Which ugly neologisms would you banish to Abyss?

mdid · **Joined:** Thu Mar 18, 2004 1:01 am **Posts:** 27

I work for a business paper. These are the top offenders:Outsourcing or offshoring
Mission-critical
Tap (as in "X Company taps Joe Smith as sales manager")

Capo di tutti copy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 12, 2004 3:38 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by slummingreporter:
My list starts with but is not limited toproactive
downsizing
grow/growing (when use to reflect changes in revenue growth or company size)
PC (it was cute in 1988, but so was Molly Ringwald)
bling-bling

Anyone else care to chime in with their own un-favorites?<hr></blockquote>An excellent start. You would probably find it worth your time to look at Tom Mangan's Banned for Life site: http://tommangan.net/banned/. John McIntyre

majorbabs · **Posted:** Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:37 am

Pre-planning.

TheWalrus · **Posted:** Tue Jul 13, 2004 8:39 pm

I try to catch (and remove) this in all the calendar entries I read: "preregistration is required." When besides before the whatever-it-is starts is one supposed to register?

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:06 pm

I do sense sense in use of preregistration. It seem to me that for an event on, say, August 16 it;s better to write ''Register by July 31.'' Gotta love that imperative voice.[ July 14, 2004: Message edited by: Paul Wiggins ]

Lizalu · **Posted:** Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:58 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by majorbabs:
Pre-planning.<hr></blockquote>Ouch...
That's just painful.

hound · **Posted:** Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:20 pm

"Activist", esp. when the context conveys that "activist" is a vocation. Who's paying the bills?On the biz page, "ship", as in "the product will ship in October". What exactly will this product ship, anyway?[ July 13, 2004: Message edited by: hound ]

jmwalsh · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2004 6:55 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by majorbabs:
Pre-planning.<hr></blockquote>And on that note, preannounce, as in "SGI incorporated have preannounced product n."The tech and business sectors are terrible for this sort of thing.
Other bad practices I'd like to see spiked:References to companies followed by their stock market symbol outside of the business pages -- the web is littered with refernces to Microsoft (MSFT) and so on. The reductionist implication that all that matters in society is the bottom line for some collection of oligarchs drives me insane (NUTS).Moving swiftly onwards, please ban all use of British tabloid journalese, stop inserting emotive language and I don't want the front page to opine. I'll decide if I think a crash is "tragic" or not, thank you very much.Amen(d).[ July 14, 2004: Message edited by: Jason Walsh ]

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:32 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jason Walsh:
Other bad practices I'd like to see spiked:References to companies followed by their stock market symbol outside of the business pages -- the web is littered with refernces to Microsoft (MSFT) and so on. <hr></blockquote>Please aid my sanity by telling me you have not seen that done in a newspaper.

TheWalrus · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:36 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by majorbabs:
Pre-planning.<hr></blockquote>Now that I read it again, that reminds me of a headline in my college newspaper for a brief about graduation rehearsal or some nonsense: "Prepare to Commence." It doesn't get much better than that.

Adroit · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:08 am

Speaking of companies and their stocks, I hate "leading-edge" and "next-generation" products. Sounds stupid and editorializes too.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 11:14 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by TheWalrus:
Now that I read it again, that reminds me of a headline in my college newspaper for a brief about graduation rehearsal or some nonsense: "Prepare to Commence." It doesn't get much better than that.<hr></blockquote>I'm picturing Jed Clampett.

jmwalsh · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 11:56 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Paul Wiggins:
Please aid my sanity by telling me you have not seen that done in a newspaper.<hr></blockquote>Not yet, but it's only a matter of time. Every other bad habit common on the web has made its way to print in the last five years.J...

jmwalsh · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 11:57 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Adroit:
"leading-edge"<hr></blockquote>A simple trick is to read "leading-edge" as "bleeding-arse".J...

Adroit · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 2:03 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Jason Walsh:
A simple trick is to read "leading-edge" as "bleeding-arse".J...<hr></blockquote>That's much better!

DominEditrix · **Posted:** Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:45 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by slummingreporter:
Anyone else care to chime in with their own un-favorites?<hr></blockquote> In the box, outside the box, nouns used as verbs - this morning I heard an advert that promised some air cleaner would 'fragrance your room all day' - perfectly good nouns with 'ation' as a suffix: 'colouration' and 'fabrication' are all over the Style pages in lieu of 'colour' and 'fabric'.Makes me want to clubation someone with my flashlight.D.

Jolieblonde · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:45 pm

How about "incent" ? I just got that twice in one story, quoting some info tech geek, of course. Can't we fine these people??? Or beat them about the head and neck with a dictionary? Count me as incensed.

Grammatically Incorrect · **Joined:** Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:01 am **Posts:** 25

This doesn't qualify, precisely, in that it doesn't involve the invention of a new word, but it does involve the invention of a new way of using tense:"If he catches that ball, it's a touchdown."That's fine if the announcer utters it before the play. But these days, you hear it after the play.Worse, I'm beginning to see it in written copy. What ever happend to good ol' past tense?

redpenman · **Joined:** Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:01 am **Posts:** 65

I'm getting a lot of present-tense copy as well. Could be because our publication is in bed with a TV station and we don't put a lot of effort in telling new reporters, "Present-tense BAD!"Most of our writers must think they're working for CNN or its Web site...(And, on the K-Mart topic: Must be axed in reference to Kenyon Martin, but it's OK if it's referring to Kelvin Martin, (of Dallas Cowboys lore) the ORIGINAL K-Mart!)

EMorse · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:57 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Grammatically Incorrect:

"If he catches that ball, it's a touchdown."That's fine if the announcer utters it before the play. But these days, you hear it after the play.Worse, I'm beginning to see it in written copy. What ever happend to good ol' past tense?<hr></blockquote>Sportscasterese drives me nuts, too; not only has it killed the past tense, but the conditional, too:"If I'm Donovan McNabb, I'm looking for the blitz here."Grrrr.

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:51 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Grammatically Incorrect:
"If he catches that ball, it's a touchdown."That's fine if the announcer utters it before the play. But these days, you hear it after the play.<hr></blockquote>These days? That's been part of baseball-speak since... well, since long before I was a fan. It's a well-worn idiom of the game and I often use it in talking with other fans.It has no place in copy, though. Except in a quote, of course.

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