At first blush.
Indeed, most emergency doctors specifically use the term “motor vehicle collision” rather than “accident”, which implies less avoidability or responsibility.
Have “edutainment” and “infomercial” been mentioned yet?
How about “marshal law”?
Around Dodge City and in the territory on West, there’s just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers—and that’s with a U. S. Marshal and the smell of GUNSMOKE!
How about “the hell out of”?
Those of you who don’t like “ask” as a noun (“What’s their ask?”)
Can you give me a one-syllable word that means the opening inquiry by someone in negotiations, explaining what they want to achieve?
I don’t believe there is a one-syllable word that conveys that meaning in the form of “What’s their ____?”. Although there are certainly simple one-syllable words that work in different forms, such as “What do they want?” or “What do they need?” or, for that matter, “What are they asking?”.
But the fact of the matter is that “ask” is not a noun, either in standard English or in any known dialect. “What’s their ask?” is simply not English. Biz-speak is not a dialect, it’s an abomination.
Heh. I can never see or hear that phrase without thinking of an old girlfriend. She informed me she hated it. Then I learned she hated “The bottom line.” Then it seemed she hated any and all phrases. I soon learned she had been institutionalized and probably should never have been released. Not that you yourself need to be institutionalized, but I can honestly never encounter that phrase with that old flame’s batshit craziness coming to the forefront.
“What’s their request?” “What’s their goal?” If it’s an actual negotiation, “What’s their opener?”
Agree biz-speak is often an abomination. Clueless trend-driven unskilled managers playing ego self-reinforcement games.
Reminds me of teenagers demonstrating their “individual independence” by rebelling. But all in the same way; be that late 1950s rock’n’roll, late 1960s long hair, 1990s Goth or … . I did that in my turn too, so I’m not being all superior. We can’t expect much more from teens given their limited life experience.
I’d like to expect better from supposedly adult supposedly well-adjusted and well-trained managers.
My problem with these unskilled and purposeless distortions of language is that they not only add nothing to clarity of expression, they often detract from it. “What’s their ask?” is a very simple structure whose meaning is clear even if its grammar is jarring, but it really is possible for biz-speak to start becoming incomprehensible. I mentioned before a certain VP I had to deal with once who was so immersed in biz-speak that I often genuinely did not understand what the hell he was saying. My consolation was that I was pretty sure he didn’t know, either. I was certainly never deprived of any useful knowledge by ignoring the non-English parts of his bloviations. I did sometimes wonder if he spoke to his friends and family the same way, peppering everything with “asks”, “paradigms”, “synergies”, and “leverages”.
I think the reason they do it is to differentiate themselves from the lower tiers of the workforce. Humble workers may have “requests” and even “demands” (especially if unionized) but when you’ve become a mission-critical decision maker executing best-of-breed core performance, you have only “asks”. These asks are often “leveraged” in a way that would have made Archimedes proud. If you leverage something hard enough, you can sometimes even shift a paradigm.
“bid”
Who cares? It’s just horrendous English. Most of us are literate grownups who can handle two syllable words without using something terrible like “what’s the ask?”.
Nope, the “bid” is what you’re offering, usually financial in nature. The “ask” is what you’re hoping to get, and it may not be financial at all.
In cases where I’ve been involved and the word “ask” has been used, it’s been more in the nature of interest-based negotiating, trying to find out what everyone around the table is hoping to get out of the negotiation.
Why? Language evolves. “Bid”, for example, is both a noun and a verb. What’s wrong with “ask” becoming a noun in the same way?
The reason I asked about a one-syllable alternative is that in spoken English, there is always a tendency for shorter words to be used more frequently than longer ones, and gradually replace the longer ones. For example, who says “electronic mail” any more? So, if you don’t want “ask” to be used in this way, you have to have an alternative short term that will be picked up and fulfill the same function.
What is that word? Or even a two-syllable word that carries that same meaning, of an indication of what the person is hoping to get out of the negotiations?
Otherwise, you’re just fighting against the natural cadences of spoken English.
We had a junior executive trying to be a senior one, who would use all sorts of trendy corp-speak in an attempt to make himself sound more professional. Little did he know it was having the opposite effect.
He’d kick off a meeting with “So, hey, what’s the ask from American Family?” and every single person he “asked” that of would reply “Well, the REQUEST from the Homeowners Marketing Department* is for a complete set of capabilities brochures by end of their fiscal year.”
We never planned it, but it seems everyone hated The Ask and replied with Request.
*(notice: not ALL of American Family as he’d implied)
…
ps, Hey, Northern_Piper, if you’re planning on using The Ask, be aware of how people will react… though you may never be aware of it.
So a bid on a contract is what you are offering?
yes, “Here’s my sealed bid on Job 2021, no. 3” (Technically, most invitations on jobs are termed “Calls for tenders” in my experience, but in spoken English, it’s often called the “bid” - the shorter word often prevails.)
Same as in Bridge - the bid is what you’re saying you can make; it’s your commitment. Obviously, you’re hoping to make the bid, or else your opponents score, but that’s not really an ask.
I’m irked by the way the word “entitlement” is used nowadays. I don’t like the phrase “he/she has a sense of entitlement” or even “he/she is SO ENTITLED!” being used to mean that someone feels they have a right to something to which the don’t. I feel this popular expression has given the very concept of entitlement a bad name. But there are things in life that all of us are legitimately entitled to and that are not privileges but rights. I’m actually planning on writing a whole post on this topic soon. I wish this expression could be somehow re-written.
Something not unrelated: while understanding the historical context, I take issue with John F. Kennedy’s famous statement from his innauguration speech “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” I actually WANT to do something for my country (read that to mean Canada and the Czech Republic) and I hope I already HAVE and that I will AGAIN. I’m not against service to one’s country, don’t get me wrong. Nevertheless, I feel this is an inappropriate thing for a politician to say because 1) I deem countries to exist for the benefit of people, not people for the benefit of countries. 2) Even more importantly, you are an elected official. Do you know what that makes you? MY servant. Maybe a highly paid and regarded servant, but still ultimately nothing but a servant, representing my country. You have been elected to do something for ME, and I expect you to deliver…That said, I realize that Kennedy could speak that way back then because people trusted the government more back then (or so I’m told). Basically that started to change when he was assassinated. I would like to believe his comment was well meant and spoken in good faith. But still, I would not want to give a politician license to talk about my duties without focusing heavily on what (s)he plans to do for the country.
Oh I know…Bid = Grovel