Grim slide

[crowleycrow]

It's trivial -- so many other and far larger awful things lie around us on every side -- but it seems as though Americans are simply forgetting how to use English words.  I am very well aware that language changes, usage loosens,  shortcuts become formal speech:  but mostly what I experience is a loss both of exactness and richness.  The march of

Comments

[proximoception]

Poetic justice against Cornyn et al. has been prompt.

[crowleycrow]

Clever -- and tempting -- but no, I won't accept it. "The uprising against COrnynet al is poetic justice."

[proximoception]

I accept the justice from your unacceptance and will base many thoughts off of it as the years go up.

[wild_irises]

I gave up when "actionable" became a word meaning "something we can do."

[steepholm]

"Revenge" is the word they're groping for, I suspect.

[crowleycrow]

Yes, doubtless. Good one.

[ext_265989]

"Revenge is a kind of wild justice"--Francis Bacon, IIRC; the Lord Chancellor, not the painter. And America has a kind of wild Congress.

[delphipsmith]

I pretty much gave up all hope when "impactful" entered the common vernacular.

[vschanoes]

This is how I feel whenever I grade papers. I am fighting a strong rear-guard action against "based off of." You put something on a base, not off a base (unless you're putting a tag on a base-runner), and thus the correct phrase is "based on."

[crowleycrow]

"Off of" is bad enough all by itself. "I took the book off of the table." From the table, off the table Erg.

[ext_265989]

Do you also have to deal with "This paper will be over ..."?