21. A "heads up". For example, as in a business meeting. Lets do a "heads up" on this issue. I have never been sure of the meaning. R Haworth, Marlborough
This makes sense to me, though I've never heard it used in a business sense. We say "heads up!" when there's something about to hit someone's head (for example, at a baseball game). You could argue that "heads down!" would make much more sense, and I would agree. However, if we take the common use of the idiom, I see no reason why a "heads up" meeting would be a problem. It's just a way to give everyone a good idea of what's coming -- i.e., a heads up.
22. Train station. My teeth are on edge every time I hear it. Who started it? Have they been punished? Chris Capewell, Queens Park, London
??? What in the world do you call it then???
23. To put a list into alphabetical order is to "alphabetize it" - horrid! Chris Fackrell, York
Well, yes. I don't get the problem here ...?
24. People that say "my bad" after a mistake. I don't know how anything could be as annoying or lazy as that. Simon Williamson, Lymington, Hampshire
Okay, this is just language evolving again. You can fight it if you want, but you're not going to win.
25. "Normalcy" instead of "normality" really irritates me. Tom Gabbutt, Huddersfield
Off the top of my head I want to say some president -- Woodrow Wilson? Warren G. Harding? -- coined this in an election campaign promising a "return to normalcy." Which means that while it would be genuinely American, but also around for quite some time. I'm putting it at around 90 years old.
26. As an expat living in New Orleans, it is a very long list but "burglarize" is currently the word that I most dislike. Simon, New Orleans
Huh. Don't come across it too often, but I don't live in New Orleans either. Okay, you don't have to like that one.
27. "Oftentimes" just makes me shiver with annoyance. Fortunately I've not noticed it over here yet. John, London
Yeah, that is annoying. Funny, I would have pegged it as British.
Eateries in Ohio, really?? Times have changed! Really, I'd be more excited than distressed!
29. I'm a Brit living in New York. The one that always gets me is the American need to use the word bi-weekly when fortnightly would suffice just fine. Ami Grewal, New York
Americans don't really know the word fortnightly. I remember reading it in Anne of Green Gables and never being really sure how long it was -- 10 days? 2 weeks? I had a rough idea, but never nailed it down precisely until I lived in England.
30. I hate "alternate" for "alternative". I don't like this as they are two distinct words, both have distinct meanings and it's useful to have both. Using alternate for alternative deprives us of a word. Catherine, London
Heh. Doesn't really bother me either way.
1 comment:
Hi Kim,
re no. 22, we always used to talk about the "railway station", but I've noticed that "train station" seems to be much more common these days, and, I must admit I've always thought we picked it up from American TV programs.
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