Post your linguistic pet peeves here.
I'll start with with the improper use of the third person plural personal pronoun "they" when the singular form is called for.
(See below for the correct pronoun to use in this case.)
You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!
Replies
Like "stamping grounds"...
"Stomping grounds" (which I hear much more frequently) is a particular pet peeve of mine.
..."dial the phone" or "hang up"...
...or, similarly, "cut a record." That one goes back at least two technological generations (although vinyl is making a comeback).
EDIT: Back in the '80s, I heard someone use the term "cut a tape."
George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" retains some significance.
But semantic drift is also a reality.
I don't know when this happened, but "mike" was short for microphone when I was a lad, but now "mic" is preferred. (At least by AP.)
I don't know why, but mic seems to have come into general use a few years ago. Until I read these comments, I thought stomping grounds was correct.
As I understand it, "mic", as a diminutive for microphone, stems from the use of "MIC" to indicate the jack on the back of stereos, VCR's, and other electronic devices into which one was supposed to plug in a microphone. How "mic" supplanted "mike", which had been the written short term for microphone for decades, I can't explain. Except, perhaps, a younger generation glommed on to "mic" as a trendy term. and not surprisingly, most mainstream publications jumped on. "Mic" is not only a ridiculous spelling for a diminutive, it's unnecessary, given the common use of "mike". The Good Mrs. Benson once argued that it made perfect sense for "mic" to replace "mike". "Mic" was actually a more logical spelling, she argued. So, then, I asked her, when you were a little girl and you were writing to your grandmother about jumping on your bicycle, did you write, "I went for a ride on my bic."?
I've come to the conclusiont that it's not surprising that people use expressions of unknown origin that they picked up from parents or grandparents. So thinking about it wouldn't help them.
The thing is . . . the actual expression makes sense, if maybe an obique way, if one stops to think about it. "Stamping grounds", or another which is often misstated, "champing at the bit", make perfect sense, if one takes the time to look up the operative words. What gets me is the proliferation of misheard expressions, in which the user provides words that make no intrinsic sense at all. To wit,
"A doggie-dog world", for "A dog-eat-dog world"
"Taken for granite," for "taken for granted"
"For all intensive purposes", for "for all intents and purposes"
and one which really gets my eyes rolling . . .
"From here to ten-buck-two", for "From here to Timbuctoo."
As a frequent user of microphones, I really do prefer the shorthand "mic." Seems sensible to me, even though it is pronounced "mike." I had completely forgotten that "mike" was in common use for a long time.
I continue to hear "wreck havoc" instead of "wreak havoc" from people who should know better.
-
9
-
10
-
11
-
12
-
13
of 13 Next