Rusty Spanner - MemberUse of the word horrorshow, or even worse, horror show, to mean something bad or unpleasant.
It makes the user look stupid, as the original meaning is the complete opposite.
Clockwork Orange was hardly the first place the term was used. Are you really assuming that they're trying to use nadsat, rather than using it as a simple description? That does strike me as ironic- complaining that their correct use of the real english language contradicts its use in a made up language which in turn was a corruption of russian.
Unless this was a joke of course
People, especially those in the media, who incorrectly pronounce 'privacy' and/or 'controversy'. I'm not even sure why they pronounce them wrong, is it to appease the Americans?
People who misuse the words surreal, pedant(ry) or pedantic,who from their usage of the word obviously have no idea of what the correct definition is.
Is "horrorshow" from clockwork orange not used to describe something they liked?
TandemJeremy - Member
Is "horrorshow" from clockwork orange not used to describe something they liked?
Yes, but they liked some pretty awful stuff to be fair.
And Tucker, I always thought that the stress in the word 'controversy' could go on either the first or second syllable.
Just as an aside, my wife is a speech therapist and she never tries to stop patients from using colloquialisms, or using local words / pronunciations.
"acronym". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1991), Oxford University Press. p. 12: "a word, usu[ally] pronounced as such, formed from the initial letters of other words (e.g. Ernie, laser, Nato)".Is that "English" enough for you?
Yes, and it supports what I originally pointed out, that 'GMT' is not an acronym, but an initialism. STRICTLY speaking of course... 😉
Surely GMT is an acronym?
You are thinking of abbreviation.
Northwind, bet you can't find a pre ACO usage of horrorshow. 🙂
Willing to be proved wrong though - might have been a corruption used by returning soldiers or by people adapting it from the speech of Russian immigrants.
And no I'm not joking, it really annoys me!
Surely GMT is an acronym?You are thinking of abbreviation.
No - see the definition on Wikipedia that I linked to earlier! I'm being overly pedantic for this thread only, but strictly speaking an acronym would be RADAR, SCUBA, PIN etc. and an initialism would be GMT, HTML etc. They are both abbreviations.
That said people often tend to call any abbreviation 'acronym'.
Wouldn't know where to start looking tbh, though I don't know why you'd doubt that the term might be used to describe, well, horror shows. A lot more plausible than the idea that everyone who uses the term differently is trying to do a reference to Clockwork Orange and getting it wrong. It's just a totally different use.
Usage, signage, utalise - usually ustalised in the wrong context.
At least once a day I have to correct "PC's".
I think you'll find that [i]PC's[/i] can be considered correct as the apostrophe is used in this context to indicate the C as an abbreviation for computer.
Happy to help 😀
Regarding Tron's reference to percent, a few years ago the government claimed that they had only increased national insurance by 1% as it went from 10% to 11%.
I make that an increase of 10%.
There was also a government radio advertising campaign about mis sold pensions or something, which warned that "Some people may have been cheated out of up to £10 000 or more".
That sentence alone contains up to three or more misleading statements.
And Tucker, I always thought that the stress in the word 'controversy' could go on either the first or second syllable.
Interesting. I was always taught first only. And a quick Google turns [url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8305645/The-conTROversy-over-changing-pronunciations.html ]this up.[/url]
Might be an age thing? I'm 46.
I'm being overly pedantic for this thread only, but strictly speaking an acronym would be RADAR, SCUBA, PIN etc. and an initialism would be GMT, HTML etc.
That's not being pedantic. Words that made up of initials already have a name as you've correctly pointed out, the [i]whole point[/i] about acronyms is that they form a pronounceable word.
I think you'll find that PC's can be considered correct as the apostrophe is used in this context to indicate the C as an abbreviation for computer.
IIRC, it's also permissible when the absence of the apostrophe would make the resulting word confusing. PC's would be borderline here perhaps.