Are You Really a Friend?
One of my prize hobbyhorses concerns the War on Nouns. Yes, every day we suffer from the War on Nouns, as perfectly good things are cast down and abandoned in favor of adjectives and adverbs which then masquerade maliciously as authentic nouns. It's a veritable invasion of the body snatchers. Paranoia is the appropriate response. Colbert has popularized the infamous example of truthiness -- a word which, technically, is a red-blooded American noun, but hardly belongs in the same grammatical category as truth. The integrity even of a word like truthfulness is under attack, when we slip so quickly and easily from friend (n.) to friendly (adv.) to friendliness (???). A friend, as shown in the brilliant comic below, is not at all necessarily whoever emits friendliness in your general direction...
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May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
You mean "friend" is a word even away from Facebook?
Now, back to "warring" on nouns.... :-(
May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
It really bothers me when people verb nouns.
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
We gotta find a way to disincent that.
May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
James Poulos, Ed.
We gotta find a way to disincent that. · Jul 23 at 1:00pm
Even better, let's disincentivise that.
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
The use of "impact" as a verb distresses me so greatly that I think I'll Al Haig it if ever I see it on Ricochet.
May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
Worse, the word "impactful".
Then again, I can't stand the word "utilize" when "use" is so very simply and elegant.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
Not quite on point, but when did "oriented" get replaced by "orientated"? And when did people start placing apostrophes to designate plural's? Is it just me, or am I starting to sound like Andy Rooney?
May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
I can't stand the verb "leverage". Let me just luggage a few clothes, then mileage my way to the airport, where I will stowage my carry-on in the overhead bin before the aircraft departures us to our destination.
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
Jimmie Bise Jr
Worse, the word "impactful".
Then again, I can't stand the word "utilize" when "use" is so very simply and elegant.
Standing O, guys. You beat me to it. The incent thing, for the record, was an intentional joke.
It's really shocking how grammar is deteriorating. I don't think we're headed for a new dark ages, but it is astounding how poorly people tolerate grammatical criticism even of this basic type. "Shut up, you know what I/they mean...."
Jul '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
"I can't stand the verb 'leverage'. Let me just luggage a few clothes, then mileage my way to the airport, where I will stowage my carry-on in the overhead bin before the aircraft departures us to our destination."
Well done.
How about the word "Bork[?]"
Jul '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
Then there was the awful trifecta that popped up like a cyst in the 90s: "healthful", "hurtful", and "wellness".
I hate those. Not just because they're awful-sounding clinkers that sub for perfectly good words we already have, but also because they were the battle streamers for every dumb lefty crusade of the period.
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
"Orientated" is British. And annoying.
Jul '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
You and William Zinnser:
http://www.cla.wayne.edu/polisci/kdk/general/sources/zinsser.htm
The battle is not a new one; An essay entitled "Clutter" by the above linked Mr. Zinnser was included in my freshman writing textbook circa 1996.
May '10
Re: Are You Really a Friend?
We might as well start saying "transportated".