11.11.08

Annoyed? Absolutely!

Posted in language misuse, slang, word misuse at 9:50 am by Bill Brohaugh

A new book from Oxford University Press, A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare, has researched an important topic, resulting in a list of the top ten annoying phrases (you may be surprised that “Mr. Brohaugh has an opinion” is not among them).

They are:

  1. At the end of the day
  2. Fairly unique
  3. I personally
  4. At this moment in time
  5. With all due respect
  6. Absolutely
  7. It’s a nightmare
  8. Shouldn’t of
  9. 24/7
  10. It’s not rocket science

Some classics there, particularly #4 and #10. I puzzle over “shouldn’t of,” though. Is this in written English or spoken English? As with such phrasings as “I should of looked up the answer to that question,” the of is a phonetic spelling of a contraction. “I should of” represents “I should’ve.” The phrase “shouldn’t of” perhaps attracts particular attraction because it is an unusual instance of a double contraction: shouldn’t've. Multiple contractions are hardly unknown—consider the pronunciation of a word I’m sure you use on a daily basis: forecastle pronounced as fo’c’sl.

OK, maybe you don’t use it on a daily basis or even daily, which I mention because The Daily Telegraph followed Oxford’s list with a reader-generated list:

  1. Literally
  2. A safe pair of hands
  3. I’m gutted
  4. Basically
  5. Going forward
  6. Upcoming
  7. Up until
  8. Neither here not there
  9. On a daily basis

I’m curious about what “a safe pair of hands” means. Is it British? Or am I just cloistered? I’ve never heard it before so haven’t yet had a chance to be annoyed.

As for me, I’m actually going to nominate actually as my greatest source of annoyance at (you knew I was going to annoy you and say it) this moment in time.

(Might I also note that to my moderately math-trained eye, 24/7 seems to equate to 3.428571429.)

10.29.08

Mockery within my grrr-rasp

Posted in English origins, misspelling, slang at 7:24 am by Bill Brohaugh

How poetically satisfying to razz the misspelling of raspberry.

I spotted this concession item list on my recent BBQ travels (note the tea flavor at the top):

razzleberry dressing

I’m not going to simply make fun of the misspelling. I’m going to razz it. Because razz is ultimately a shortening of raspberry, as in “giving misspellers the raspberry,” which is in turn a shortening of “raspberry tart,” rhyming slang for fart. A raspberry tart is a description of the mocking fart sound you create by sticking your tongue out between otherwise closed lips and blowing.

So, raspberries to rasberry tea . . . though as we consider the bodily sources of words, I wonder. Is a side benefit of drinking lots of rasberry tea avoiding the need to P?