Plenty in the peeve department
READERS like to send me their pet peeves. Long may they do so: it’s a sign of life and interest. For me it raises questions, for them it lets off steam — whether the bugbear results from misspelling, mishearing or malforming, or is deemed to be stilted, tautologous or overworked, or something else. The list is long.
Partial and partake Reader One loathes the expressions to be partial to
something and to partake of it. She finds both stilted: one should simply “like” it or “share” in it. You could equally reject procure or obtain as used
for plain get, only of course get suffers such overuse that it’s almost an auxiliary verb, as in get knotted.
Tepid
Reader Two dislikes the phrase ‘‘to give of your best”. But what does the “of” do? To her, it sounds precious, pedantic, and passe. Me, though, I rather like it, if the “of” is partitive. You have a varied and versatile best, and Yes, please give some OF it to the task facing us. This “of” is mildly flattering. Use it to wheedle.
Best shot Not that the phrase’s meaning would elude anyone; to “do your best” in plain and timeless talk, or “give it your best shot”. What
shot is that? Golf? Warfare? Cocktails? It sounds modern and US usage, but dates to 1700. Unknown what sort of “shot” it was back then.
Overuse syndrome
Reader Three laments media voices that start off every sentence with so. It sounds vigorous and logical, yet if nothing has preceded it, the link remains trapped in the speaker’s head. Similarly, many speakers thrash “like” as a sentencebeginner. Quoth Reader Four: “If like and you
know were removed from some people’s vocabulary, their conversations would be far shorter!”
Cascading
Reader Five suffers at work from an overdose of official information which is “cascaded” — sent to everyone on the offchance, instead of thinking who needs or wants it. Computers exacerbate this lazy thinking.
Continue on
Reader Six is me, disliking the creeping tautology of “continue on”. Where but “on” can you “continue” to? I also dislike windows of opportunity and wiggle room: superfluous metaphors rapidly become cliches.
Bunkering down
Did someone mishear when
hunkering down (squatting for safety on your hunkers) became “bunkering” down, instead of simply bunkering = holing up?
State of the ark
Mishearing must have occasioned “stateoftheark”, to mean “up to the minute” instead of stateoftheart. Or did someone picture Noah counting the animals into the ark (clipboard in hand), two by two? Reader Seven heard the similar mistake “he’s got another thing coming” for “another think”. Mishearings attract spleen when we see slang written down misspelt.
May
Another peeve of my own: not necessarily, that ubiquitous sploshy evasion of saying simply “may”. May includes may not: that’s what may means.
Fillup
Alas, English abounds in words that mean nothing: Polyfilla phrases, to gain thinking time or to hog the podium. In the end, at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, when you come right down to it, in the final analysis . . . This noisy junk straddles the categories of the peevable: the pompous, the hackneyed, the misused and misunderstood . . .
Readers’ Alert:
Tell me when you think I have perpetrated any of these mistakes in WordWays — to keep the column honest. And keep the peeves acoming.