Words we cannot abide.

[EEPhil]

I'm really starting to miss the g from '-ing' as increasingly people forget that it is there. It's all streamin', hurtin', buildin'...

That's been going on for a long time. I've seen a 1950 British film where an actor says carryin'.

 

[RobH1]

Gotten is sneaking in.

 

[Black Hole]

Gotten is sneaking in.

It was absent for a while, I can't decide whether to welcome it back.

 

[af123]

It was absent for a while, I can't decide whether to welcome it back.

I don't think it ever left "Ill gotten gains"

 

[RobH1]

Ah yes, but I wasn't thinking of that context. I'll get my head into gear and think again.

 

[Luke]

It was absent for a while, I can't decide whether to welcome it back.

Looking at the full OED the earliest date it quotes is 1381, but it has no quotes from 2019. The OED's most recent quote is as old as 2018.

 

[Black Hole]

Momentarily (unless used to mean "for a moment" as opposed to "soon")

 

[Trev]

Momentarily under any circumstances.

 

[gomezz]

Looking at the full OED the earliest date it quotes is 1381, but it has no quotes from 2019. The OED's most recent quote is as old as 2018.

Does the OED practise a rolling programme of checking entries for words. Could be the G section was last checked that year.

 

[RobH1]

I don't think it ever left "Ill gotten gains"

Ah yes, but I wasn't thinking of that context. I'll get my head into gear and think again.

Ah, I found it. The line in the book I was reading was "He had gotten out of jail"

 

[Trev]

Well dang my hide if he didn't.

 

[EEPhil]

Covid-19 related words I'm getting fed up with -
R number. Argh! R is a letter not a number. Do "they" mean R value, or R rate. Even the government document explaining R adds to the confusion.
If I hear the word "droplet" again it will be too soon. And as for aerosol, I can't help thinking of the Not The Nine O'Clock News Swedish chemist sketch.

 

[gomezz]

You may just as well dispute that it is wrong to say maximum number or a comfortable number.

 

[Black Hole]

R rate

Mathematically, R is a dimensionless quantity so it can't (accurately) be called a rate (which would have some element of inverse time). R represents a numerical value, so "R number" isn't far from accurate, and it identifies "R" as something special to the listener who might not otherwise realise what just "R" thrown into a sentence meant.

So far as I know, R means Reproduction (although I guess it could be Reinfection).

Not The Nine O'Clock News Swedish chemist sketch.

 

[Black Hole]

I think someone may be doing some HD testing/tweaking in the coming days.

Aarrrgghhhhh!!!!! I've developed an aversion to this usage ever since Rod Stewart.

 

[gomezz]

Mathematically, R is a dimensionless quantity

Er, no it isn't. It has the dimensions [infectee] / [infected].

 

[Black Hole]

That's a ratio. Ratios are dimensionless.

 

[EEPhil]

Isn't English a wonderful language? I see the word ratio and "hear" rat - eye - oh. Probably because of that word patio. (or maybe being involved with computers etc and thinking of input/output)

 

[EEPhil]

Also getting fed up with:
The new normal - assume everyone has the virus, wear face coverings, avoid public transport, prices up, taxes up, shopping choices down, quality down and be made redundant.
Deep clean - wipe over with mucky rag and say that it is virus free.

 

[RobH1]

Can add 'Hero/es' to my list.