I've always said you stand in line, ever since I walked the halls of Glacier Valley Elementary School with my class, on the way to gym or lunch or to get a drink.
Now, it seems, everyone is saying you stand on line. I chalked it up to regional differences-- must be an east coast thing. But lately, our local west coast news channel have been talking about people standing on line.
Is it just me, or is this a recent change? I looked it up. Sure enough, it's changing. Apparently we're so used to talked about being online on the Internet that the phrase is getting generalized to other parts of life.
Okay, I can deal with the change now that I know where it came from. But what I can't deal with are some of the other annoying phrases that work their way into our vocabulary.
Outrage for example. Any time I turn on the news, someone is outraged about something. No one's just angry or miffed any more. We've got road rage and now even wrap rage (uncontrollable anger that arises when you can't open a package).
Or take holiday tree. Come on! If you're going to have a tree, call it a Christmas tree. You're not fooling anyone by changing the semantics.
For more words and phrases that should be kicked out of usage, check Lake Superior University's list of Banished Words.
My personal favorite was the tendency to combine names of celebrity couples. Think Branjelina and Beniffer. As one commenter said, it's so lame and pathetic... it's lamathetic.
Do you have any unfavoritist words to add?
3 comments:
"Right, Wrong, and Risky --- A Dictionary of Today's American English Usage" by Mark Davidson, 2006, supports your view re: "in line" on the top of page 396. The author, though recently deceased, had been working on this reference tool for several years; I've found it thoughtful, well-supported, and persuasive. His credentials are impressive. Mike
Okay, here is one of the currently popular phrases that gets me almost to the point of outrage. When did it become acceptable for an intelligent person to get away with saying, "I am giving 110 percent". I am better with words than numbers, but even I know it is not humanly possible to give more than 100 percent. Of course, now in order to prove they work harder than you, we have people claiming to give even more - 150 percent, 200 percent - where will it stop? I have heard this kind of exaggeration a million time now and it is killing me!
Living in Western New York, it has become an almost daily event to remind my children that the word "anyways," is incorrect even if everyone else says it. And people around around here use the word "pitcher" to mean "picture." This is a battle I will continue to fight to win with my children. (I'm in agreement with you about standing "in line.")
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