Something Thoughtful

  Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.

                                                          IRRITATING WORDS

            The state of the world is such that I should be writing a column about Gaza, Ukraine, tariffs, climate change and how much the Academy Awards stink. But the fact is you have already heard every pundit, journalist, columnist and general loud-mouth belch out their half-baked ideas and I refuse to join the fray. Instead, I put myself in grumpy mode and decide to give you a lecture on the misuse of words. So sit up straight and listen carefully. There will be questions after.

            Clichés .

How often do you now hear on radio or TV some tired journalist use the cliché “the song book”. I could be wrong [occasionally I am], but I believe the phrase first became popular in the United States. It is inserted most often in the context of discussing politics, where some journalist wants to belittle a politician for merely copying what somebody else has already said; or castigating a politician as merely mouthing what the leader of his/her party has said. Yes, I get the metaphor. Song books were, once upon a time, literally printed books for singing in church; or books [or sheets] that people read from in old-time community “sings”; so the idea was that this meant people baying to the same tune… like a politician. So we now get journalists saying “Trump is playing from Hitler’s song book” etc. etc. Okay. I get it. But can’t we go back to saying “XYZ politician is repeating [somebody else]” or other obvious ways of making a point? “The song book” metaphor is now worthy of being ditched.

            “Going forward”: For God’s sake abandon this tiresome phrase. Much better to say “in the future” as we used to do. Besides, who says we’re necessarily “going forward”  when we don’t know whether we are going forward or going backwards in our development. Going forward we might be falling off a cliff.

            “Passed” : Okay, I’ve whacked you with this before but it’s worth repeating. Maybe you could say politely to a very old person that somebody had “passed away”. But if you are dealing with sturdy adults you should say that somebody has died. It is both more honest and more truthful. Besides, if I have been told that grandma has “passed” I would immediately assume that my grandma has passed my front door. These days she is losing it after all.

            Misuse of language

         There are many words that are simply misused – almost always by those who do not know the meaning of the word in the first place; and often misused by people boosting ephemeral people in showbiz. Here are some particularly annoying examples.

Iconic: I won’t go into the history of icons and what is truly iconic, but at least something iconic must mean a person or work that has become very well known, esteemed and important in a whole civilisation. But now we have boosters saying that such-and-such half-forgotten pop-singer is “iconic” e.g. “Mike Turniphead is the iconic singer of the 1962 hit ‘I’m gonna slobber all over you”. Same goes for Classic: Yep. I’m not a pedant, so I don’t expect people now to use the word only when referring to ancient Greece and Rome. But I do reasonably expect the word to be used when referring to something that has weathered at least some time, is greatly admired and widely known. Now the showbiz boosters and scribblers for “social media” will tell us that “Last week’s joke on our favourite channel was a classic”. Need I go into detail, in the same context, about the misuse of Legendary, as in “Barny Bloots is the legendary stagehand who once picked up Mick Jaggers’s used handkerchief mid concert. What a hero! ”

            Finally, I can’t leave you without annoying some of you. I believe the words student or students should not be used for primary-school children or for most teenagers at secondary-school [high-school as Americans call it]. Real students study. Real students are earnest and earnestly seek to learn more about things. Real students go further than merely doing dutifully assignments that have been given to them. Primary-school children, no matter how good their teachers are, are at best learning only the basics – essential, of course, but not any more than setting out blocks [metaphorically] for the children to learn. Some secondary-school adolescents are genuine students. The great majority are not. How dare I say this? Because I was a high-school teacher for 30 years, that’s why. I am fully aware that some “students” at university are slackers who do little studying. Even so, I believe that the terms student or students should not be used for primary-school children or for most teenagers at secondary-school. The appropriate terms should always be pupils. My fervent belief is that the only reason the words “student” and “students” have been given to primary-school children and secondary-school adolescents is that teachers wanted to boost their prestige and get more mana as a profession. Very sad when you think of it.

            Have I annoyed you? So be it.