publisher instead of Nexus; and Entreprise by the maker of FAL receivers, rather than enterprise. It does make it tough to keep the correct spelling in mind. And I've struggled with guage and gauge many times.

This pales in comparison to the amazing ways people are naming their children. I used to know how to spell Michael, but now it may be Mike L, Micheal, Mikal, Mykel, Mikel or Mikle. It's the "elegant variation" taken to the X-treem.

I don't think anyone is dissing people who have trouble with the language, as we all do on occasion. The concern is that American English is becoming more difficult to use, especially as a second language, due to idioms, creative spelling and IM-speak. Then again, read the chronicles of Lewis & Clark to see truly creative spelling. They did indeed succeed in getting their points across, and we are grateful.

 

[Wildalaska]

Then again, read the chronicles of Lewis & Clark to see truly creative spelling

Read pre Georgian English law books and read a foreign language.

The funny thing about all languages is the way they mutate, effforts to stop such mutation to the contrary. Ya listen to my wife speak japanese carefully enough and you hear the english, mostly reating to modern tech words...ya hear the same in lots of other languages..

WildlinguistAlaska

 

[taliv]

i had a friend in college who used to say "ammo-piercing bullets" (meaning of course, armor-piercing bullets. And of course, "turrent instead of turret"



as far as our living language is concerned, as a technologist, it's my opinion that English as it was WRITTEN 20 to 100 years ago just can't cut it anymore. It's too slow for today's media. It also lacks the ability to convey emotion and connotations we express with our body language and spoken inflections.

thus, we will continue to see dramatic changes in the near future as people try to cope with more medias like instant messaging by creating abbreviations and dropping capital letters (which are very annoying on cell phones and other SMS type input devices.)

obviously, there's a big difference between some of these changes for expediency and your typical abominations (ebonics, and your garden variety mistakes like you're/your, that just show ignorance.

 

[mack69]

Pax..your back..ummm...err....you're back.....uhhhh....yur back.....yer dangit....welcome back.....hehehehehe ....mack

 

[Tory]

Tenuous premise,

dangerous conclusion:

"As long as I know what I'm trying to say and you understand what I am trying to say, what is the problem?:

Here are TWO potential problems for your review:

1. People making such egregious mistakes may well NOT really understand what they are saying. If they can't speak a thought clearly, what makes you believe they can formulate one clearly?

2. Given that the speaker is misusing terms, it necessarily follows that the speaker thus increases the likelihood of the listener misunderstanding the message.

In other words, Garbage in; garbage out.

 

[taliv]

right tory; it's like that study "they" did where they used the outlines of letters above and below the lines to show the shape of the words without using the actual letters, and people were still able to read them easily.

shld we drp th vwls frm sntncs? just because we can still read them? uhh, no.

but we can still improve the usability of the language without sacrificing things that maintain a margin for error on comprehension.

 

[jlwatts3]

Lately, I've noticed people on this forum spelling "lose" as "loose". Example: You will "loose" your money in a lawsuit.

 

[jacketch]

Prolly better keep it firearm related.

 

[geojap]

I have two huge pet peeves.

Wrong: Nucular (noo-cue-lar). :banghead: It's nuclear (noo-clee-ar), you rusticated sons of the earth. That immediately tells me that someone isn't educated. GW says that all the time and it makes my skin crawl when I hear it coming from our president.

Also the corruption of Mosin-Nagant, Moiseen or Moisin. It's Mosin. End of story.

 

[The Rabbi]

Wrong: Nucular (noo-cue-lar). It's nuclear (noo-clee-ar), you rusticated sons of the earth.

No, its pronounced nukular. As in,
If them slant-eyed North Koreans dont get their hearts right we'll just drop a big ole nukular bum on they'r butts.

The WSJ just had an article yesterday on how GW is changing how he expresses himself and toning down the accent.
They mentioned that he has started pronouncing the word "our" to rhyme with "hour". Frankly I thought it was always pronounced the same, to rhyme with
"fire" and also "far."

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Turns out that the Star Tribune newspaper is good for something other than bird cage lining! Who knew?

Here is a quick tour of other English words and expressions that folks often unwittingly botch, chew up and abuse, compiled by staff writer Bill Dawson, with assistance from some of the newsroom's pickiest wordsmiths: John Addington, Ben Welter, Bill Hammond, Paul Walsh and Sarah T. Williams.

Gail Rosenblum, Variety Team Leader

1 "Jim Turner not only came back to his old stomping grounds; he's living in them." Should read, "old stamping grounds," but don't feel bad if this one stumps you. Most people get it wrong.

2 "Local children vow to staunch the flow of drugs and alcohol." Purists say it's "stanch" the flow, although some dictionaries accept "staunch." More confusing, the words are usually pronounced the same (stawnch).

3 "My siblings and I would pour over the pages until they were dog-eared and tattered." Pour is a poor choice here, unless you're pouring honey on the text. (And that would be an even poorer choice, kids.) The correct spelling is pore.

4 "It was just a fluke that the car went off the road and hit that oak tree, demolishing the vehicle." Purists reserve the use of "fluke" for strokes of good luck, not acts of misfortune.

5. "We are chomping at the bit to have this deal closed." If you said "chomp," you're neither a chump nor a champ. "Champing" is right, but few people know it.

6 "Yesterday, little Oliver asked for more oatmeal, and I had to sick the dog on him." You only "sick" (sic) your dog if you give him germs, and that would be cruel and grammatically wrong.

7 "I saw my reflection and realized I was butt naked!" Time to, uh, expose this for what it is -- wrong. Bare tushie or not, "buck naked" is the correct wording.

8. "I could care less about elitist liberal ramblings."

• Don't get careless by using the incorrect "care less," when you actually mean "couldn't" care less.

9. "It doesn't phase me that the party doesn't support vouchers. It phases me that the senator says taxes are going to be raised."

• You'll get an A if you write the word with an F, as in faze.

10. "The image of a deeply torn Israel doesn't jive with reality."

• Jive (wrong) doesn't jibe (right) with this usage. So we're giving you a little gibe (taunt) about it.

Also mangled and misused

• Enormousness, not enormity. Enormity means excessive wickedness. Enormousness refers to size.

• Nonplussed. Although it means perplexed or bewildered, nonplussed is often believed to mean just the opposite--calm, unruffled, cool-as-a-cucumber.

• Penultimate. Meaning "next to last," penultimate is often mistakenly used to mean "the very last," or the ultimate.

• Fortuitous. Means accidental; not lucky, and not luckily accidental. To use it like that is a malapropism. Serendipitous is the word you need in those situations.

• Aggravate. Means to worsen; irritate means to annoy. Don't use aggravate when you mean irritate.

As long as we're at it:

More importantly (More important is correct).

Irregardless (Regardless is correct).

Running the gauntlet (Gantlet is correct).

A prized momento from Grandma (correct: Memento. The root is based on memory, not moment).

Reins (leather straps)/Reigns (What a queen does).

Alot (No such word. It's two words: "a lot").

Principal" and "principle" are constantly confused. Hint: The school principal is your pal. Unless he or she is suspending your kid, which would be the principal (as in "primary") reason to take away the car keys. That, by the way, would be a principled approach by Mom and Dad.

Capital (the city) vs. Capitol (the building), which we capitalize.

Hanger (for clothes)/Hangar (for airplanes).

Bridal path (Actually, it's bridle).

Effect/Affect: Usually, the first is the noun, the latter the verb.

Stationary (motionless)/Stationery (writing paper).

Breech (part of a gun; also, buttocks)/Breach (an infraction).

Sheer (transparently thin)/Shear (to cut).

Horde (a crowd)/Hoard (what kids do with a bag of popcorn).

Flair (natural talent)/Flare (to blaze)

Deja vu: It's not that you did experience something, only that you felt that you did.

You can say that again

Phenomena is plural/Phenomenon is singular.

Media is plural/Medium is singular.

Kudos means "praise," and is not a plural noun. So don't say "He gave me a kudo." No such word, my friend.

 

[gearbox]

How about this kernel, Colonel?

 

[gearbox]

I'd amsolt rthear raed it wtih the wdros cpletelmoy jmbleud up. You can sltil ustrenadnd waht I'm syiang, and I konw waht I'm snyaig, so waht's the dcrefnefie?

 

[Mr. James]

A few random peeves...

"The media is biased!" Media are... (sg: medium)

"The data is not available." Data are... (sg: datum)

Oh, and combustible materials are inflammable, not "flammable." We're so stoopid, for safety's sake everyone simply dropped the "in," lest us unwashed moe-rons think it meant "not."

And one of my all time favorites was the District of Columbia official who actually lost his job for using - correctly - the word "niggardly." (After much garment rending and harrumphing from the lettered class, the dismissal was rescinded.)

 

[Shweboner]

Gun auctions that advertise "Colt For Sell" or "Saleing a kimber" really drive me nuts.

a little OT but what really gets to me is when you are on an auction site and people list something like a jennings or some POS you arent searching for... and the put " Not glock colt or kimber" so when you are searching for something of higher quality THEIR crap comes up in the search results!!!!

Secondly, The misuse of the word DECIMATED. People use it to describe a complete destruction. Decimation means 10% notice the deci part of the word....


Last but not least, and I am surprised this one has not been mentioned yet...

B A N A N A C L I P holy crap, I want to burn people alive when they say BANANA CLIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot stand it.

 

[geojap]

a little OT but what really gets to me is when you are on an auction site and people list something like a jennings or some POS you arent searching for... and the put " Not glock colt or kimber" so when you are searching for something of higher quality THEIR crap comes up in the search results!!!!

I completely agree. Weasels.

 

[Librarian]

"massive"

It's not a synonym for "large"; it means "the quality of having mass".

There cannot be a "massive earthquake" - energy release does not produce mass. One cannot experience a "massive heart attack".

In Massachussetts, one can experience "Mass-ive legislative incompetence", I suppose. California has more than a reasonable share of legislative incompetence, but it is "widespread", "horrible", and "depressing", not massive.

 

[Outbacker]

Wrong: Nucular (noo-cue-lar). It's nuclear (noo-clee-ar), you rusticated sons of the earth.

No, its pronounced nukular.

The pronunciation (noo-kyoo-lur), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one. The usual pronunciation of the final two syllables of this word is (-klee-ur), but this sequence of sounds is rare in English. Much more common is the similar sequence (-kyoo-lur), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular.

However rare the phonological pattern, the correct pronunciation of "nuclear" is noo-klee-ur, despite what both common vernacular (bad pun!) and Homer Simpson would dictate.

 

[pilroler]

"the front site is mounted just behind the muzzle break"


These two are quite common in the gun rags, where the writers are assumed to be professional communicators. Oh well.

Several excellent points made in the post. Clarity in expressing thought, especially in technical areas, is critical in modern life. With that said language is a living,growing and constantly changing entity and coping with change is a requirement for the "good" life.

IIRC many of our current 4 letter words were common and acceptable in Anglo-Saxon english. After the Norman conquest the French-speaking rulers made them unusable in polite society. Who knows what our great-grandchildren will understand of todays e-mails etc?

 

[Stevie-Ray]

"massive"

It's not a synonym for "large"; it means "the quality of having mass".

Oh?

1. Consisting of or making up a large mass; bulky: a massive piece of furniture 2. Unusually large or impressive: a massive head 3. Large or imposing in quantity, scope, degree, or scale: a massive undertaking 4. Med. Large in comparison to the usual amount:a massive dose 5. Pathol Affecting a large area of bodily tissue, widespread and severe: massive gangrene

Pretty much all seem to mean large.

 

[Librarian]

Pretty much all seem to mean large.

Then I think one ought to expand one's practical vocabulary and say large.
Or say ample, barn door, blimp, booming, broad, bulky, capacious, colossal, comprehensive, considerable, copious, doozer, enormous, excessive, exorbitant, extensive, extravagant, full, generous, giant, gigantic, goodly, grand, grandiose, great, gross, hefty, huge, humongous, immeasurable, immense, jumbo, king-size, liberal, massive, monumental, mountainous, mungo, plentiful, populous, roomy, sizable, skookum, spacious, stupendous, substantial, super, sweeping, thumping, tidy, vast, voluminous, whopping, wide.

It's a peeve thread, y'know? Besides, my on-line dictionary says
mas·sive adj.
1. Consisting of or making up a large mass; bulky, heavy, and solid: a massive piece of furniture.

I take 'first definitions' as the more common, most acceptable.

2. Large or imposing, as in quantity, scope, degree, intensity, or scale: “Local defense must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power†(John Foster Dulles). See Synonyms at heavy.

Well, I won't argue with John Foster Dulles, but I would have been more likely to have used 'overwhelming'.

3. Large in comparison with the usual amount: a massive dose of a drug.

'Overdose' is adequate.

4. Pathology. Affecting a large area of bodily tissue; widespread and severe: massive gangrene.

'Widespread and severe' seems appropriate.

5. Mineralogy. Lacking internal crystalline structure; amorphous.
6. Geology. Without internal structure or layers and homogeneous in composition. Used of a rock.

 

[pax]

Gun related.

(This thread is becoming massively off topic ....)

pax

If you do not use correct grammar, people will lose respect for you, and they will burn down your house. -- Dave Barry

 

[sm]

Since I am not that smart...

Disclaimer: The following is C&P from the site listed. Any mistakes are theirs - not mine. Gets the thread back on topic and covers my rear end.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gun

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gun

7 entries found for gun.
gun Audio pronunciation of "gun" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gn)
n.

1. A weapon consisting of a metal tube from which a projectile is fired at high velocity into a relatively flat trajectory.
2. A cannon with a long barrel and a relatively low angle of fire.
3. A portable firearm, such as a rifle or revolver.
4. A device resembling a firearm or cannon, as in its ability to project something, such as grease, under pressure or at great speed.
5. A discharge of a firearm or cannon as a signal or salute.
6. One, such as a hunter, who carries or uses a gun.
7.
1. A person skilled in the use of a gun.
2. A professional killer: a hired gun.
8. The throttle of an engine, as of an automobile.


v. gunned, gun·ning, guns
v. tr.

1. To shoot (a person): a bank robber who was gunned down by the police.
2. To open the throttle of (an engine) so as to accelerate: gunned the engine and sped off.
3. Maine. To hunt (game).


v. intr.

To hunt with a gun.


Phrasal Verb:
gun for

1. To pursue relentlessly so as to overcome or destroy.
2. To go after in earnest; set out to obtain: gunning for a promotion.


Idioms:
go great guns

To proceed or perform with great speed, skill, or success.

hold a gun to (someone's) head

To put pressure on someone.

under the gun

Under great pressure or under threat.


[Middle English gonne, cannon, short for Gunilda, woman's name applied to a siege engine, from Old Norse Gunnhildr, woman's name : gunnr, war; see gwhen- in Indo-European Roots + hildr, war.]

[Download or Buy Now]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

gun

In addition to the idiom beginning with gun, also see at gunpoint; big cheese (gun); great guns; hired gun; hold a gun to someone's head; jump the gun; smoking gun; son of a bitch (gun); stick to one's guns; under the gun.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

gun

n 1: a weapon that discharges a missile at high velocity (especially from a metal tube or barrel) 2: large but transportable armament [syn: artillery, heavy weapon, ordnance] 3: a person who shoots a gun (as regards their ability) [syn: gunman] 4: a professional killer who uses a gun [syn: gunman, gunslinger, hired gun, gun for hire, triggerman, hit man, hitman, torpedo, shooter] 5: a hand-operated pump that resembles a gun; forces grease into parts of a machine [syn: grease-gun] 6: a pedal that controls the throttle valve; "he stepped on the gas" [syn: accelerator, accelerator pedal, gas pedal, gas, throttle] 7: the discharge of a gun as signal or as a salute in military ceremonies; "a twenty gun salute" v : shoot with a gun

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University

gun



<jargon> (ITS, from the ":GUN" command) To forcibly
terminate a program or job (computer, not career). "Some
idiot left a background process running soaking up half the
cycles, so I gunned it."

Compare can.

(1995-02-27)

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2004 Denis Howe

gun

vt. [ITS, now rare: from the `:GUN' command] To forcibly
terminate a program or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left
a background process running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned
it." Usage: now rare. Compare can, blammo.

 

[Gordon Fink]

Here’s another one: “shot and killed.†Was the victim shot and then killed by some other means? Correctly, it should be “shot dead†or “shot to death.â€

~G. Fink