Word abuses 9

[SantaMufasa]

(I have tried to find a previous thread that dealt with word abuses, but I cannot locate it. If you can locate it, please let me know, and I'll add to that one, then I'll delete this thread.)

[ul][li]The painful sentence I heard just now on the Noon News was, "Be sure to get the vaccinizations for your children."[/li]

[li]At McDonald's, I ordered two breakfasts. The cashier called back the order, "Two Big Breakfasses."[/li]

[li]I also dislike the misuse of the plurals for instance, incidence and incident:

The two arson incidences occurred within an hour of each other.

[/li][/ul]

Do you have other incidences of word abuse?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[CrystalProcessor]

Arson fire" is a pet peeve of mine

 

[SantaMufasa]

...and just now, I heard one of our developers say:

Some of these values in the CSV file are not delimiterized.

Holy smokes!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[Andrzejek]

Maybe he wanted to say: demilitarized ?

Have fun.

---- Andy

 

[flapeyre]

"Strategery", which made fun of President Bush's enunciation (although, I can't find anything to suggest he used it himself).

-- Francis
Francisus ego, sed non sum papa.

 

[tcsbiz]

I have heard of CSV files being comma delineated, comma unlimited, and comma indelimitered.
I have also heard comma-situated-values, comma-simple-values, and comma-sprayed-values.

 

[hjgoldstein]

"Arson fire" is a pet peeve of mine

I have heard this used in Glasgow

"He wis runnin' fae the polis like he hud his erse (arse) on fire!"


Aspiring to mediocrity since 1957

 

[johnherman]

I think it has fallen out of favor (Thank God!), but for awhile, people were saying that then needed to SOCIALIZE something rather than COMMUNICATE, DISTRIBUTE, or similar words.

====================================
Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because there is more manure there - original.

 

[tcsbiz]

One abuse I have notice more of lately is the use of "on accident" instead of "by accident", or, simply "accidentally".
I first noticed this with my kids a few years ago. Now, "On accident" is coming from adults in their 30's and 40's.

It kind of drives me batty.

 

[Annihilannic]

It kind of drives me batty.

Like, literally??

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[mscallisto]

spoonfuls vs spoons·ful

I've been told the plural is generally spoonfuls although spoons·ful is acceptable.

I like to think that if one only uses one spoon then spoonfuls should be the plural otherwise one would need a separate spoon to accommodate each fill.

Sam

 

[Annihilannic]

Would you say bucketloads or buckets loaded?

Annihilannic
[small]tgmlify - code syntax highlighting for your tek-tips posts[/small]

 

[SantaMufasa]

Depends if you are using it as an adverb or a noun ...

Strongm, could you please post an example of awhile used as an adverb?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

perhaps

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/a-while-vs-awhile/

Bye, Olaf.

 

[johnherman]

This is a great thread. I like it alot.

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The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[2ffat]

spoonfuls vs spoons·ful
Would you say bucketloads or buckets loaded?

When someone says, spoons full or buckets loaded, I hear, spoon's full or bucket's loaded. These have different meanings than spoonfuls or bucketloads.

"The spoon's full." (The spoon is full.)
"The bucket's loaded." (The bucket is loaded.)

"I put eight spoonfuls of sugar into my tea."
"The truck dumped four bucketloads of dirt on the road."


James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!

 

[johnherman]

In baseball, it's not RBI's, because that's Runs Batted Ins. RBI is plural.


====================================
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[mscallisto]

I must agree with 2ffat and I'll award him with a splat

 

[2ffat]

Thanks!

James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!

 

[SantaMufasa]

RBI's

Using an "apostrophe 's' " to represent the plural of anything is incorrect. "Apostrophe 's' " represents either:
[ul][li]possession, or[/li]
[li]omission of one or more letters.[/li][/ul]

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
“People may forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

 

[flapeyre]

Dave, I'll add that the one exception to the "possession" rune is its/it's.

[ul]
[li]Its - possesive (belongs to it).[/li]
[li]It's - only a contraction of it is.[/li]
[/ul]

-- Francis
Francisus ego, sed non sum papa.