# at a high rate of speed **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 3, 2007, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569 "2007-06-03T11:11:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/1 "2007-06-03T11:11:22Z")
Listening to the news on the radio this morning, the reporter spoke to someone who described a car as going “at a high rate of speed.” I’ve heard this phrase many times in the past few years, and I’d like to understand its advantage over simply saying “fast” or “very fast”. The person who said this was simply a witness. He was not a reporter who might be paid per word or be under some pressure to have longer reports. As far as I can tell, it is not any more accurate (like one might say about the word “velocity”), nor does it have any more “political correctness” to it. So why do so many people nowadays find this to be a useful expression? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/2 "2007-06-03T18:21:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Many are euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them “The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generations does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females?”; say this to them and they sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them “Murder your mother,” and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. Say to them “It is not improbable that a period may arrive when the narrow if once useful distinction between the anthropoid homo and the other animals, which has been modified on so many moral points, may be modified also even in regard to the important question of the extension of human diet”; say this to them, and beauty born of murmuring sound will pass into their faces. But say to them, in a simple, manly, hearty way “Let’s eat a man!” and their surprise is quite surprising. Yet the sentences say just the same thing. -G. K. Chesterton ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/3 "2007-06-03T20:44:24Z")
That quote might be the most pompous bullshit I’ve ever seen cited. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/4 "2007-06-03T20:52:27Z")
[QUOTE=Keeve] The person who said this was simply a witness. He was not a reporter who might be paid per word or be under some pressure to have longer reports. As far as I can tell, it is not any more accurate (like one might say about the word “velocity”), nor does it have any more “political correctness” to it. So why do so many people nowadays find this to be a useful expression? [/QUOTE] I’m gonna go with what **ITR Champion** suggests. As well as point out that in your example, “rate” and “speed” mean pretty much the same thing. “At a high speed” conveys everything that “at a high rate of speed” does. Of course, as you point out “fast” does the job just as well. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/5 "2007-06-03T21:23:23Z")
Maybe they are emulating police jargon. I actually heard an ordinary citizen in a TV interview say, when asked what he did after the fire started, “Then I exited the premises.” ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/6 "2007-06-05T14:42:14Z")
A reasonably common phrase is to talk of things travelling at ‘a rate of knots’ - this just sounds like a garbled version of it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/7 "2007-06-05T14:55:13Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] Maybe they are emulating police jargon. I actually heard an ordinary citizen in a TV interview say, when asked what he did after the fire started, “Then I exited the premises.” [/QUOTE] That’d be my guess- people emulating police jargon they’ve heard from reporters. I had a college professor who called this kind of thing “journalese.” ---
**Author:** ![jebert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/8 "2007-06-05T17:33:50Z")
Yeah, police never call it a car - it’s always a vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/9 "2007-06-05T19:27:37Z")
These are the same people who aren’t satisfied with saying “at this time”. They don’t even like “at this _point_ in time”. They end up stretching it out to “at this _particular point_ in time”. That’s really pinning it down, huh? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/10 "2007-06-05T19:34:16Z")
Worse is to say “at a velocity of 60 mph”. Velocity is a vector, dang it. ---
**Author:** ![Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c4cdca/32.png) [@Quiddity\_Glomfuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quiddity_Glomfuster)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/11 "2007-06-05T19:38:39Z")
[QUOTE=BobLibDem] Worse is to say “at a velocity of 60 mph”. Velocity is a vector, dang it. [/QUOTE] And is it really necessary to say “7 AM in the morning”? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/12 "2007-06-06T01:22:41Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] That quote might be the most pompous bullshit I’ve ever seen cited. [/QUOTE] I think you meant to say “The excerpt presented is reminiscent of bovine biologicial biproducts in the metaphorical sense as it seeks to affect condescension.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/13 "2007-06-06T01:30:23Z")
[QUOTE=jebert] Yeah, police never call it a car - it’s always a vehicle. [/QUOTE] When you are writing report after report you fall into a pattern that works. Police reports are not supposed to be great literature, they are supposed to be an accurate accounting of the events so that it can be used later in trial as a tool to give accurate testimony. Many words and phrases are used over and over because they are lawyer proof. “You called it a car in the report, it really is an SUV. What else did you get wrong?” Calling it a vehicle works for cars, SUVs, buses and rickshaws. Speaking like a police report reads is just dumb. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-a-high-rate-of-speed/406569/14 "2007-06-06T01:36:26Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] When you are writing report after report you fall into a pattern that works. Police reports are not supposed to be great literature, they are supposed to be an accurate accounting of the events so that it can be used later in trial as a tool to give accurate testimony. Many words and phrases are used over and over because they are lawyer proof. “You called it a car in the report, it really is an SUV. What else did you get wrong?” Calling it a vehicle works for cars, SUVs, buses and rickshaws. Speaking like a police report reads is just dumb. [/QUOTE] No cite, but I’ve heard “speaking like a police report” is something insurance assessors look for when chasing fraudulent claims.