[nathanbedford]

In the desperate days of World War II, Churchill had advised his subordinates that as Prime Minister he would be issuing instructions in writing. This proved a boon to history and his next directive a boon to history buffs; he often directed that memoranda address him be confined to "one side of one sheet of paper."

Churchill took his memoranda, both outgoing and incoming, very seriously. On one occasion he red-penciled a correction to his correspondent's grammar and wrote in the margin: "you would not have made this error had you read your Fowler's today." Presumably he resumed his conduct of World War II.

I became intimately acquainted with Fowler's during a rather boring ferry ride from Prince Rupert, Canada to Alaska. To relieve the boredom I read sections from Fowler's to other passengers in the mess room whence they had no escape. I almost went swimming with the fishes in the chill waters of Prince Rupert Sound but it was worth it to be exposed to one of the great books in English about English.

[onedoug]

“Brush up your Shakespeare....”

[luvbach1]

He forgot to mention “optics,” meaning how something appears. I hear in almost every day on TV.

[Hawthorn]

The currently popular term I dislike the most is "humanitarian crisis." It's definitely an oxymoron, since a crisis is a bad thing, while humanitarian is an adjective to signify that something is good, kind, sympathetic, helpful to humans.

(Sorta like cruel kindness, loving hate, etc.)

[muir_redwoods]

At times I think of the language as existing in a kind of competitive marketplace where words compete for survival. This is how “internet” ( no capital letter) replaced the “world wide web”. I don’t know anyone who recently bought an “auto” but the insurance company I most recently worked for offered coverage for both “home and auto” . Perhaps there is some peaceful coexistence possible in some realms.

Eventually the language decides what it wants to use and consigns the rest to crossword puzzles.

[Bigg Red]

The use of a specialized jargon, whether around the copy desk or the operating table, serves not just to ease communication but to confine it to the cognoscenti, lest outsiders understand what’s going on....

***
An otherwise thoughtful essay is marred by including “operating table” there. Medical terms may be incomprehensible to many, but they must be used between professionals in a medical setting in order to insure accuracy in care and treatment. Implying that it is done to obfuscate is just silly.