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Grammar, Spelling and Usage Peeves

 
 
 
PyramidHead said:
Oh, they looooove the deep dive. Another one is "circle back". Let's circle back offline. No, idiot: let's talk after the meeting.
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Maybe I'm a curmudgeon about these thing but I detest that gobbledygook. Touch base ? Fuck off. Reach out ? Fuck off.
 
TSwizzle said:
PyramidHead said:
Oh, they looooove the deep dive. Another one is "circle back". Let's circle back offline. No, idiot: let's talk after the meeting.
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Maybe I'm a curmudgeon about these thing but I detest that gobbledygook. Touch base ? Fuck off. Reach out ? Fuck off.
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Well, there's something we agree on, TSwizzle. :) I hate corporate-speak. Yes, it's gobbledegook spoken by a sort of in-group of people wanting to impress and rise in the ranks.

Well, it's rank all right...

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bilby said:
PyramidHead said:
Oh, they looooove the deep dive. Another one is "circle back". Let's circle back offline. No, idiot: let's talk after the meeting.
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"Offline" is usually code for "never".

"Let's circle back offline" means "I want the people in this room to think I care about your point, but I don't care, so shut the fuck up".
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I always took "offline" to mean "Let's talk privately where all these assholes can't hear us and chime in with their bullshit. When done, we'll craft and distribute a summary that makes it sound like we had a serious discussion."
 
Angry Floof said:
Well, there's something we agree on, TSwizzle. :) I hate corporate-speak. Yes, it's gobbledegook spoken by a sort of in-group of people wanting to impress and rise in the ranks.

Well, it's rank all right...

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bilby said:
PyramidHead said:
Oh, they looooove the deep dive. Another one is "circle back". Let's circle back offline. No, idiot: let's talk after the meeting.
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"Offline" is usually code for "never".

"Let's circle back offline" means "I want the people in this room to think I care about your point, but I don't care, so shut the fuck up".
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I always took "offline" to mean "Let's talk privately where all these assholes can't hear us and chime in with their bullshit. When done, we'll craft and distribute a summary that makes it sound like we had a serious discussion."
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One of the greatest reasons for the successful propagation of corporate speak is its ability to mean multiple mutually incompatible things at the same time, thereby allowing a skilled user to give any impression he desires, without ever actually having committed himself to do anything concrete.
 
I'm sure someone in here will know this.

I am arguing with an 8yo and I think I am losing.

Is 43 in Roman numerals XXXXIII or XLIII?
 
:) Thanks.

Looney Tunes gives it as the other, and he doesn't consider me a comparable source of info. I was starting to doubt myself. :)
 
spikepipsqueak said:
:) Thanks.

Looney Tunes gives it as the other, and he doesn't consider me a comparable source of info. I was starting to doubt myself. :)
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Both are correct, in the sense that they were used by actual Romans. Modern teachers of Roman numbers almost always follow your preferred convention, in which symbol order denotes subtraction in order to avoid four of any symbol; however clockmakers often prefer IIII over IV, because it is more aesthetically pleasing as a counterbalance to VIII.

I have no idea why Looney Tunes preferred the four-of-a-kind convention back in (presumably) 1943, but the fashion for which to use has varied over time. Stonemasons tend to like the subtractive convention, because it's less work, but an animator probably doesn't care about a few extra characters here and there; it's probably a bit easier for the audience to read it quickly, if it's only on screen for a short time.
 
bilby said:
Angry Floof said:
My biggest peeve on this topic is the mindless shaming of grammatical or spelling errors in other people's posts on the internet. Communication is light years more important than rules, but some people are oblivious to that I guess because they're too enamored by the sweet gush of microscopic self-righteous superiority complex gratification.

Present company excluded, of course. :)
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You need a comma between 'guess' and 'because'.

;)
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or between "that" and "I"--as it stands, "I guess" is a squinting modifier.
 
ideologyhunter said:
I do tire easily of grammarians and spelling wonks. However, I can't get enough of Trump's semi-literate screeds in Tweetworld. Our extremely balanced genius of a chief exec. has never sorted out principle/principal. He has brought to our attention councel (counsel), hear by (hereby), honer (honor), polices (policies), develope, profesional, 'payed for', and 'waist of time'. He comes off as a smart-alecky high school sophomore who knows everything without mastering anything. (Also the kind of adolescent snot who would say, 'I don't need to know how to spell. I'll have secretaries who do that for me!')
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and then there's his more recent "Marine Core"--very Presidential
 
gmbteach said:
People who say and write ‘learnt’ and ‘burnt’ instead of ‘learned’ and ‘burned’.
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A pet peeve: objections to the use of legitimate words and forms--e.g. learnt, listed in my Webster's; and especially burnt, listed in both my Webster's and my OED.
 
4321lynx said:
jab said:
Rhea said:
Have a peeve? Air it here!
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The use of genteel euphemisms--in particular the wide spread use of "pass away".
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Or the even more unctuous "passed" by itself, without the "away".
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Oh, crap, I sent you a rep to declare “indeed that’s more unctuous” and my drug-addled finger hit the i instead of the u and sent unctious - on a grammar peeve thread. Please know that I’m recovering from kne surgery and taking pain meds and the i is right next to the u. I swear!
 
jab said:
ideologyhunter said:
I do tire easily of grammarians and spelling wonks. However, I can't get enough of Trump's semi-literate screeds in Tweetworld. Our extremely balanced genius of a chief exec. has never sorted out principle/principal. He has brought to our attention councel (counsel), hear by (hereby), honer (honor), polices (policies), develope, profesional, 'payed for', and 'waist of time'. He comes off as a smart-alecky high school sophomore who knows everything without mastering anything. (Also the kind of adolescent snot who would say, 'I don't need to know how to spell. I'll have secretaries who do that for me!')
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and then there's his more recent "Marine Core"--very Presidential
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It could be worse; at least he didn't say "Marine Corpse".
 
Going to a clothing shop in the US and finding a men's or woman's pant. It's pants, a pair of pants, from pantaloons. A pant is half of a pair of pants. Who, other than Stormy Daniels, wears half a pair of pants?

Eldarion Lathria
 
Reading posts in this forum I stumbled across two more expressions today that annoy me: "off of" and "one of the only".

And I had the misfortune of encountering "criteria is" again.
 
Eldarion Lathria said:
Going to a clothing shop in the US and finding a men's or woman's pant. It's pants, a pair of pants, from pantaloons. A pant is half of a pair of pants. Who, other than Stormy Daniels, wears half a pair of pants?

Eldarion Lathria
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I've had the same problem with pliers. Someone will say to me, "Hand me a pair of pliers". OK...does that mean you want two of that type of tool? Or is a plier considered one of the two connected arms of the tool, so you're really just asking for one tool. What would would you say if you really wanted two of that type of tool? Would you say, "Hand me four pliers?"
 
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