I love words.
I have spent most of my life making my living from them, so the least I can do is show them a little loyalty and affection. Sometimes, I get really stuck on the things people say, though. My boss tends to be most guilty in this area.
To put it mildly, I fixate on her word usage.
Take irregardless. What in the world does that mean? You DO regard something, since you have doubled back on the double negative? Or you don't regard it so much that you needed to emphasize it with two prefixes?
Another favorite is: "I could care less." Really? Exactly how MUCH less could you care?
My boss often talks about the need to "touch basis" with me, leaving me wondering exactly what basis feels like. Animal? Vegetable? Mineral?
And as long as I am harping and whining about words, lets talk about scripture verses that don't exist. (Although, I am sorry to say, I can't fault my boss for these.)
"God never gives you more than you can handle."
A-a-a-a-c-k! Blasphemy! He most CERTAINLY DOES!
The verse is "God does not allow you to be TEMPTED more than you are able, but with that He provides a way out."
"God never gives you more than you can handle" is back in Hezekiah 3:6---right next to "God helps those that help themselves."
What about you? Am I the only Word Nerd or are there expressions that drive you bananas too?
4 comments:
You're preaching to the choir, sister!
One that drives me nuts is when people misuse the conditional tense. "If I was going to do that . . ." instead of "If I WERE going to do that . . ." I hear it even in song lyrics playing on the radio. Aaaaaaaah!!!
Whoa! Gotta read my comments more often! Welcome Lynn! So glad to have you here. I couldn't agree more with your example...(or maybe I could agree more...hmm....) You're book sounds great--I'll check into it! Drop by whenever :)
Aaaaack! I misspelled
"your!!" That's what I get for picking on other people and their verbage...
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