Readers of the Times in London can be a bit stodgy and suspicious of change. Today a woman writes:
"I am a big fan of American novels and have noticed the phrase 'second-guess' being used in the English language instead of 'predict.' What can we do about this?"
The answer the columnist gives is to "Lie back and enjoy the rolling tides of language," then proceeds to explain to the English reader what 'second-guess' must mean to American readers.
I'll bet this woman doesn't even own a computer, or she'd be exposed to a lot more innovative American language than just 'second-guess.'
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Lie back and enjoy the rolling tides of language
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7 comments:
Well, I love an excuse to lie back and enjoy rolling tides of ANYTHING (my favorite Italian phrase is "dolce fa' niente;") but I must confess that some phrases in English (American AND British) do rather rankle my exquisite linguistic sensibilities. "Second-guess" is certainly one, but there are dozens: I hate reading that a narrowly-averted plane disaster is a "near-miss"---I mean, shouldn't it be "near-crash"? But the very, very worst (I mean, those guilty of using this one should suffer an auto-da-fe) is "I could care less." Well, I always want to say after slapping the speaker, perhaps you DO care somewhat, if there's a lesser degree of caring possible?
This is one of our favorite uses of American English -- when the plane you are on is about to land and the pilot comes on and says the plane will be landing 'momentarily.' In UK English, that means you are doing something for a moment then resuming normal activity, so when the pilot says that, in UK English, he is saying the plane will land then go back up again right away.
That bugs me too---"momentarily." Another Bad Pilotism is :"We'll be on the ground soon." I want to know the exact conditions in which we'll be "on the ground"---I mean, adding the adverb "safely" would be nice. We could be "on the ground" in a fiery broken heap of metal!
Touchy subject, as I thought I was about to meet my Maker on my last trip---as soon as we reached cruising altitude after leaving JFK, the plane began to lurch and pitch and sway violently from side to side, rattling and thudding...AAAAAGH! I of course had unfastened my belt, and was thrown headfirst into a wall (I was seated in bulkhead.) People were screaming and crying---it only lasted about 3 minutes but you know how that stuff is---seemed like 3 hours of sheer terror. I didn't have a rosary handy so I prayed using my beaded reading-glasses chain---something like, "HailmaryfullofgraceFUCKsaveme pleeeeeaaaaaazzze!"
Nervous flyer, that's a horrible story. I hate turbulence on a plane and always fear death and throwing up (in which order, I'm not sure). I'm sorry you had to go through that but now you know to always keep your seatbelt fastened because clean-air turbulence can strike at any time. I'd hate to lose your comments on this blog due to a turbulence-related head injury, so please take more care next time when flying! :) :)
My American daughter explains the origin of "could care less" as follows:
It comes from "I know nothing about that and could care less". In other words, it's possible that I care less than not at all. Only the second half of the phrase has survived.
I'm not sure I'm convinced though.
It's actually "I know nothing about that, and care less;" "could" was never a part of it. There's also "I could NOT care less."
I'm convinced! It makes perfect sense!
But we in Britain, we only ever couldn't care less. And that's the way it should be.
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