Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • 'Gifted'… when did that creep into the English language? Or is it me…
  • househusband
    Full Member

    When did using the word ‘gifted’ suddenly become used so much? Don’t think it’s an American thing.

    That’s ‘gifted’ as in ‘gifted to’ (given) not ‘gifted’ as in child, which in my mind as a cynical secondary teacher can often mean an awkward child with an as yet undiagnosed condition on a spectrum.

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    I normally hate the whole ‘verbing nouns’ thing, but it seems gifting has a long and legitimate history.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    One advert recently exhorted me to “shop our deluxe gifting range.”

    Reader, I killed them. All of them.

    Esme
    Free Member

    And “hosting” – that’s another one.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Wwaswas wins the interwebz!

    Outstanding.

    aracer
    Free Member

    Hosting as in hosting a website, in an Alien sense or is there some other funny context I’ve not come across?

    mefty
    Free Member

    is there some other funny context I’ve not come across?

    Yes a dinner party. Obviously you were NFI.

    bensales
    Free Member

    The one that’s currently bugging me is use the of ‘lighted’ instead of ‘lit’.

    mattsccm
    Free Member

    How about ” for free”.??? That winds me up something rotten.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    “In cinemas Wednesday”

    I will kill again.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    OMFG – language is evolving and we can’t control it to keep it just how we liked it 9 years ago. Forsooth!

    captainsasquatch
    Free Member

    The one that’s currently bugging me is use the of ‘lighted’ instead of ‘lit’.

    Why? and I’m not 100% on gifted/gifting either.

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    “In cinemas Wednesday”

    I will kill again.

    Chill bae

    neilthewheel
    Full Member

    UA woman on the radio this evening talked about having spent “a bunch of time” with somebody. At least, I think that’s what she said, she may have said “a bunch of thyme”. She was American so she could have been referring to ‘urbs.

    sofaboy73
    Free Member

    What currently boils my piss is everyone feeling “blessed”. Nothing grammatically wrong with it (as far as my English gsce leads me believe), but blessed by whom? I’m pretty sure that most people I see posting don’t believe in a higher power, so who is doing all of this blessing? Did the pope pop round in his pointy had and oblige? If you feel ‘fortunate’ or ‘lucky’ or ‘loved’ just say that, why the religious lingo creep? What next, do you feel “atoned” because someone accepted your apology??

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    Aw bless…

    sofaboy73
    Free Member

    Aw bless…

    touche

    bensales
    Free Member

    bensales – Member
    The one that’s currently bugging me is use the of ‘lighted’ instead of ‘lit’.

    captainsasquatch – Member
    Why?

    To me it just doesn’t flow as well. I think it’s because the material I grew up as a kid reading always used lit (Blyton, Ransome, etc), but more modern stuff, particularly American authors as that link says, uses lighted.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Often appearing on this forum is “gotten” instead of got and “smart” instead of clever. I don’t know why people feel the need to adopt annoying Americanisms.

    OTOH, I suppose most of the language spoken in the USA came from England….

    MrNice
    Free Member

    OTOH, I suppose most of the language spoken in the USA came from England….

    and sometimes the Americanisms that grate are actually the older form of the language and it’s the British English that has changed

    gray
    Full Member

    My pet hate is “learnings”. People who I otherwise like and respect come out with crap like “so what learnings should we take away from this?”. I haven’t checked, and frankly don’t care whether this is actually correct. Just, COME ON. Stop trying to sound businessy. We have plenty of ways to say this without sounding like an idiot.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3OIfuVpocU[/video]


    Bill Watterson January 1993

    elliptic
    Free Member

    “Around” instead of “about” eg. “we’ve been working on some ideas around X”.

    Dunno why it irritates me so much, except the first time I heard it was on a piss-boilingly fatuous “leadership training” course that a previous employer sent me on, and all the loathing got distilled into that phrase…

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    across the BBC

    What exactly was wrong with “on”?

    holst
    Free Member

    To me it just doesn’t flow as well. I think it’s because the material I grew up as a kid reading always used lit (Blyton, Ransome, etc)

    Exactly, shocking that people no longer talk like Enid Blyton characters.

    ocrider
    Full Member

    CaptainFlashheart – Member
    across the BBC
    What exactly was wrong with “on”?

    Because it doesn’t universalize (with a z) the all-encompassing entity?

    Everyone feeling blessed on Facebook can do one.

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    “The electric” instead of “electricity” as the noun.

    Is this correct usage, or informal? Never heard the phrase til I moved here, and it really grates for some reason.

    goon
    Free Member

    CaptainFlashheart – Member
    across the BBC
    What exactly was wrong with “on”?

    Thank Christ it’s not just me. Keeping or staying across story can FRO too.

    Mister-P
    Free Member

    “In cinemas Wednesday”

    Especially when it is followed up with “January thirteen” instead of thirteenth.

    Nobby
    Full Member

    CaptainFlashheart – Member

    across the BBC

    What exactly was wrong with “on”?

    I was told this had become their generic term for content rather than listing all of the ways in which it can be seen/heard e.g. Digital TV/Online/Sky/Virgin/Apps etc.

    Still don’t see why ‘on’ wasn’t sufficient mind.

    ocrider
    Full Member

    It’s very Siobhan Sharpe isn’t it.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    My current piss-boiler is “inbox.” As in “inbox me that report.” WTAF is wrong with “email”?

    Exactly, shocking that people no longer talk like Enid Blyton characters.

    That might change soon, I’ve just heard they’re doing a film adaptation of The Magic Faraway Tree.

    Especially when it is followed up with “January thirteen” instead of thirteenth.

    You need a ‘the’ in there also.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    My current piss-boiler is “inbox.” As in “inbox me that report.” WTAF is wrong with “email”?

    I reckon the “inbox me” might have started on Facebook? Pre-messenger, when threads/posts were being discussed in public, or in for sale posts, once two people want to make the conversation private, one would ask the other to send them a message to their Facebook inbox, which I presume then got shortened to “inbox me” and this has now crept to normal e-mail. At least that was where I first noticed the term. I think I may have used the term on Facebook myself. I try not to get too bothered about language evolving like this though – you might as well try and stop the tide. The useful stuff remains and the crap stuff gets discarded. Verbalisation of nouns is sometimes a fantastic way of being economic with words. Some of it works, some of it is a bit clunky.

    CaptainFlashheart – Member
    across the BBC
    What exactly was wrong with “on”?

    Presumably “on” was more suited to when the BBC had one channel and people spoke just like you’d still like them to? 😛

    Mackem
    Full Member

    I still hate “edit” when referring to a video.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    When I come to power, DD…….

    GHill
    Full Member

    I rather like “off of”. It informs me of the cretins I should ignore.

    dallas95
    Free Member

    At work the management have started “reaching out” to us instead of contacting us as they used to do. As in ” Your line manager will reach out to you to discuss these changes with you”. I can’t tell the difference but I’m sure it feels better for them. We are a UK company not American.

    bongohoohaa
    Free Member

    I ain’t got time for all this shit, I’m off to shop a sale.

    andrewy
    Full Member

    So something that irritates me is people starting a statement with “so”.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)

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