• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Words and phrases recently introduced into the English language.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,122
Not so much posh but I think it sounds excessively formal, I use "Can I have" for that reason.

Far worse than "Can I get xxxx" however is "Give me xxxx" which I hear fairly regularly in food outlets.
That might be just about acceptable if followed by a 'please', but I doubt it would be 99.99% of times. If I were still a shopkeeper I'd not respond to such a 'request.'
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

SJL2020

Member
Joined
18 Jan 2020
Messages
311
Location
Rossett
Factoid...often uttered by the soon to be history, thankfully ! Steve Wright...."the ultimate ".
Factoid is a useful word when used correctly.

It has also been around for nearly 50 years, so it's not been 'recently introduced' as per thread title.
 

D821

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2021
Messages
624
Location
The Wirral
Languages are constantly evolving entities, as I heard a linguist once say. Certain phrases fall out of use and are replaced by others.
Please and thank you shouldn't be considered superfluous, though.
 

WelshBluebird

Established Member
Joined
14 Jan 2010
Messages
4,923
That might be just about acceptable if followed by a 'please', but I doubt it would be 99.99% of times. If I were still a shopkeeper I'd not respond to such a 'request.'
I'd suggest how polite (or not) someone is being is a bit different to the language they are using though.
And whilst it may not be "correct English", if someone is asking "can I get xx please" pr even "give me xx please", you know what they are trying to communicate!
 

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,447
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
I'd suggest how polite (or not) someone is being is a bit different to the language they are using though.
And whilst it may not be "correct English", if someone is asking "can I get xx please" pr even "give me xx please", you know what they are trying to communicate!
Who to blame? Parents when used at home or teachers when used at school and the matter not being corrected in those situations?
 

AndrewE

Established Member
Joined
9 Nov 2015
Messages
5,105
Not so much posh but I think it sounds excessively formal, I use "Can I have" for that reason.

Far worse than "Can I get xxxx" however is "Give me xxxx" which I hear fairly regularly in food outlets.
I understood that "Give me a..." is from the USA, maybe specifically New York, where courtesy is not common or normal.
In an old ISIHAC Jack Dee said something like "The difference between US and UK English is that they say "Aluminum" and "Baysil," whereas we say "Please" and "Thank-you!""
 

70014IronDuke

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2015
Messages
3,699
You have proved the very point made earlier on. You interpret it as that, which I have to say is at variance with dictionaries, and are saying that it means what you want it to mean. You are almost acting as a reverse ‘woker’ (if that is the word). (Unless your post is actually satire.)

Agree. 100%.
I've only just started reading this thread. I still don't really know what 'woke' means.

But for my two euro cents' worth:

Depending on what you mean by "recently" - I proffer the expression "back to back" - which I only first encountered on the (dreadful) Voice of America Europe radio (which was not the same Voice of America, except for the news bits) in 1990.

The most annoying, inane, illogical expression introduced into ANY language by our Americian cousins, some of whom, presumbably, had trouble saying (and surelyi speliing) the word "consecutive".

Not a new word, but it seems to have inundated much discussion in recent years, is the excessive use of the word "literally" which is frequently used when it isn't - including by BBC commentators.

If someone drops dead, they drop dead. That's it! They don't "literally" drop dead. It is either false usage, or redundant.

Grumpily yours, literally, your site linguistic conservative old f.... ogey, 70014IronDuke.
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,049
Location
North Wales
A few years back (on a tech news website I frequent) a lot of people seemed to be getting worked up about the Alt-Right. I looked at my keyboard and asked if they're also concerned about the left Ctrl key...
 

Gloster

Established Member
Joined
4 Sep 2020
Messages
8,498
Location
Up the creek
Depending on what you mean by "recently" - I proffer the expression "back to back" - which I only first encountered on the (dreadful) Voice of America Europe radio (which was not the same Voice of America, except for the news bits) in 1990.

I associate ‘back to back’ with the ‘Glorious Glosters’.
 

Ediswan

Established Member
Joined
15 Nov 2012
Messages
2,863
Location
Stevenage
A few years back (on a tech news website I frequent) a lot of people seemed to be getting worked up about the Alt-Right. I looked at my keyboard and asked if they're also concerned about the left Ctrl key...
Probably best not to mention the [End] key.
 

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,122
Depending on what you mean by "recently" - I proffer the expression "back to back" - which I only first encountered on the (dreadful) Voice of America Europe radio (which was not the same Voice of America, except for the news bits) in 1990.
I've no way of proving this, but I believe the expression was used in the USA in the late nineteenth century for two steam engines pulling a train, with the second one operating backwards, caused by the need for cowcatchers on the front which, presumably, could not be removed easily.
 

Wilts Wanderer

Established Member
Joined
21 Nov 2016
Messages
2,501
“England into Final” appears to be a phrase that has started reappearing in the last year or so, after quite a long absenve…
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
98,010
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Regarding "leverage" (short E) as a nasty business-speak Americanised verb above, it can also mean "use", "re-use", "repurpose" or "steal" with an implied benefit to the person or organisation doing the "leveraging", e.g. "I leveraged the existing code to provide a solution for another customer at no cost to us". I totally refuse to use it (leverage it?) in a business context and always have, I'll always use one of the UK English analogies depending on the exact context.

Another one is "I was like X" - sort of means "I reacted like this: X". It's a bit annoying but does add a construct that wasn't there before, and means more than just "I said X", usually it's accompanied by a full "acting" (speech, emphasis and body language) of how the speaker reacted to the original thing.
 

AM9

Veteran Member
Joined
13 May 2014
Messages
14,278
Location
St Albans
Another one is "I was like X" - sort of means "I reacted like this: X". It's a bit annoying but does add a construct that wasn't there before, and means more than just "I said X", usually it's accompanied by a full "acting" (speech, emphasis and body language) of how the speaker reacted to the original thing.
Isn't "I was like X" just a filler, instead of 'erm' or 'um'. In practice, it is worse than ums and erms because it is a word with other meanings and usage. To me it can be as irritating as a person saying 'mate' at the end of evey phrase or sentence.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,640
I understood that "Give me a..." is from the USA, maybe specifically New York, where courtesy is not common or normal.
In an old ISIHAC Jack Dee said something like "The difference between US and UK English is that they say "Aluminum" and "Baysil," whereas we say "Please" and "Thank-you!""
I used to work in a shop and some people would say ' gimme'. It was non native English speakers on the whole.
 

westv

Established Member
Joined
29 Mar 2013
Messages
4,220
"Can I get....?"
"Yes, be my guest. Go and get it if you want."

:D
 

simonw

Member
Joined
7 Dec 2009
Messages
809
I saw "cosplay" twice today, once attributed to Keir Starmer and another time in a written newspaper article.
Now I didn't understand what either of them was saying.
So I looked it up.
I still don't understand what either of them is saying.
It seems to sort of mean dressing up and playing a specific character, and it's true that Liz Truss tries to dress up as Margaret Thatcher but would be more successful if she dressed up as Boris Johnson.
But why do people, especially politicians, use words like these when I imagine that the majority of people reading them (or listening to them) will be like me and won't understand them. Are they trying to be clever? Seems like the wrong thing to do.
I think the majority of people will have heard of cosplay, it's been around for a long time and, although not for me, seems quite popular across a wide range of people.
 

AlterEgo

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Dec 2008
Messages
20,287
Location
No longer here
Most normies won't have heard of cosplay. It barely ever appears in literature and I have never ever heard anyone say the word out loud.

The word "quixotic" appears twice as frequently in books as does "cosplay".
 

westv

Established Member
Joined
29 Mar 2013
Messages
4,220
Most normies won't have heard of cosplay. It barely ever appears in literature and I have never ever heard anyone say the word out loud.

The word "quixotic" appears twice as frequently in books as does "cosplay".
I've never heard of cosplsy or normies
 

simonw

Member
Joined
7 Dec 2009
Messages
809
Most normies won't have heard of cosplay. It barely ever appears in literature and I have never ever heard anyone say the word out loud.

The word "quixotic" appears twice as frequently in books as does "cosplay".
I'm not sure if agree but then I don't know what a normie is

I've never heard of cosplsy or normies
I've never heard of cosplsy which sounds like a medical condition but cosplay is widely used often in conjunction with comicon
 

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
98,010
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Isn't "I was like X" just a filler, instead of 'erm' or 'um'.

No. I've explained what it means - basically "I was like X" is similar to "I said X" but implies that the speaker will act in full how they reacted including emphasis and body language. It's more of "I reacted in this way: X".

Comparison:
"He said I should go home, but I said no, I wasn't going to go until I had been paid"
"He said I should go home, but I was like <waves arms and shrugs shoulders, angry voice>you can forget that until I've been paid!"

I'm not sure if agree but then I don't know what a normie is

A normal, average person not into that specific thing. Same as the term "normal" used by railway enthusiasts to describe an average passenger with little background railway knowledge.

Cosplay is a millennial thing other than in very niche pursuits like re-enactment. I would expect most under-35-ish people would know what it meant but almost no over 35s. So if a politician says it they're trying to be trendy and "down wiv da yoof(ish)".
 

Ralph Ayres

Member
Joined
2 May 2012
Messages
203
Location
West London
How about using the word "shop" when they mean "buy"? Adverts will often invite me to "Shop our new range of xxx". Possibly it's because many people now treat shopping as a leisure activity in its own right but buying something is more directly associated with the painful bit of actually paying.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top