27 December 2011
Ron Rosenbaum of Slate has joined the crowd of those who take badly aimed pot shots at linguistic ingenuity. He has a list of bad “catchphrases” of 2011. Most of them aren’t catchphrases. (He really should learn what a catchphrase is before writing about them.) Most are much older than 2011. And most aren’t bad. (Evidently the only qualification for “bad” is that Ron Rosenbaum doesn’t like it.)
What bothers me isn’t that people have peeves about language. Everyone does (me included). What bothers me is that the editors of Slate would think one man’s uninformed opinion is of interest to anyone else.
Oh, and repurposing isn’t a Briticism (plus it’s been around since the mid-1980s). If you’re going to print a rant based on one man’s idiosyncratic opinions, at least fact check it.
