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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Some recent word usages from the internet and TV
Guest
1
2016/01/25 - 8:05pm

Various examples I've encountered recently. I see lots of really bad CC, some is done real-time so I make allowances for that but the bad output from movies or TV on DVD/BRD is inexcusable. I do find it amusing when the upcoming caption is a difficult foreign place name or personal name and you can see the captioning pause, sometimes erase something already entered by backing up or just flat skip the word(s) they don't know how to spell.

An email from Sears: "by invite only"

Bank of America support chat: "...assist with the resolve..."

Closed Captioning from manufacturer's car commercial: "peddle shifters"

A local TV station uses "TON" for tonight and "TOM" for tomorrow on their promos for upcoming programs

CBS Evening New 11-18-15: "...snuck..." [I know it's now acceptable, just seems out of place]

http://scoopdeck.navytimes.com/2015/12/12/the-navys-newest-ship-breaks-down-limps-into-port/

The ship’s computer system triggered an alarm and the ship called away an engineering casualty. [called away was the interesting part]

Recently a local Freecycle list had an ad seeking a "tudor" for their child [that would be a neat trick]

Listing from Chinese optical supplier for a "minification" lens [turns out to be a real thing]

Two words I first heard on different AWWW episodes: "janky" was on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and "hocking" on The Goldbergs

Madonna and her online translator thank you to her Russian "ventilators" which generated the phrase "Learn Olbanian!"

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
2
2016/01/25 - 9:06pm

I've been seeing "invite" to mean "invitation". especially a printed invitation, for about 15 years.  It was used a lot when Gmail was not open to all and people were trying to get an invite from an existing user.

The BOA "resolve" is new to me.

Toe-and-heeling the pedals is done by Formula One.  What are peddle-shifters doing?

The mental image of a ship that "limped" is interesting, but I'm sure I've read of vessels crawling into port.

Someone posted a graphic of Facebook offering tudors for your primary grade student having difficulty in school, , illustrated with pictures of tudor monarchy.

If you are selling something in the streets, you are hawking it; if you are borrowing on it at a pawnbroker, you are hocking it, and if you are coughing up phlegm, I think you're hawking it up.  The hamstring on a horse is the the hock, so if your horse has been hamstrung, I imagine someone was hocking it.

 

What are they using janky to mean?  Sorta cobbled-together to work unreliably?

Wouldn't someone who drinks a 20-ounce Starbucks coffee while converting language from one language to another be a ventilator?

Had an unproductive discussion recently (who used to be a stripper and now expects to be a teacher, despite morals clauses in contracts) about the use of "nigger" in such phrases as "sand nigger" in John and Yoko's "Woman is nigger to the world" and referring to Walmart's mistreated employees as niggers.  She insisted that the third definition in dictionary didn't exist (as in "a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons") and that the word ONLY is a vile term for what used to be called negroes, and not even dark-skinned natives in India, in Australia, etc.  Trying to argue with someone who wants to torture the language for political reasons is idiocy; I ended up walking away.

Guest
3
2016/01/25 - 11:32pm

I think it's supposed to be paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
I found the wording "called away" to be unusual plus the ship was doing the calling.
Hock: To throw something
Janky: Of extremely poor or unreliable quality

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