Words get in the way...

S

shane justice

Joined
May 12, 2003
Messages
1,606
Somebody clear this up for me...

How come people say "one offs"?

Don't they really mean "One of's" (pronounced ~wun uv~)
...as in "one of a kind"?

WHat the h*ll does "One OFF" mean? :confused:

I have even seen this term written in trade magazines...

What the?

Shane
 
I first heard it thirty years ago as Bristish slang for something made once -- a one-time run, we might say. It now seems to be used here interchangably with "unique," which was not the original meaning.

When did advertisement (ad ver' tiss ment) become "ad ver tiz' ment"?

When did a set of bedroom furniture become a "bedroom suit"?

The language changes.
 
Well fellers...

I stand corrected...

Thanks for setting it right...

thats' what I get fer gradiating high school... :D

Shane
 
Here's one that bugs the heck outta me. When the traffic reporter on the morning radio show says, "Traffic is slowing up." ???

Traffic doesn't slow up, it slows DOWN!
 
Nordic Viking said:
Thanx all y'all for the English lessons :)
Click to expand...

OMG, don't call it "English." We'll be hanged (hung?) by the folks in the UK -- and our bodies stuffed in the boot for later disposal.

And don't thank us. It will change in a few weeks -- in my judgement (ending vowel remains when suffix begins with consonant).

. . . Wait, that's "judgment" now for some reason. :confused:
 
A source of minor irritation, at most, is the term, "honing in" on something. One "hones" a knife blade or one "homes in" on a beacon or other object.

On PBS this Am, they had a guy from Great Britain who has written a book titled, "Bad English". One of his examples was "paradigm shift", which he said nobody understands and which is a term that people use to mean "change." Well, he ckearky does not understand what the term means. A "paradigm" is the structure or frame of reference which controls how one sees or thinks about a given subject. A Paradigm shift is a change in that very basic structure, a change so profound that it changes how people view things. Such a change occurred in the mid-19th Century with the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species and I would maintain that another paradigm shift, one in the view of warfare occurred at Trinity and again over Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Summer of 1945.
 
How about "the exception that proves the rule"? Gun types are more likely to know that the exception proofs (tests) the rule. (Wouldn't want loose tolerances. Wouldn't be prudent.)
 
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