h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

which is my argument. It is entirely, completely, utterly and beautifully concise and precise to say "Brexit". We know exactly what it means. If you have to talk all around the houses you might miss something (or bore everyone half to death so they don't listen to half of it)

Anschlusstreffer is, again, so much more than just "getting one back" it conveys the possiblity of a point rather than no points, the possibility of staying in the game and possibly winning, of not letting your opponents run away with it. I don't get most of that from "getting one back" even though before I heard the German word I was fairly ok with that.

Twitterati is another good one. Whitesplaining (for which you really need to know mansplaining to get the full efect) etc etc.

It really is a sign that the language is evolving and remaining topical.

I have no problems with Brexit, other than it sounds incongruous. With that root, it should be a Latin word preserved for posterity, but it isn't - it's just a lazy abbreviation.

It certainly captures a complex idea very concisely, but it's created for the benefit of journalists rather than English speakers. I can only imagine nobody thought of anything better at the time.

PH: the use of established phrases for things that aren't really related. The worst of these is 'ground zero'. 'Ground zero' is a very specific term concerning nuclear detonations, specifically it's the surface point nearest the explosion, typically directly below detonation. Sometimes it's used with regard to othe disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes, both which have appropriate terms already, landfall and epicenter respectively. Of course the most common usage for 'ground zero' is now regarding the WTC attack. A web search top hits for the term will demonstrate that the original definition has been superceded.

I have a similar response when reporters shoehorn the suffix 'gate' to any political scandal referencing the Watergate scandal. The Watergate is a luxury hotel. Making 'gate' a suffix is just confusing. Kids today, after hearing Iran-Contragate, Monicagate, Nannygate, Deflategate and numerous others over the years would be reasonable in thinking that Watergate had something to do with water.

For that matter, the suffix '-thon' or '-athon' has been overused/misused for years. If it wasn't for things like the London Marathon, kids would probably think a marathon was an event where a lot of people ate loads of Mars bars.

I wonder what the German for Howay the Lads is? Or Toonarmeee? We need all the help we can get!

After much research the portmanteau German word for Toonarmee would be Stadttruppe, doesn't exactly trip off the tongue but Geordies are resourceful if nothing else.

If there was a political scandal in which a politician with the surname 'Gate' did something dodgy in the town of Gate, would it be known as Gategategate?

Not long to wait until Easter and eating loads of

<BB<

Will it be a 'chocathon'?

If I'm caught eating before Easter it'll be chocogate.

<BB<

Oh yeah, and -oholic.

Like chocoholic.

And while typing that I found that predictive text thinks that's a real word.

PH: predictive text.




Please!

Uncle Schlemiel!

I'd rather do it myself!

Besides which I'm faster and more accurate than any predictive text program I've ever been forced to use and the dern yhings are nearly always wrong anyway.

I set it to only suggest, never auto complete.

Myself, I always disable if that's an option and switch to some other software issue if its not.

Touch screens are just awful, I even bought a progger thingy at the pound shop to tap the screen and I bought a bluetooth keyboard which just about works on my playbook but I really can't bear fingermarks all over the screen, and using touch screens and kebab eating are definitely activities that should never be attempted together, that piri piri sauce is a nightmare.

The move to flat computer keyboards, from the old fashioned stepped typewriter keyboards, was an ergonomics dream come true, from utterly torturous to well nigh perfect ergonomics.

Naturally someone just had to find a way to spoil it, and did, with touch screen controls; an innovation made with a reasonable view to eliminating moving parts on the one hand but without thought of ergonomic consequences on the other.

For a minimum of ergonomic strain, the keys need to yeild a little when you touch them.

...and, as mentioned in hammondorgan's post above, touch screens are messy.

Going back a few posts...

I have to agree, I hate Brexit. I've nothing against the melding of words, but Brexit is a horrible sounding trivialisation of the language by lazy journalists. Not everyone knows what it means, most of my friends don't read newspapers and have said "What's that supposed to be?" One thought it was a new shop of some kind, another thought it was a new fitness program.

It is a very serious issue that could potentially cripple this country, and it's been trivialised to something that does indeed sound like a breakfast cereal.
Why do we need to be curt about everything?

I love predictive text (set to present choices not autofill). when I type in "hap" on my phone I immediately get the choice of "happy", & when I select it I then get offered "birthday". I love that

That, and its endless potential for amusement at the words it thinks I might want to use

Deb

Besides, it should be 'Brixit'.

The chap that invented predictive text died this week. His funfair is on Saturn.

PP.

I agree that predictive text is stupid and useless, but...



"Oh yeah, and -oholic."

"Like chocoholic."

"And while typing that I found that predictive text thinks that's a real word."



It is a real word, whether you like it or not. People use it, and you know what it means. That's all a word needs.

Leading to a petty hate of my own: people trying to inhibit perfectly natural language evolution by spreading misinformation about how language *works*, thus perpetuating bad habits on a societal level.

English teachers are the worst; they of all people should know better.