Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Doing away with useless language

George Carlin is no doubt working this into his next HBO special as we speak:
The list gave short shrift to media shorthand for celebrity duos such as "TomKat," for the union of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and "Brangelina," for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

How would "Lardy" have sounded as a nickname for long-ago comedians Laurel and Hardy, or "BogCall" for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the list's compilers asked.

Media bashers also welcomed banishment of the phrases "gone missing" or "went missing."

"It makes 'missing' sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos," wrote contributor Robin Dennis of Flower Mound, Texas.

The same goes for a robbery "gone bad," which raises the question of whether a theft could go well and good, the list-makers said. Similarly, reporters covering the immigration issue should try again after coming up with "undocumented alien," which was compared to euphemistically calling a drug dealer an "undocumented pharmacist."

The list also decried the use in everyday speech of the Internet typographical error "pwn," as used when a game-player tells his defeated opponent "I pwn you," instead of own you.

1 comment:

Captain Mike said...

I nominate the following:

"literally" - as in, "My headache was so bad that my brain literally exploded!"

"proactive" - whatever happened to "assertive?"

"lol ;)" - no explanation needed

"prolly" - Wow, do I hate this non-word! Literally!

"pimp" - this word should have no application outside of the management of prostitutes

So there.