Fun with English
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Particularly recently, many strange and wonderful
obfuscations, euphemisms and verbose or amusing
versions of the language are cropping up. In fact they crop
up so much, they are becoming common! Is this the
evolution of the language? I'm keeping a list, e.g.:
"colateral damage" - innocent civilian casualties.
"previously owned" - used
"Please RSVP" - please reserve please.
"economically disadvantaged" - poor
"differently abled" - disabled.
"downsized employees" - staff laid off.
"we have an anomaly in the launch sequence" - the rocket
blew up
"published on a daily basis" - published daily
"pre-boarding (a 'plane)" - getting on before you get on.
"de-planing (a 'plane)" - getting off the 'plane - what's next
pre-deplaning?
"Rate of speed" - ie "speed", the rate of change in speed is
acceleration.
"High rate of speed" - "fast".
"doctor recommended" - who recommends what?
recommended by doctors?
obfuscations, euphemisms and verbose or amusing
versions of the language are cropping up. In fact they crop
up so much, they are becoming common! Is this the
evolution of the language? I'm keeping a list, e.g.:
"colateral damage" - innocent civilian casualties.
"previously owned" - used
"Please RSVP" - please reserve please.
"economically disadvantaged" - poor
"differently abled" - disabled.
"downsized employees" - staff laid off.
"we have an anomaly in the launch sequence" - the rocket
blew up
"published on a daily basis" - published daily
"pre-boarding (a 'plane)" - getting on before you get on.
"de-planing (a 'plane)" - getting off the 'plane - what's next
pre-deplaning?
"Rate of speed" - ie "speed", the rate of change in speed is
acceleration.
"High rate of speed" - "fast".
"doctor recommended" - who recommends what?
recommended by doctors?
