spikey Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) Ever since people started to say "at this point in time" instead of "now", I've been waiting for the day. And it's finally arrived via the BBC News website: a Mr Jones of Messrs Amazon is quoted thus ... "We've been planning this for a long time. It's a big step up in volume. In the early days of lockdown all our capacity was being used. We're confident that we can launch this service now at this point in time," he says. Edited July 28, 2020 by spikey 4 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 28, 2020 1 minute ago, spikey said: Ever since people started to say "at this point in time" instead of "now", I've been waiting for the day. And it's finally arrived via the BBC News website: a Mr Jones of Messrs Amazon is quoted as saying ... "We've been planning this for a long time. It's a big step up in volume. In the early days of lockdown all our capacity was being used. We're confident that we can launch this service now at this point in time," he says. He's missed currently, immediately and as of out if the sentence! Mike. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Radford Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Some of you may have watched the excellent Sci-Fi series Babylon 5. A recurring line from the Centauri ambassador Londo Mollari was "When the time is right". This phrase seems to be being used a lot at the current time... 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocor Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Word inflation, why use just one word when you can use six. 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 The neologism with which I'm currently, now and at this point in time having the biggest problem is "woke" ... 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Reorte Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2020 I broadly agree but I think there's a subtle difference between "at this point in time" and "now", the latter just being a synonym for current and the former carrying an implementation that now is the appropriate time for something instead of just happening to be the current time. Not that that difference always seems to occur to the people using the phrase. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlenPudzeoch Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 "At the end of the day" it's night. 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 28, 2020 2 hours ago, GlenPudzeoch said: "At the end of the day" it's night. It's y. Mike. 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free At Last Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 "I myself" don't get this. 2 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 28, 2020 I’ve often wondered what ‘strict guidelines’ are. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 43 minutes ago, BoD said: I’ve often wondered what ‘strict guidelines’ are. Flannel. The complete expression is '...which will be disregarded even faster than the superseded guidelines the moment they become mildly inconvenient. 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeysarefun Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said: He's missed currently, immediately and as of out if the sentence! Mike. "Going forward/s" gets added to every sentence about planning here by talking heads and middle management enthusiasts. Edited July 28, 2020 by monkeysarefun 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium melmerby Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) A "big" ask What's an ask? There's isn't such a noun. Edited July 28, 2020 by melmerby 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 12 hours ago, spikey said: "We've been planning this for a long time. It's a big step up in volume. In the early days of lockdown all our capacity was being used. We're confident that we can launch this service now at this point in time," he says. So at least they didn't start the sentence with the word "So"..... There was a news report on TV earlier this week where the Interviewee did this, with every single reply. I had to switch over in the end.... 1 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said: So at least they didn't start the sentence with the word "So"..... There was a news report on TV earlier this week where the Interviewee did this, with every single reply. I had to switch over in the end.... If you're going to say "So", it should be pronounced "Zo"! and, instead of using "At this point in time", perhaps "From this moment on" could be used, as Cole Porter did... Its quite the thing! (Another mis-usage that grinds my teeth...) Edited July 28, 2020 by Hroth Getting the video to insert! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tankerman Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 28, 2020 The two expressions that grate with me are these. I or me, personally. If you are referring to yourself how can it be anything but personal to yourself? The other is putting a qualifying word in front of the word unique. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacific231G Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, melmerby said: A "big" ask What's an ask? There's isn't such a noun. There is now! Nominalisation or 'nouning' of verbs is hardly new and few would now consider "The trawler crew landed their catch" as colloquial or poor English . There are many of them that grate on me, such as the "The British Swim Team" but they're being formed all the time and are not inherently ungrammatical. Ask as a noun has though been in the English language for over a thousand years. It fell out of use in the late nineteenth century but reappeared as an Australian cricket colloquialism, usually as "a big ask" or "a huge ask" towards the end of the last century. So, in that context, it's not now even a neologism. Asking a lanugage as dynamic as ours to not change over time is an impossibly big ask! By the way, the 'neologism' woke was used politically in support of Abraham Lincolln during the 1860 presidential election but its origins in African-American Vernacular English probably go back further than that. It was also used in something like its present political meaning in the 1960s but also in the late 1930s. Edited July 28, 2020 by Pacific231G 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Flying Pig Posted July 28, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 28, 2020 16 hours ago, spikey said: Ever since people started to say "at this point in time" instead of "now", I've been waiting for the day. You've been waiting a long time then: people have been lampooning this sort of usage for years. Back in the 1970s the phrases "at this juncture" and "at this present moment in time" infested the speech of spokesmen and interviewees (for some reason I hear the latter in the voice of Harold Wilson). Does anyone remember the spoof gameshow on Not the Nine O'Clock News where union leaders had to speak for as long as possible without using the word "aspirations"? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 5 hours ago, BoD said: I’ve often wondered what ‘strict guidelines’ are. I think they used to be called rules. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 (edited) 32 minutes ago, PatB said: I think they used to be called rules. No a Rule is a rule to which you as a good Union Man work to the letter of when working to rule. "Working to strict guidelines," doesn't have quite the same je ne sais quoi does it? Edited July 29, 2020 by DavidCBroad 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 I don't know what 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted July 29, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2020 What grinds my gears (thank you, Homer) most among modern language-mangling is 'could/should/would of', instead of the correct 'have'. One from earlier today was 'reversing back'; you can reverse, or go back, but reversing back is a double negative and must therefore mean 'going forward'. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 4 hours ago, DavidCBroad said: No a Rule is a rule to which you as a good Union Man work to the letter of when working to rule. "Working to strict guidelines," doesn't have quite the same je ne sais quoi does it? One problem with "Working To Rule" is that you suddenly find yourself working more efficiently and productively than you did normally. Not often, but it sometimes happens! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 (edited) 20 hours ago, Tankerman said: The other is putting a qualifying word in front of the word unique. "The most optimal solution" was on the BBC News site only yesterday ... Edited July 29, 2020 by spikey Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 One that really annoys me recently is "Road Map" or the Americanism "Route Map". Even I've thought "Don't youngsters use satnavs now?" Coronavirus (COVID-19): Scotland's route map - what you can and cannot do https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-what-you-can-and-cannot-do/ Jason 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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