“Sooner than later”. I’ve been hearing this one a lot lately. I first heard it in a pop song by Canadian singer LIGHTS (“Sooner than later, I need a saviour”), and I can forgive it in a song or poem where meter is more important than grammar. But I’ve since heard it spoken and seen it in prose, and it offends me. It should be “sooner rather than later”, of “I’d rather have it sooner than later”. “Sooner than later” makes no sense on its own. I suppose you could say that “sooner than later” is a wordy way to say “now”:
That may be where it came from, but I consistently see it used to insinuate that the student whose ‘self of steam’ is under discussion has an unwarrantedly high opinion of their capabilities.
I can’t imagine that the students in the article were anything but mortified to realize that they’d been spelling it wrong for presumably years and greatly appreciated someone pointing it out. (As Ellen DeGeneres says, “Does he have it? That’s what the line is? Why have I been singing Monkey Hatchet? How many people have heard me sing MONKEY HATCHET?!”)
[rant]
Problem being, in a lot of companies, a “resource” really is all you are to them. An expendable, disposable, use-once-and-toss resource.
You’d think the HR toads could at least disguise their attitude a little better in the terminology they use. But no, it better suits the corporate purposes for all employees to always know and never be allowed to forget it.
[/rant]
This is the Euphemism Treadmill in action. “Resource” is meant to at least have positive connotations. (Whee, I am in a class with the wind, the trees, the seas, aye, verily with the Sun itself! Am I not magnificent?)
This is meant to dress up the lowly “employee,” those of whom that possessed dictionaries may have noticed simply denotes “one who is used.”
Expiration (to me) sounds like the overly complicated examples given earlier in the thread: Persons conversating about their burglarised (though underutilized and defuncticated due to the expiration of the cream cheese) sammich.
I’ll give you the fact that expiration has been used for longer, but many other medieval words have also been modified over the years and expiry has been acceptable since around 1750.
And, on an unrelated note. “Good on you” has been in common usage down under since the mid 20th century at the very least, almost certainly much longer. Often shortened to “Onya!” IME.
How about “persons?” As in, “… any persons needing assistance …” How about just saying people? Nothing wrong with that. And it doesn’t set my teeth on edge, which is nice for me.
Also, “myself” when it’s misused. “If you have any questions, please let Bob or myself know.” When I hear that one, I don’t know whether to scream or weep.
Listen. Cromulent is pretty awesome. I don’t use it often, but when I do, it is the prefect fit!
Copacetic is gold. No way you can hate that. As a bit of trivia, this word is already pretty corrupted on the street level. Most folks say ‘copastetic’. I’m not joking. They have added a ‘t’. Now, when I say it correctly, I actually get people trying to make me put the extra ‘t’ in.
Of course I know that you have a right to hate any words you choose. But, damn, those are two really good ones.