Wednesday, July 04, 2012

English As She Is (Unfortunately) Spoke

I have had a bit of fun over the years with lawyers, civil servants, witnesses and suchlike mangling the English Language in court. A colleague has emailed the following:-
A chap applying for gas/electricity warrants said that he wanted to get in to properties to 'de-energise' them!! and the new usher wanted the 'interpretator' to take the oath.

Then there is this from a District Judge:-
A bit more verbing from the Family Court: Boundary/boundaried as in  "The mother cannot boundary the child","The child has not been boundaried". What's more, it was counsel and not the social worker who was responsible.

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25 comments:

  1. VBW4 July 2012 at 19:07

    There are those who can make love with the English language and those who merely stick a condom on it.

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  2. Mjolinir4 July 2012 at 21:05

    Always try to remember that 'someone' - many years ago - had a novel idea. "Let's all speak 'the English Language'."

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  3. garence4 July 2012 at 21:33

    I once heard a police officer speak of evidence sent away 'to be forensicated'

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    1. John Cowan4 July 2012 at 21:46

      Forensicated has been discussed on various linguistics blogs. It's quite common, but is specifically British English: American English cops talk of forensic evidence, but they don't verb it.

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    2. Ed (not Bystander)5 July 2012 at 00:41

      So, "garence", what concise word would you suggest as a better replacement for "forensicate"?

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    3. Kimpatsu5 July 2012 at 02:06

      Not true, John. I've heard "forensicate" used on US TV.

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    4. Bill5 July 2012 at 19:32

      Reply to Ed.

      "Forensically examine".

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    5. Ed (not Bystander)6 July 2012 at 00:52

      Wow. Snappy.

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    6. Anonymous8 July 2012 at 20:25

      Forensicated isn't in the OED. What would be wrong with "examined" as in "evidence was sent away to be examined"

      Delete
  4. Jamie Dainton4 July 2012 at 22:38

    De-energise is a pretty common phrase in the utility industry, mainly because it's a handy catch all phrase which covers different types of removing an electricity supply. There is also the operation of re-energising a supply.

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    Replies
    1. Rich7 July 2012 at 14:02

      De-energise is actually the official term of art, with a definition in one of the industry rulebooks of "the movement of any isolator, breaker or switch or the removal of any fuse whereby no electricity can flow at such point"

      Delete
  5. John Cowan4 July 2012 at 23:48

    Soldiers embus when they are transported from one place to another by bus. Whether they are disembussed or debussed at the other end, I don't know.

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    1. AYoungerJP5 July 2012 at 00:31

      De-planing is pretty much standard for getting passengers (military or otherwise) off an aeroplane...

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    2. Ed (not Bystander)5 July 2012 at 00:41

      Debus.

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    3. DanJP5 July 2012 at 08:12

      It is when US airline pilots tell me that I "will be airborne momentarily" that I shudder!

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    4. John Cowan9 July 2012 at 19:26

      The meaning "in a moment" has been pretty general in the U.S. and Canada since the early 19th century. There are also other meanings, now rare or obsolete: "at this moment" and "moment by moment". This sense seems to be a U.S. innovation; many U.S. words and meanings, however, are conservative, as in the well-known use of fall for "autumn" and I guess for "I suppose".

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    5. Robert the Biker10 July 2012 at 13:33

      Well, when I was 'in' in the Canadian military, the Sargeant would shout "unass the bird, unass the bird, get the f**k off" to illistrate to us his desire that we leave the helicopter in a timely manner, such craft being particularly vulnerable on the ground.

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  6. Man on the Village Green5 July 2012 at 06:13

    And then we could draw a couple of little pictures to show the act of rebussing!

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  7. Man on the Village Green5 July 2012 at 06:15

    P.S. My own particular pet hate amongst the horrors of court related parlance is "the provision of competed Probation services."

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  8. Richard5 July 2012 at 23:25

    Put me out of my misery, please! What on earth does the verb "to boundary" mean? I'm sure it has nothing to do with cricket.

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    Replies
    1. Ed (not Bystander)6 July 2012 at 02:02

      One assumes it is to set and enforce boundaries for a child.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7 August 2012 at 23:37

    'Forensic' means, literally, 'legal'. Forensic sciences, therefore, means 'legal sciences'. For some reason people seem to think it means something closer to 'scientific', which is exactly wrong.

    So to speak of evidence as being 'forensicated' is simple nonsense. It's already legal in character, because it is evidence. The best word to use would be 'analysed'.

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  10. Anonymous7 August 2012 at 23:44

    My pet hate is the relatively recent American creation of new words by adding '~ee' on to the end of a word, resulting in a complete reversal of the intended meaning.

    Case in point: 'attendee'. The person might be an 'invitee', but must by all usage rules be an 'attender'. Everyone who goes to a meeting or a caucus or symposium or a conference must be either an invitee, a guest, a visitor or a delegate. The word 'attendee' is not even needed, and was doubtless invented by a poorly educated person sometime in the recent past who didn't know and couldn't be bothered to find out what the right word was.

    Oh, am I on my high horse again? Oops.

    Think about 'payer' and 'payee'. It's just not possible for someone to be an 'attendee' because attend is not an active verb.

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    1. Ed (not Bystander)8 August 2012 at 05:39

      attend is not an active verb

      You probably mean "transitive". Do try looking it up.

      Delete
  11. Newchodge15 August 2012 at 05:58

    None of that is as bad as the new Olympic verbs to medal and to podium AARGH

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