Crazed over phrases
Some phrases that occasionally come up in newscasts make the little hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention with irritation. Occasionally they are put in a story by rote, perhaps even originating from a network source. Radio is certainly not alone in perpetuating these inaccuracies. You’ll also read them in newspapers and hear them on T.V.
My Top Three Repeat Offenders are:
“Convicted pedophile” - Pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis and not a criminal offence. One cannot be “convicted” of being a pedophile.
“Anti-war protest” - If this one were accurate those taking part would actually be in favour of war! A better way to word it would be “anti-war demonstration” or “war protest.”
“With the Humidex” - When a newscaster tells you “it’s ___ degrees with the Humidex,” just replace Humidex with the word, thermometer. If someone said, “It’s ___ degrees with the thermometer,” you’d ask if they recently struck their head on something hard! The Humidex is like a thermometer that measures humidity. So it’s ON the Humidex, not WITH it.
I’m sure there are many others that get under your skin, too. Feel free to share them here. And have a terrific weekend, won’t you?
July 27th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Lisa, you’re spot on. My pet hate is “irregardless” - there’s no such word and people use it all the time!
Love your show in the morning, keep up the great work and humour.
July 28th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
All very good nominations for the worst misuses of English. Unfortunately there’s no shortage of (increasingly) common errors to complain about. The top three that come to mind for me at the moment:
1) using less instead of fewer (e.g. I cringe every time I hear another radio station brag that “less commecials mean more music”)
2) treating “data” as singular rather than as the plural of datum
3) a print only issue - its/it’s, and other rogue apostrophes (especially common on handwritten menus, e.g. breakfast’s, sandwich’s, even believe it or not, noodle’s!)
I know I’m forgetting plenty of others that are just as grating - others will probably fill in the gaps!
August 10th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Here’s the correct info about humidex, it’s a real mathematical thing.
http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/cd/brochures/humidity_e.cfm, also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humidex
cheers, keep cool.