There was recently a piece on the BBC news about a newly qualified nurse, who when interviewed talked about 'passing away' instead of dying and being 'unwell' instead of 'ill' - to the point where (if I heard her properly) she talked about someone being 'critically unwell'. This did strike me as pushing two words with rather different meanings together: if you can be critically unwell, then what's to stop you being critically rather under the weather, or critically a little bit peaky?
I can see why people use euphemisms or rather gentler language to make the difficult things in life more palatable, but there's only so far we should go.
This isn't the nuance exactly. If I'm wearing it and someone asks me where I got it from I can answer in either way. English does have "it was a gift from my mother" or "it was a hand-me-down from my mother" but that's not how people talk usually.
Which do you use if your mother bought it, never wore it, and decided it would suit you better than her? Perhaps it depends on whether or not your mother snipped off the tags?
A bit late coming back to this but you may be surprised to learn this has a definite answer. That would be "donner" - her express intention wasn't to make a gift of it. My whole point is that this is a handy distinction which the English language doesn't have an exact equivalent for but which is very obvious to French speakers.
On a message board I sometimes visit, the list of posts will often include something like "My daughter passed!" If I click on it, it might mean her daughter died, or it might mean she passed an exam or her driving test.
Normally when I see that horrid euphemism in an obituary I wonder if they might have been playing Monopoly. Did they pass "Go"? Did they collect $500.00?
When I met with a funeral director last year to discuss pre-arrangements, I specified no euphemisms. No "passed." No "entered into rest" -- I do that every night.
What I hate is the recent phrase"when I have gone" or "when he has gone" meaning "died". If you must use "gone," do it with the usual "am" or "is". Otherwise it sounds like you're off to the train station, and I wonder whether I should wish you a good holiday.
And what is it with the sudden use of "bad actors" for "evildoers"? Before the Trump administration, I understood whether I should boo or call the police. Their logocide has me imagining horrible theatrical troupes, roaming the countryside...
Sorry @Fawkes Cat. A kick in the unmentionables from an intrusive spellchecker with an overactive thyroid which I hadn't spotted.
I had typed 'unsuccess'. It automatically corrected it to 'unsuccessful'. I suppose, though, that if one's spellchecker doesn't recognise a word that shouldn't exists, that at least means it doesn't.
A bit late coming back to this but you may be surprised to learn this has a definite answer. That would be "donner" - her express intention wasn't to make a gift of it.
France and England - two countries divided by different languages...
My sister often uses words or expressions, when phoning or emailing me, that she finds difficult to render accurately into English. She's lived and worked in France for 40 years, and is married to a non-English speaker (my b-in-l is Slovenian, just to be different).
BTW, a new word that seems to have emerged recently as a result of The Plague is 'webinar' (though I guess it might pre-date). I know what it means, but it reminds me of Spiders...
"Passionate" when used by someone to emphasise how enthusiastic they are about their work. No, passionate is what you are about your lover. Nothing else.
I don't like "passed" instead of died. In funeral services I talk about death, and whenever else it is relevant. Does this make me sound brutal and uncaring, I wonder?
"Passionate" when used by someone to emphasise how enthusiastic they are about their work. No, passionate is what you are about your lover. Nothing else.
Why do people describe themselves or advertise for someone expected to be "passionate" about things for which most of us (I hope) would regard as having that level of heightened enthusiasm would be be a warning of some sort of fairly serious personality disability. How comfortable would you be about someone who was passionate about 'supply chain management', 'exciting hair styling', 'matching shoes to foot size and the buyer's personality' or 'enthusing lay leadership teams with infectious outreach'?
Thinking about it, I reckon 'enthuse' qualifies on its own, particularly when used transitively.
Despite the long-established tradition in English of nouns being used as verbs, there are some that just grate! I'll **never** accept "text" as meaning "send a text message."
The late presidential speechwriter and political commentator William Safire had a column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine called "On Language." I remember once he complained about the verb "read" being used as a noun, as in "That book is a great read." Again, though, such usage is a long-standing tradition in English. I wrote a reply (which he published in a subsequent column) in which I gave him several examples of verbs used as nouns, including a "quickie" sexual encounter being referred to as a "lay". He didn't print that one.
"How to Dad" is both more colourful and succinct than anything I could come up with without verbing the noun "Dad". It's one of my favourite YouTube channels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiHrA1Si0Gw
I find all uses and abuses of language interesting. Everything that has been mentioned so far just makes me marvel at the wonders of the English language, as well as the French with our brief tangent over there. An Ancient Greek professor of mine in undergrad said that the only way to really learn Ancient Greek was to marvel at it and its manifold convolutions and complexities. I think the same is true of English.
And what is it with the sudden use of "bad actors" for "evildoers"?
That's a phrase from my childhood! It was usually reserved for recalcitrant ponies, or the occasional horse. It didn't mean evil way back then. Could it be a way to soften the evil of those doers?
Before all this virus I was getting annoyed by the UK government having a "mandate" for everything.
No one seems to have a mandate for coronavirus, fortunately, but I was amazed at how quickly our vocabulary changed in response to it. Suddenly we had social distance in every possible form (to social distance, social distancing, a socially distant event, keeping socially distant, and on and on...); lockdown in a new sense, sheltering in place, essential journey and lots more.
What I really want is a good word for actions which help the environment. Everything seems clunky and I find myself resorting to "eco stuff" or similar phrases. "Going green" feels a bit 80s. "Environmental activism" is too much of a mouthful. Anyone got a good phrase?
I hate "the new build" rather than "the new building". This is partly because of linguistic reasons, but mainly because I first it used, and used often, by a deeply unpleasant individual.
I dislike both 'mandate' and 'mandatory'. As words they're both opaque and widely used by liars, particularly liars who think they're entitled to have one's respect. As used, their meanings aren't even that similar.
We've embraced "unprecedented" as an all purpose excuse. Yesterday, even though it's been cold and rainy for weeks, we had our annual dinner of hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob that usually marks the beginning of hot weather and Ohio's first corn harvest. The family looked surprised, but I just said, "In these unprecedented times..."
I am hearing (and disliking) ‘in this space’ a lot at staff meetings. “W still have work to do in this space.” “P has done a lot of work in the admin space.” It has become the jargon du jour, and is really starting to wear thin. Anyone else encounter this?
This is an important word in management-speak. It is often used to mean collecting carefully selected evidence against a trusting colleague to set him/her up for firing. I got that from my sister who was in social work.
__
Going back to "passing" as a euphemism, does that mean the rest of us have failed, or just need to try harder?
Our local news paper rarely uses any verb in its obituary notices. I have told my children that if my death is announced by a sentence with no verb, I will come back to haunt them. The verb I want is "died."
My kids have promised me a verb, but refuse to commit to which verb. I've heard them discussing possible verbs, and fortunately "passed" isn't one of them.
Back in 2018 and 2019 when international travel was still a thing, I had the opportunity to fly with both Air Canada and United Airlines on more than one occasion. No disrespect to either, United was fine and Air Canada was great, but every single cabin steward's spiel on landing included the "word" deplaning - (If you need help deplaning, please inform a crew member.) I...what? How can that be a word? How does that need to be a word? "If you require assistance disembarking, please inform a crew member?" Too many multi-syllable words there? Okay then - "If you need help to exit the aircraft, please inform a crew member." There, that wasn't so hard now, was it?
Our local news paper rarely uses any verb in its obituary notices. I have told my children that if my death is announced by a sentence with no verb, I will come back to haunt them. The verb I want is "died."
My kids have promised me a verb, but refuse to commit to which verb. I've heard them discussing possible verbs, and fortunately "passed" isn't one of them.
@North East Quine
"Croaked"?
"Handed in her dinner pail"?
"Been promoted to glory"?
"Undergone a terminal experience"?
Or, as we used sometimes to say (though not in the family's hearing), that one of the wills in the firm's strong-room had,
"Matured"?
"Kicked the bucket" or "karked it" appear to be the current favoured options. It's disconcerting to see how much enjoyment they get from planning my obituary....
<snip>"If you require assistance disembarking, please inform a crew member?"<snip>
The purist in me says disembarking (and embarking) should only be used when an actual ship (or bark) is involved.
I wonder if there were mid-sixteenth century purists who disliked it as we do words like deplaning or retraining. Come to that did people complain about board being turned into a verb as a lazy substitute for ‘going aboard’, or being used where no actual board was involved.
Or maybe there were comments from others pointing out that going aboard ship didn’t involve boards at all but crossing the edge or border of the ship, and it should be ‘going abord’.
"Kicked the bucket" or "karked it" appear to be the current favoured options. It's disconcerting to see how much enjoyment they get from planning my obituary....
"Carried out toes up" is what my sister says her fellow nurses like to say. "Got tired of breathing" is what we used to say as kids.
A couple of weeks ago our local excuse for a newspaper had an obituary that had been written (in advance!) by the deceased. It began something like "If you are reading this, it means I'm now swimming with the fishes." The entire obituary went on in that vein. I wish I had known that man.
Comments
There was recently a piece on the BBC news about a newly qualified nurse, who when interviewed talked about 'passing away' instead of dying and being 'unwell' instead of 'ill' - to the point where (if I heard her properly) she talked about someone being 'critically unwell'. This did strike me as pushing two words with rather different meanings together: if you can be critically unwell, then what's to stop you being critically rather under the weather, or critically a little bit peaky?
I can see why people use euphemisms or rather gentler language to make the difficult things in life more palatable, but there's only so far we should go.
A bit late coming back to this but you may be surprised to learn this has a definite answer. That would be "donner" - her express intention wasn't to make a gift of it. My whole point is that this is a handy distinction which the English language doesn't have an exact equivalent for but which is very obvious to French speakers.
Normally when I see that horrid euphemism in an obituary I wonder if they might have been playing Monopoly. Did they pass "Go"? Did they collect $500.00?
When I met with a funeral director last year to discuss pre-arrangements, I specified no euphemisms. No "passed." No "entered into rest" -- I do that every night.
I admit to using the euphemism "Passed Go for the last time."
And what is it with the sudden use of "bad actors" for "evildoers"? Before the Trump administration, I understood whether I should boo or call the police. Their logocide has me imagining horrible theatrical troupes, roaming the countryside...
I had typed 'unsuccess'. It automatically corrected it to 'unsuccessful'. I suppose, though, that if one's spellchecker doesn't recognise a word that shouldn't exists, that at least means it doesn't.
Apologies for jumping in on an unintended error.
Revert. Not in the sense of ‘go back to the previous version’ which is fine, but instead of ‘respond’.
As in ‘We have received an email from x. Please collate a response and revert by COP Wednesday’.
(And COP, meaning ‘close of play’ also. I’m not playing!)
Interesting - thanks.
My sister often uses words or expressions, when phoning or emailing me, that she finds difficult to render accurately into English. She's lived and worked in France for 40 years, and is married to a non-English speaker (my b-in-l is Slovenian, just to be different).
BTW, a new word that seems to have emerged recently as a result of The Plague is 'webinar' (though I guess it might pre-date). I know what it means, but it reminds me of Spiders...
I thought perhaps it wasn't entirely new, but it just seems to be used more at the moment!
I don't dislike it - it simply reminds me of that most useful creature, the Spider...
I am also irritated by the use of "impact" instead of "affect'.
Only ironically:
"We scienced really hard today" / "Jim scienced the shit out of that data".
Meanwhile Why do people describe themselves or advertise for someone expected to be "passionate" about things for which most of us (I hope) would regard as having that level of heightened enthusiasm would be be a warning of some sort of fairly serious personality disability. How comfortable would you be about someone who was passionate about 'supply chain management', 'exciting hair styling', 'matching shoes to foot size and the buyer's personality' or 'enthusing lay leadership teams with infectious outreach'?
Thinking about it, I reckon 'enthuse' qualifies on its own, particularly when used transitively.
I like it, probably because it annoys the people I want to annoy. Bad me.
The late presidential speechwriter and political commentator William Safire had a column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine called "On Language." I remember once he complained about the verb "read" being used as a noun, as in "That book is a great read." Again, though, such usage is a long-standing tradition in English. I wrote a reply (which he published in a subsequent column) in which I gave him several examples of verbs used as nouns, including a "quickie" sexual encounter being referred to as a "lay". He didn't print that one.
(And yes, I split that infinitive, and I’d do it again.)
Quick! Fetch Miss Amanda her smelling salts, there's a sweet lamb.
That's a phrase from my childhood! It was usually reserved for recalcitrant ponies, or the occasional horse. It didn't mean evil way back then. Could it be a way to soften the evil of those doers?
Jiggling.
I would use "uptick" for a sudden reversal of downward direction, but of short duration.
What else would you use for "unprecedented"?
Because it's seven times longer?
But you also give many things that aren't gifts. So "give" and "gift" (as verb) are not synonymous.
Brilliant.
That actually makes sense. Much easier to say than "write this down in your calendar."
No one seems to have a mandate for coronavirus, fortunately, but I was amazed at how quickly our vocabulary changed in response to it. Suddenly we had social distance in every possible form (to social distance, social distancing, a socially distant event, keeping socially distant, and on and on...); lockdown in a new sense, sheltering in place, essential journey and lots more.
What I really want is a good word for actions which help the environment. Everything seems clunky and I find myself resorting to "eco stuff" or similar phrases. "Going green" feels a bit 80s. "Environmental activism" is too much of a mouthful. Anyone got a good phrase?
This is an important word in management-speak. It is often used to mean collecting carefully selected evidence against a trusting colleague to set him/her up for firing. I got that from my sister who was in social work.
__
Going back to "passing" as a euphemism, does that mean the rest of us have failed, or just need to try harder?
Our local news paper rarely uses any verb in its obituary notices. I have told my children that if my death is announced by a sentence with no verb, I will come back to haunt them. The verb I want is "died."
My kids have promised me a verb, but refuse to commit to which verb. I've heard them discussing possible verbs, and fortunately "passed" isn't one of them.
"Croaked"?
"Handed in her dinner pail"?
"Been promoted to glory"?
"Undergone a terminal experience"?
Or, as we used sometimes to say (though not in the family's hearing), that one of the wills in the firm's strong-room had,
"Matured"?
Perhaps for you it should be ‘NEQ has been archived.’ The purist in me says disembarking (and embarking) should only be used when an actual ship (or bark) is involved.
I wonder if there were mid-sixteenth century purists who disliked it as we do words like deplaning or retraining. Come to that did people complain about board being turned into a verb as a lazy substitute for ‘going aboard’, or being used where no actual board was involved.
Or maybe there were comments from others pointing out that going aboard ship didn’t involve boards at all but crossing the edge or border of the ship, and it should be ‘going abord’.
My sister, a retired nurse practitioner, always got a kick out of "void" used as a synonym for the same thing. "Have you voided this morning?"
"Carried out toes up" is what my sister says her fellow nurses like to say. "Got tired of breathing" is what we used to say as kids.
The fact that you are reading this means I am swimming with the fishes-or in my case, assuming that I had any relatives that were still talking to me and carried out my wishes to have this obit printed in the newspaper...