Words we could do without

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  • LandlubberLandlubber Shipmate
    I have heard of standing a group down when it was no longer needed. However someone in our local authority recently wrote "I have stood up a cross-service team ...". I wonder what might have been done to the poor members of the team: did the manager fail to attend a meeting? force them all into an upright position? Surely we have enough words for 'establish' already.
  • "Operationalise a dedicated task-force", perhaps?
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    "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....
    "Snuffed it"? Just DO NOT give me "Gone to be a star in the sky".

    Christians (English Noconformists, anyway) used to talking about "Passing to glory" or being "Promoted to higher service".

  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    rhubarb wrote: »
    Passed away, fell asleep, instead of died

    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.



    Oh, I just love this. Discussing possible verbs--makes me wish my son had siblings just so I could spy on them to find out what they plan to say about me. "Packed it in"? "Went the way of all flesh"? "Fell off her perch?" "Became an ex-parrot"?
  • "Fallen of his/her perch" (although I seem to remember that the one in question was actually nailed to it).
  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    Oh, I'd love the whole Monty Python dead parrot description used in my obituary! That is SO tempting! (I will, having no family, be writing my own.)

    One of today's started out "X was called from the heavens above back home to their Starry Skies..." I would rather have "Pigwidgeon kicked the bucket, she'shuffled off 'er mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile."
    :smile:
  • I would love it myself, but fear I can't talk anybody into it. Pity.
  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    That reminds me of a church service back in the late 1970s when Mr Jones, the secretary, began the announcements with “I am sorry to say that Barbara has been called home-” [pause for shuffling of notes, while a shocked gasp arises from the entire congregation] “due to the sudden illness of her mother” [congregation breathes audible sigh of relief as they realise that, for once, the phrase has been used literally rather than metaphorically].
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    One sometimes suspected families competed to achieve the most lugubrious tributes for the notices of death in the local evening paper of my childhood. One I still claim to have seen contained the 'immortal' lines,

    "Up in his heaven,
    God was feeling lonely and sad,
    So he sent down an angel
    And called up our Dad".

    I have also seen a death certificate on which the doctor had given as the cause of death, the sole cause, "respiratory cessation".
  • rhubarbrhubarb Shipmate
    I still laugh at a newspaper notice which reported that little Johnnie was safe in the arms of Jesus, inserted by his loving parents. Even worse was a death notice which read " When I gaze into a paddock and see an Angus cow your memory will not fade".
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    Enoch wrote: »
    One sometimes suspected families competed to achieve the most lugubrious tributes for the notices of death in the local evening paper of my childhood. One I still claim to have seen contained the 'immortal' lines,

    "Up in his heaven,
    God was feeling lonely and sad,
    So he sent down an angel
    And called up our Dad".

    I have also seen a death certificate on which the doctor had given as the cause of death, the sole cause, "respiratory cessation".

    Death notice poetry is a fascinating rabbit hole of McGonagall channelling. Meter, imagery, euphony - all are out; as long as lines end with rhyming syllables it seems it matters not what tortured word salad separates them.

    TBF, like most poetry in local papers.

    "Every Saturday I get bored so
    Down to Tescos I do go.
    The bus to board, that I must
    If to get there before it closes I can do before I bust..."
  • [quote="Enoch;c-292774"
    I have also seen a death certificate on which the doctor had given as the cause of death, the sole cause, "respiratory cessation". [/quote] My father, a doctor, always maintained that his colleagues put "heart failure" on the certificate if they didn't know why someone has died - after all, the heart always stops when that happens. Mind you, he was saying that 50 years ago when both medical science and definitions of death were different to what they are today.

  • KarlLB wrote: »
    Death notice poetry is a fascinating rabbit hole of McGonagall channelling. Meter, imagery, euphony - all are out; as long as lines end with rhyming syllables it seems it matters not what tortured word salad separates them.
    I always dread it when a family say, before a funeral, "Uncle John is going to read a poem he's written". Invariably the poems are both awful and badly read.

    Except for one occasion. A fairly young lady had died after having cancer which she had faced with quite remarkable courage. She had herself written a poem to be read at her funeral, and it was simply magnificent. She also had a friend - a professional pianist - play Chopin's "Farewell" waltz on the church's excellent piano. The total effect was moving beyond words.

  • Currently I'm reading a book where folk get around by calling a "rideshare". Having looked this up, it seems to mean "taxi". Why a new word?
  • Fawkes CatFawkes Cat Shipmate
    Currently I'm reading a book where folk get around by calling a "rideshare". Having looked this up, it seems to mean "taxi". Why a new word?

    'Rideshare' suggests to me that you will share the ride with (I would further speculate) other passengers who will pay separately for their trip. While taxis (in England at least, and whether Hackney or private hire) will carry only one fare at a time.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    rhubarb wrote: »
    I still laugh at a newspaper notice which reported that little Johnnie was safe in the arms of Jesus, inserted by his loving parents.

    If his parents inserted him into the arms of Jesus, I'm surprised they weren't arrested for murder.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Enoch wrote: »
    One sometimes suspected families competed to achieve the most lugubrious tributes for the notices of death in the local evening paper of my childhood. One I still claim to have seen contained the 'immortal' lines,

    "Up in his heaven,
    God was feeling lonely and sad,
    So he sent down an angel
    And called up our Dad".

    I have also seen a death certificate on which the doctor had given as the cause of death, the sole cause, "respiratory cessation".

    Death notice poetry is a fascinating rabbit hole of McGonagall channelling. Meter, imagery, euphony - all are out; as long as lines end with rhyming syllables it seems it matters not what tortured word salad separates them.
    Poems about the dead were very popular in my hometown paper. They usually weren’t part of the obituary itself, but were a separate thing the family might put in. (Thank you notes to doctors, nurses and others in the paper were also a popular thing.)

    I’ve kicked myself for not keeping a copy of one poem published in the 1980s. It compared the deceased to a beautiful rose, and included the lines:

    But then his leaves began to droop,
    And his roots took to rot.

  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    The next two lines of which surely read:

    Transplanted was he, but, I fear,
    Not to a bigger pot.
  • There is a gravestone in our kirkyard dated 1808 which says that it "marks where lies a mother's mouldering clay"

    I feel that "mouldering clay" is an underused expression.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited May 2020
    "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....

    As long as it's not 'spontaneously combusted'.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    "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....

    As long as it's not 'spontaneously combusted'.

    Departed this vale of tears with the assistance of the Hon. K. W. Dobson (Viper House)?


  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    There is a gravestone in our kirkyard dated 1808 which says that it "marks where lies a mother's mouldering clay"

    I feel that "mouldering clay" is an underused expression.
    You'd better not mention that in the family. 'Mother's mouldered' has a nice alliterative quality.

  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    Enoch wrote: »
    I have also seen a death certificate on which the doctor had given as the cause of death, the sole cause, "respiratory cessation".

    Over 20 years ago I was tasked with coding medical files with ICD-9 codes. The book is divided into two parts, medical issues, and extramedical trauma (such as struck by a flying rock). I was delighted to see that in the "dropped" section, in addition to the mundane dropped from the mast to the deck, dropped from the mast to the water, dropped from the mast to the dock, dropped from a building, and so forth, they had .... dropped dead.
  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    Getting away from euphemisms for death for a bit...

    An expression that bugs me is step or stepped foot, i.e., "I wouldn't step foot in that place."

    "Step" is, I believe, an intransitive verb; it doesn't have an object. "Set foot" is what I've always used, and until recently what I was accustomed to hearing. Or one could say "I wouldn't step into that place."

  • I'm glad to say I've never heard "step foot". @Pigwidgeon, you are absolutely right. Is abomination!
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Although the surname Steptoe is not unknown.
  • Is the word 'iconic' ever applied to icons? And if not, why is it so frequently applied to almost everything else (like a 1950s refrigerator)?
  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    Well if "iconic" means "like an icon" it's kind of redundant to call an icon iconic. This is also why one so rarely hears the phrase "a circular circle."
  • mousethief wrote: »
    Well if "iconic" means "like an icon" it's kind of redundant to call an icon iconic. This is also why one so rarely hears the phrase "a circular circle."

    Close, but I keep hearing people talking about 'round circles'. Maybe that's an iconic kind of circle.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Webster defines "iconic" as "widely known . . . for distinctive excellence." I would hardly call a 1950s refrigerator distinctly excellent. Remember what a chore it was to defrost one before frost-free came along?
  • Some years ago a friend of my parents wrote 3 limericks for his funeral. Each of his kids recited one. And did them again at the reception. Odd. Good.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    Webster defines "iconic" as "widely known . . . for distinctive excellence."
    Yes, it does, which frankly seems a little odd to me, as that’s not how I generally hear it used. I usually hear “iconic” used to mean something more along the lines of “widely known as representative or evocative of a place or era,” such that you look at that refrigerator and immediately picture a 1950s kitchen.

  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say "round circle." Hopefully they were talking to very small children.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Webster defines "iconic" as "widely known . . . for distinctive excellence."
    Yes, it does, which frankly seems a little odd to me, as that’s not how I generally hear it used. I usually hear “iconic” used to mean something more along the lines of “widely known as representative or evocative of a place or era,” such that you look at that refrigerator and immediately picture a 1950s kitchen.

    Webster’s first section for that part of the definition does just say
    widely recognized and well-established
    without the ‘distinctive excellence’ qualifier.
  • mousethief wrote: »
    I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say "round circle." Hopefully they were talking to very small children.

    No - I hear it in normal adult speech. Then there's "small little", which is not uncommon. I wonder if it's a slip of the tongue rather than intentional.
  • rhubarbrhubarb Shipmate
    Just like people say return back.
  • The TV weather forecasters often talk about temperatures dropping (or sinking) down, much to my annoyance.
  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    How often do we read in the Bible, especially Psalms, that beseech us to LIFT UP our hearts, our arms, our hands, etc. etc.? Doesn't the verb "lift" imply "up"?
  • mousethief wrote: »
    I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say "round circle." Hopefully they were talking to very small children.

    No - I hear it in normal adult speech. Then there's "small little", which is not uncommon. I wonder if it's a slip of the tongue rather than intentional.

    IME, "small little" and similar doubled constructions act as an intensifier. I've not heard "round circle" - can you explain the context?
  • Pigwidgeon wrote: »
    How often do we read in the Bible, especially Psalms, that beseech us to LIFT UP our hearts, our arms, our hands, etc. etc.? Doesn't the verb "lift" imply "up"?

    Horse back riding. The English language is redundant.
  • We say riding to mean ambulation by horse in the UK and I hear horse back riding as an Americanism. We bike, cycle or go for a bike ride. Being taken for a metaphorical ride doesn't necessarily conjure up horses.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    To anyone my age, the adjective in 'train station' is redundant, irritating and unnecessary. A station is a railway one unless prefixed by the word 'bus'.
  • Wet KipperWet Kipper Shipmate
    like the Stations of the Cross ? :tongue:
  • Enoch wrote: »
    To anyone my age, the adjective in 'train station' is redundant, irritating and unnecessary. A station is a railway one unless prefixed by the word 'bus'.
    To me too, though I take the point of the next comment.

    Logically, if one has "bus stations" one should have "train stations", much as I dislike the phrase. Equally, if one has "railway stations" then one should have "road stations" - as indeed do the French.

  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Talking of tautologies, my dad talks about 'wet rain'. I laughed at him when he first said it, as rain is by definition wet, but he insisted that it's a particular kind of rain that feels wetter than other rain, and when I asked people on Facebook if they were familiar with 'wet rain,' as different from regular rain, a few said they use that expression, and it is a certain type of rain.
  • yohan300yohan300 Shipmate
    Enoch wrote: »
    To anyone my age, the adjective in 'train station' is redundant, irritating and unnecessary. A station is a railway one unless prefixed by the word 'bus'.
    To me too, though I take the point of the next comment.

    Logically, if one has "bus stations" one should have "train stations", much as I dislike the phrase. Equally, if one has "railway stations" then one should have "road stations" - as indeed do the French.

    Why does anyone bother walking between the stations of the cross, especially when carrying an actual cross? Perhaps there is uncertainty on whether they are bus or train stations, with the cross not fitting on many buses.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    Eh?
    :open_mouth:

    A 'station', in religious or in transport terms, is simply a 'stopping place'. But you knew that.
    :wink:

    As regards buses, it has come to mean a place where more than one service calls/starts/terminates, but a railway (or 'train' - and I see the logic) station may be host to only one service, or line.
  • yohan300yohan300 Shipmate
    edited May 2020
    Eh?
    :open_mouth:

    A 'station', in religious or in transport terms, is simply a 'stopping place'. But you knew that.
    :wink:

    As regards buses, it has come to mean a place where more than one service calls/starts/terminates, but a railway (or 'train' - and I see the logic) station may be host to only one service, or line.

    No, apparently according to Enoch a station is a train station, and "train" is redundant.

    My point is that it's certainly not redundant, there are plenty of stations that have nothing to do with public transport.

    Last time I got a taxi to the train station, I said "the station" and the driver quite properly asked for clarification.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    Over here, we say "bus depot" or "bus terminal" to mean a building featuring ticket windows, vending machines, racks of schedules, perhaps a cafeteria, waiting room with benches, in addition to stalls where multiple buses park; whereas a "bus stop" is simply a convenient spot along the bus route where the bus may stop to receive or discharge passenters.

    I don't think I've ever heard "bus station" used. Not saying that it isn't, mind. But outside of church, I'd never think of "station" as meaning anything other than train station.
  • I think 'bus station' is indeed used mostly on this side of the Pond.

    The terms 'bus depot' or 'bus garage' would normally be used anent the place where the vehicles are kept overnight, and our 'station' would often have the facilities of your 'terminal'.
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