The Silver Screen Oasis

Since the wondrous world wide web allows anyone with a modem and a very rudimentary grasp of English to communicate, it's gradually dawned on me that written English --that living, breathing language of poets as well as the scientist--is also seriously mangled by more people publicly than ever before in history. It's not all bad, and who knows, maybe some of these new words will someday be as familiar as the relatively new word "hangup" as in: "One of her hangups (peccadilloes) concerns the correct usage of English, even though her own mastery of the language is occasionally shaky."

The user comments over on IMDb are a treasure trove of such comical yet imaginative words. Sometimes they're even intentional, I think.

Here's the best one that I came across today.

Meant to Say: Automatically
Came Out As: Ultimatically

Nice, huh?
Have you come across any other words in the media that seem so awkward and yet, might seem so apt, and yet so entertaining (to somebody, at least)?

Recently I was reading an account on-line about a drive-by shooting here in Oakland. It said: "The body was ridiculed with bullets!" I can only assume the author meant to say "riddled."
Either way, the guy was dead.

Moira;

Look around and find a 25 year old dictionary, and look up words that are totally ingrained in our day to day language. If the word is even in the dictionary, see what all the definitions are. Are they the same definition that the word is used as today?

Internet ..... bling
site ..... stud
blog ..... disco
rap ..... disc (not disk)
pixel ..... video cam

It took about 100 years, but most dictionaries have 'ain't' listed as a word now. But with the Internet, color TV, video, DVD, CD and a host of other electronic marvels, dictionary publishers must be going crazy trying to keep up.

Anne

Dewey, I know where you're coming from. I work at a tv station and it amazes me what some of the "highly educated" reporters, just out of school, come up with. For a recent homicide the reporter said "...and the victim was fatally killed". Funny, I thought all killings were fatal.

"...and the victim was fatally killed". Funny, I thought all killings were fatal.

Oh my, I'm afraid I've seen alot of mistakes like that on the news. People used to admire journalists upholding the highest standards of literacy and correct grammar----no more!

Two phrases that drive me up the wall are "I could care less." That's wrong. It's "I couldn't care less." If you couldn't care less that's as low as you can go.

The other, and this is common on both sides of the Atlantic, is "I've got." (Substitute any noun that becomes "have got.") It's redundant. A few years ago there was a PSA done by a Braves pitcher where a fan was yelling "Pitcher's got a rubber arm." Finally, he called time out went over to the fan and yelled "Pitcher HAS a rubber arm." Commercials should have that impact.

I certainly don't think it helps that 4 of the last 6 U.S. president have voiced their concerns in nationally broadcast speeches over "nukular" armament.
!
But to be fair, it was probably a habit they picked up from listening to network news anchors.

Try posting regularly on a site where the average age of the users is younger than age 30.

This will alert you, more than anything else I am aware of, to the appalling state of education in America today.

I have met many online users in their 20's who cannot spell even reasonably well, nor do they have a grasp on even rudimentary punctuation.

It is truly terrifying.

Online users of English aren't the only ones who seem to wrestle with words. There also seems to be some odd, even seriously worrying gaps in what you would think was basic knowledge for any American.

In the last ten years, I've worked with a college graduate who went to Brandeis, (and who graduated with honors in Latin American studies), who truly didn't know that Truman had been president before Nixon. Oh, but she knew who Jackie Kennedy was, because of her clothes. Last I heard this girl had a great job as an assistant to the head of a big publishing house in NYC.

A senior in high school who was an intern in a company where I worked was delighted when the New England Patriots were going to the Super Bowl. The game was being played in New Orleans. He innocently asked if New Orleans was located in Florida or Georgia. (This was before Katrina, so perhaps he's learned a bit more about geography thanks to that disaster).

"Oh why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way. What's the matter with kids today?"