Words, and the ways people use them, have always held a special fascination for me. Words express, inform, engage, motivate, heal and harm. They can dismantle selves as well as they can inspire movements. They enrich with metaphor and catch us up with irony. They can equally be constructed into forms of art and be debased by misuse. Here I offer a few ideas about the latter dichotomy, with a bit of a rant about some of the more annoying uses of language today.
Our most talented folks–those who blend craft and art in their uses of words–can make them virtually sing, without benefit of an underlying musical score. My very best experiences with words are when I am reading something–or listening to a lecture–or having a conversation–and the writer or speaker comes up with a string of language that hits a note that I did not know existed. I am not speaking of the content of the communication so much as I am to the wondrous beauty of its form of expression. Involuntarily I always smile in awe at such events. How did the author of those words DO that? Hearing or reading them is as magical as the discovery of a new form or dimension of existence.
And then there are the opposite occasions. These are uses of language that dull the senses rather than enhance them, mislead rather than grow understanding, or just fall on the ear with an unpleasant thud. Here are a few of these language abscesses in need of a good draining. I invite you to comment below on your own ‘favorite’ language irritants.
- Boots on the ground. Alright, whose idea was this militarization of our language? (Answer just below.) Now in its origins this is a fine, evocative phrase. It registers at a physical and even a transcendent level the duty, danger and courage entailed in soldiers being sent to war. But it has been hijacked, especially by television news anchors: ‘The storm has caused extensive damage across the state! We have boots (or reporters) on the ground in Nowhere, Wherever and Nevermore with the story.’ Now I’ll grant that those hardy (or indentured) souls who find themselves covering hurricanes outdoors at their peaks take on some risk, even if it is wholly unnecessary and foolhardy. But we truly don’t need to extol the bravery of those covering the swell of local emotion the day after, or of their colleagues covering the lines at local Walmarts on Black Friday.
- At the end of the day. At the end of my rope! Some metaphor-challenged speakers call on this trope several times in a single commentary. If you are using this tired word string so much, the end of your day has already arrived.
- The XYZ Family. OK, I know (more or less) my family, and I can appreciate your family. But I am not at all interested in the ‘WeMakeIt, Inc. Family,’ the ‘Travelers Cross Insurance Co. Family,’ or the ‘Local Utility Family.’ These are not families. And I have a theory about this odd usage, which has spread like a fungus in the 21st century in the U.S. As economic conditions and business policies have undercut family security and disorganized family life, the perpetrators have sought to take advantage of the resulting personal insecurities by selling the idea of the safe harbor of Family in their jobs, products and services. This is diabolical, and I have a better idea for these companies. How about investing in family-friendly employment policies, livable wages and fair prices so that our real families can support us?
- Like. Yes, this is an easy one to criticize, especially for people of a certain age. And it’s an old hobbyhorse of mine. As a college professor I had many experiences of bright young students in my office peppering their comments with this clunky placeholder, sometimes to the distracting extent that I lost track of what they were saying. I never tried to correct them, but in the back of my mind I thought: Please, Vivian/Oscar, purge the word, at least when you venture out into the world of job and grad school interviews, and other conversations with those you hope to impress for practical adult gain. And to some relief, I later discovered that they can do this! It turns out that, like much language use, the stutter-like ‘like’ is tribal language. As often as not it is used by like-minded (pun tolerated) people among those of their own language type. And these speakers can code-switch when in the company of other tribes (say, potential employers). That the students in my faculty office did not code-switch must say something about me, but I choose for now not to, like, worry about it.
Okay, Peter, since you asked if any of your readers would like to put forth their own language irritants, I shall boot your “boots on the ground” down the road, and demonstrate just how widely and deeply our language has become militarized. Sadly, for this particular Quaker pacifist, in my lifetime our American culture has become increasingly loaded (“lock, stock, and barrel!”) with the language of war and violence. So, stand by me as I “fire off” a number of examples that could just as easily be listed as “bullet points.”
We complain that someone at the office “stabbed me in the back” or “cut me off at the knees.” The response may be to “wage a war of words” in which we “attack and defend positions.” If it gets bad enough, those on the defensive might even be expected to “fall on their own sword.” Or if there’s a tough decision to be made, someone might suggest that we “will just have to bite the bullet.” And if a particularly repugnant choice comes up, we might hear: “I wouldn’t do that even if you held a gun to my head!” Later, we describe how one person “blew a hole” in another person’s argument, or shot down that argument (even its proponent—she shot him down), or “blasted his proposal out of the water.” Maybe by “launching a sneak attack” or even a “Blitzkrieg.” Or by going on a “search and destroy mission.” Someone might request, “Shoot me an email, and I promise to fire off an answer—that was really a bang-up job, truly smashing.” On the other hand, when we finally get battle weary, we might all just agree to “declare a ceasefire” for the time being. Years later we “tell war stories” about the most memorable of these skirmishes.
In the world of sports and entertainment, we say that a play or a comedian “really bombed” or “died on stage” and we describe a football quarterback as throwing “the long bomb” during a “march towards the goal.” Perhaps he contributes to his team’s effort by “launching a frontal attack” so as to “massacre” or “obliterate” the opposing team, “pounding them into the ground” maybe, or “totally decimating” their offense. If so, we hope we were swift enough to “capture” the action with a “point-and-shoot camera.”
Then there are the times when we “gun” our car engines to pass another car…or just to show off. If the other guy starts “shooting off his mouth” and things “escalate,” we might even “go off half-cocked.” With glee, we describe an old jalopy as a “real bomb.” And when we grow up, we hope to “make a killing” on Wall Street so as to acquire perhaps an entire “fleet” of vehicles.
If we don’t “knock ‘em dead” in the business world, trying our best to “weaponize” the Internet and use a certain demographic as “the point of the spear,” we ask our elected officials to “kill the bill” that will raise capital gains taxes, or better yet, “death taxes” on our rich Aunt Minnie. Legislation in Congress can “trigger” an all-out battle, and legislators try to avoid “poison pills.” Meanwhile, one political party or the other threatens to “go nuclear” if certain rules are changed. And commentators say things like, “She was a long-shot candidate, on the front lines of the gender-equality movement.”
We say a drinking party was “a real blast” (perhaps because people drank so much they got “bombed”). Maybe after the first couple of drinks, they even “spilled their guts” to the person sitting next to them, as they share an emotional problem they are having. Later, we “hunt down” a friend who failed to show up. Yikes!
Ironically, we “take a shotgun approach” to child malnutrition and we “parachute into” schools and churches to make an appeal to “fight the War on Drugs” or “the War on Poverty.” We “soldier on” when the going gets tough; but always “fighting the good fight.” If we decide upon a project that will require funding, we “build up a war chest.”
So, what can we do about all this? “Throw up our hands and surrender”? Maybe even “wave the white flag.” Or should we “charge back into the fray”? With reminders, of course, to “take no prisoners….”
I hope the above is not “overkill,” but allow me to put forth just one more, fully developed, example: A piece of neighborhood gossip might sound like this: “Hey, I just got some new intel! As they say, all’s fair in love and war, but get a load of this one: Well, so she was drop-dead gorgeous and just dying to get to know him, because she was blown away by his killer good looks, and the way he stood tall, like a good soldier and a gentleman. But when he found out she was married, the news hit him like a real bombshell and he was so ticked off he was really sweating bullets. He’s a straight arrow and a real straight shooter, so right off, he went ballistic. He really blew up at her, and then she got all up in arms and launched an all-out, take-no-prisoners counterattack on him—you could call it a real character assassination. He was just blown out of the water by the force of it, and at that moment he knew that nobody had his back. He felt like he was the only one left holding down the fort, which is why his romance was no longer like shooting fish in a barrel—it was blasted into smithereens when everything just blew up in his face. He was dead in the water, and he felt like he was behind enemy lines. He was the victim of a frontal attack, and his wounds were deep. He had clearly lost the battle and the war, so he ran up the white flag and then retreated to fight another day.”
I rest my case.
Peter,,
How about this-
“You know what I mean” -no I don’t unless you explain what you are trying to convey to me. Please put “a little more meat on the bone” to help me know what you mean. Perhaps then I will “get your drift” and not continue to be “lost at sea”, “clueless””,without a chance in hell” “before Hell freezes over”.
Loved this one!
I was like tempted to like like it like others like liked it themselves, but I like liked it like so much that like liking it seemed like, you know, superfluous.
Like GRIN!
Okay, Peter, since you asked if any of your readers would like to put forth their own language irritants, I shall boot your “boots on the ground” down the road, and demonstrate just how widely and deeply our language has become militarized. Sadly, for this particular Quaker pacifist, in my lifetime our American culture has become increasingly loaded (“lock, stock, and barrel!”) with the language of war and violence. So, stand by me as I “fire off” a number of examples that could just as easily be listed as “bullet points.”
We complain that someone at the office “stabbed me in the back” or “cut me off at the knees.” The response may be to “wage a war of words” in which we “attack and defend positions.” If it gets bad enough, those on the defensive might even be expected to “fall on their own sword.” Or if there’s a tough decision to be made, someone might suggest that we “will just have to bite the bullet.” And if a particularly repugnant choice comes up, we might hear: “I wouldn’t do that even if you held a gun to my head!” Later, we describe how one person “blew a hole” in another person’s argument, or shot down that argument (even its proponent—she shot him down), or “blasted his proposal out of the water.” Maybe by “launching a sneak attack” or even a “Blitzkrieg.” Or by going on a “search and destroy mission.” Someone might request, “Shoot me an email, and I promise to fire off an answer—that was really a bang-up job, truly smashing.” On the other hand, when we finally get battle weary, we might all just agree to “declare a ceasefire” for the time being. Years later we “tell war stories” about the most memorable of these skirmishes.
In the world of sports and entertainment, we say that a play or a comedian “really bombed” or “died on stage” and we describe a football quarterback as throwing “the long bomb” during a “march towards the goal.” Perhaps he contributes to his team’s effort by “launching a frontal attack” so as to “massacre” or “obliterate” the opposing team, “pounding them into the ground” maybe, or “totally decimating” their offense. If so, we hope we were swift enough to “capture” the action with a “point-and-shoot camera.”
Then there are the times when we “gun” our car engines to pass another car…or just to show off. If the other guy starts “shooting off his mouth” and things “escalate,” we might even “go off half-cocked.” With glee, we describe an old jalopy as a “real bomb.” And when we grow up, we hope to “make a killing” on Wall Street so as to acquire perhaps an entire “fleet” of vehicles.
If we don’t “knock ‘em dead” in the business world, trying our best to “weaponize” the Internet and use a certain demographic as “the point of the spear,” we ask our elected officials to “kill the bill” that will raise capital gains taxes, or better yet, “death taxes” on our rich Aunt Minnie. Legislation in Congress can “trigger” an all-out battle, and legislators try to avoid “poison pills.” Meanwhile, one political party or the other threatens to “go nuclear” if certain rules are changed. And commentators say things like, “She was a long-shot candidate, on the front lines of the gender-equality movement.”
We say a drinking party was “a real blast” (perhaps because people drank so much they got “bombed”). Maybe after the first couple of drinks, they even “spilled their guts” to the person sitting next to them, as they share an emotional problem they are having. Later, we “hunt down” a friend who failed to show up. Yikes!
Ironically, we “take a shotgun approach” to child malnutrition and we “parachute into” schools and churches to make an appeal to “fight the War on Drugs” or “the War on Poverty.” We “soldier on” when the going gets tough; but always “fighting the good fight.” If we decide upon a project that will require funding, we “build up a war chest.”
So, what can we do about all this? “Throw up our hands and surrender”? Maybe even “wave the white flag.” Or should we “charge back into the fray”? With reminders, of course, to “take no prisoners….”
I hope the above is not “overkill,” but allow me to put forth just one more, fully developed, example: A piece of neighborhood gossip might sound like this: “Hey, I just got some new intel! As they say, all’s fair in love and war, but get a load of this one: Well, so she was drop-dead gorgeous and just dying to get to know him, because she was blown away by his killer good looks, and the way he stood tall, like a good soldier and a gentleman. But when he found out she was married, the news hit him like a real bombshell and he was so ticked off he was really sweating bullets. He’s a straight arrow and a real straight shooter, so right off, he went ballistic. He really blew up at her, and then she got all up in arms and launched an all-out, take-no-prisoners counterattack on him—you could call it a real character assassination. He was just blown out of the water by the force of it, and at that moment he knew that nobody had his back. He felt like he was the only one left holding down the fort, which is why his romance was no longer like shooting fish in a barrel—it was blasted into smithereens when everything just blew up in his face. He was dead in the water, and he felt like he was behind enemy lines. He was the victim of a frontal attack, and his wounds were deep. He had clearly lost the battle and the war, so he ran up the white flag and then retreated to fight another day.”
I rest my case.
You killed it, Chuck! Nicely done.