Is anything horrible anymore? Seems like every disaster is "horrific." Is one more proper than the other?

Regarding "devout Catholic"... many people who cite their being Catholic as a large part of their cultural identity do not practice their faith. Many haven't been inside a church in many years but still identify as Catholic to explain many of their character traits. We use "devout Catholic" to differentiate the people who attend mass regularly and have an active parish life from the non-practicing cultural Catholics.

Speaking of alliteration, I remember when Dennis Cunningham was the movie reviewer for WCBS-TV, He reviewed "Teminator 2", and refered to Linda Hamilton as "The Buff Bimbo".

A shout out --- will any giants who are NOT "gentle" please call in! I've had my fill of "gentle giants" and would like to hear from a good old-fashioned ogre, like someone out of "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Leonard! You have a choice with forte - Italian forte (fortay) and French forte (for)

Tomas - pertaining to words that are referred to in a singular case when they should be plural - This is a pet peeve of mine as well. I don't see the examples you site so much, rather I find that the speaker will incorrectly contract "THERE IS", to THERE's", as in "There's many reasons for this". I don't understand why people don't know that "there's" or "there is" cannot be correct. What happened to "there are" or even "there're" if you must contract the phrase?

A recent usage is that a political candidate espousing the principles of the Tea Party is always referred to as a "Tea Party Favorite."

"a good time was had by all" .
I was tired of this phase twenty years ago; yet it persists in appearing weekly in just about every local paper, newsletter, etc!

English is a Germanic language because of it's evolution from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is most closely related to Frisian and Dutch. This is because of the grammar and structure of the language not just the vocabulary. Even if one examines the English lexicon, although many words are of Latin origin, the most common words are not: the, and, he, she, dog, cow etc.

The good Samaritain came from Samaria, aBorn again Christian is a Christian who is aware of the new birth which according to the bible occurs when a person believes that Jesus was raised from the dead after 3 days and nights, and then confesses his sins to God to receive forgiveness. At that point the person is filled with holy spirit. That is the "new birth". The person can at that point manifest the holy spirit by speaking in tounges, which is allowing the holy spirit pray (in a language which the person doesn't understand) perfectly to God. It is called the new birth because a person goes from being body and soul, which is the same as any breathing creature, to being body, soul, and spirit, which is the original way Adam was created. when Adam fell from grace he lost his spirit and was concidered to be spiritually dead. This is why he and Eve were told not to eat from the tree of knowledge or they would surely die.

Today's version of the "good Samaritan" parable would be a story about a "good Palestinian" who might save a Jew,. or contribute an organ to save on. And, vice versa, of course.
Perhaps, in the US the equivalent might be "the good illegal Mexican immigrant," or some such..

Not to sound like I'm proselytizing but the Good Samaritan was an example used by Jesus in the New testament as an example of an unexpected but helpful stranger. A schism between Jews and Samaritans is attributed to their enmity due to a variation in worship/doctrine. In the parable Jesus mentions a Jewish victim of a violent robbery and the victim is passed by a few successful people who had very specific reasons for not assisting. Finally a Samaritan finds him and takes pity on him despite being considered a lesser person by the people he was speaking to.

For iconoclasts I would yield to Leonard's view since the iconoclasts were a reactionary movement against religious imagery in the Eastern christian church. He was exactly on the ball for referring to Byzantium and the Russian icons.

PLEASE help wipe "as a reminder" out of our already tortured airline travel experiences...this is gratuitous as well as ungrammatial...how about, "Please remember"

"That being said...". I never hear this from anyone but people in the media: newscasters and people being interviewed, never on the street or in daily conversation. Why?

A born again Jew is a "ba'al teshuva".

The Good Samaritan was from Samaria, a region around the ancient city of Shechem, now called Nablus. The sect of Samaritans exist till today. The Hebrew for this region is Shomron.

Samara is in Iraq (I think), like in "Appointment in Samara".

The Hebrew term ba'al teshuvah (or ba'alat teshuva for a woman) is used to describe a Jew from a secular background who has become religiously observant.

The novelty of a "good" Samaritan in the NT parable, was to show that EVEN a Samaritan can be good! Samaritans were the descendants of Assyrian occupiers of the Kingdom of Israel after it was destroyed. Samaritans were thus considered foreigners usurping Jewish land, and were HATED by the Jews. The story merely illustrates that anyone, even a Samaritan, can do a good deed, eve better than a Jew. No doubt, the parable might have startled his Jewish apostles and followers.

1. Not all northeastern European languages are Germanic, since Finnish is Ugro-Finnish (basically in the same group with Hungarian and Turkish.)

2. English is a Germanic language. Period. Just because English vocabulary has imported some French words, it doesn't make it Germanic.
For instance, Romanian has imported a lot of English words. So then Romanian is an English language? No! It is romance.

What about "ahead" meaning "next", "coming" or "after" rather than the original "before" or "in front of"
npr and bbc news are both very fond of this trendy usage.

I know it is not completely on topic, but would someone please comment on the errors that Michael Mulgrew made on Brian Leher's show Friday when discussing Cathie Black. Near the top of the segment he said (referring to Ms. Black), "Her and I met briefly." Here is an "educator" with a degree in English making a mistake with the subjective case. I wince when I think of all the people who might think this is acceptable usage.

The Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus. The Samaritan's were a heretical sect of Jews (or considered so by some Jews, especially the Levites). A member of another sect, a Levite, I believe, was robbed and beaten and left for dead. Members of other sects (ones considered non-heretical, including a Levite) walked by without helping. A Samaritan stopped and helped the man and even gave him his own robe.

how about good fella or swell guy?

Pyjama is from Persian nor Indian.

It's Samaria not Samara.

commenting on the Jewish word that would mean "born again" in the sense that you're discussing it on the show right now.. "Balt Tsheuva" which means "master of return"...

I've heard enough of "at the end of the day" - I remember when it started being used a few years ago -

The term for a Jew who has returned to the practice of Judaism is "Ba'al Teshuvah," which is Hebrew. We don't normally use an English term for this.

I'm tired of everything being called "historic" or "historical." Every election, campaign funding increases, and it's said to be a "historic" level of fundraising.

One of my favorites is "the troubled space station Mir."

Don't need to say "Born again Jew" because all you need to do is Re-Jew-Venate!

What about 'return back'? Its very common parlance in America and I HATE IT!

Every news reporters favorite word is "dark". Im so irritated by the term "dark" to describe anything really bad. They never say "grim " or "bleak" or even "bad".
"Dark" doesnt mean absolute negative.

The best has got to be the 'born again virgin'.... it's just not possible....

When did right on become spot on?

I hear "arguably" all the time to prove a point. Wouldn't that mean that the point could be wrong if it could be argued? If the person is convinced he's right, shouldn't it be "inarguably?"

In foodie/restaurant critique columns, you sometimes hear, "tucked into" when describing someone dining on a particular dish. Where does that come from?
Ex. Tucked into a grilled chicken Caesar salad...

What about the word "iconic"? I have not been able to pass a sentence in the last three years without it. And it is used for many in iconic ideas

Re: eschew, etc.

In the 80's, I remember being in midtown with a friend, about to cross 7th Ave, and, eying the traffic, I said,

"I think it'd behoove us to cross now."

We crossed the street and she said,

"Did you say, 'behoove??'"

The one that bugs me is the use of "Perfect Storm" to describe just about any coincidence that ends badly.

"Pajama" is from Persian.

Why do many of our noun forms use Germanic (or other) roots but the adjectival forms use Latinate roots? (Ex. Eye - ocular; moon - lunar; hand - manual; kidney - renal.)

Journalist's cliches often purport to explain, i.e. "Medicare, the program for the elderly" or "the speed of light, the distance light travels in a year." But they never explain the meaning of "rare earth" or "gross national product."

Also, the standard unit of measure in the US: ." Both length and area are described in terms of "football fields."

Why does everyone say "complex" instead of complicated these days??

I do not have the exact citation, but O'Henry wrote a clever short story relying on coded information in which the code was newspaper cliches--for example, plain text="citizen", code text= "concerned". A full sentence coded was marvelous string of nonsense.

Frank Alpert

The word "iconic" has been applied to everything from Lady Gaga to handbags

How about "Radical Shiite Cleric Muktada Al Sadr" for a cliche?

Also; "Redoubling our efforts..." is that the same as quadrupling one's efforts?

I hate 'the takeaway' - 'what is the takeaway?'

When there's a suggestion to not do something, why do people say "let's don't do (say, eat, etc.)..." verses "let's not do (say, eat, etc.)..."
Am I even making sense?

Thanks to "frequent contributer, Patricia T. O'Conner"

I heard one Congressman say "At the end of the day" three times in two minutes.

Hi all

I am fed up with hearing "he is suffering with down syndrome" it came up a lot with reference to Sarah Palins son. As a parent of a child with down syndrome- he may have difficulties with certain things but he definately is not suffering.
Thanks m

"Cancer survivor"--if you are using the present tense, it is pretty obvious that the person survived. Also "battling cancer," I mean, what does that mean?

A few months ago, I heard local radio reporters saying "possessing an illegal animal." The animal is not illegal, the act of possessing the animal is illegal. Should have been illegally possessing an animal. It just killed me...

When did the word signage come about? What happened to just referring to signs as "signs".

"Cancer survivor"--if you are using the present tense, it is pretty obvious that the person survived. Also "battling cancer," I mean, what does that mean?

The first one that I hate the most is "...having said that..." and the second one that makes my blood boil is when a speaker begins a sentence or answers a question with "so,,, the thing is..."

I disagree with Pat about her explanation of the double copula; I hear it used more and more these days, and there is often no hesitation between the first 'is' and the second. The speaker is learning to hear it as normal. President Obama uses this mannerism frequently.

Is there a point where grammar offers diminishing returns?

President James Garfield was killed by "disgruntled officeseeker" Charles J. Guiteau

Is not hard liquor redundant?

What about Richard Nixon's home town of Selfimposedexile?

"Horrible Tragedy"
as opposed to, say,
Delightful Tragedy"

What's up with news commentators (CNNis the worst offender) says "drill down" on a story?

Thank you

Am I the only one who has ever heard the expression "B-Flat" used to describe something that is simple or plain?

So true! Just as Ms. O'Connor was starting to say Noriega I thought to myself "strongman"! How about "billionaire" George Soros?

"Outpouring of support." Ugh!

There was a member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle who was named
"Ali Hassan al-Majid". When referred to in the news, this following description was always attached: "known as Chemical Ali." The problem is that the only place I ever saw him referred to as Chemical Ali was in news reports that identified him thus: "Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali, ...."

"The incomparable...."

"The world's, largest, greatest, biggest, best...."

Shades of the nonexistent "38 eye-witnesses to the death of Kitty Genovese"! Great segment, as usual.

"The Quintesential....."

Was thinking this morning that I'm very tired of "The powerful House Ways and Means Committee" Don't any other adjectives apply?

Too many talking heads are introduced on TV and radio as "noted" or "notable." In this context it's essentially meaningless.

Hate cliches almost as much as acronyms..ugghh.

Please talk about the inability to use apostrophes correctly - its and it's, and even stranger, using apostrophes to make plurals. People seem to think they are required in many cases, like proper nouns, where they are not!

Anyways????
When did this start??

'Tour de force' is the most annoying journalistic cliche!!!

What is the origin of phrase "pipe dream"? Thanks.

Could you please explain the trend to use "is" instead of "are" in plural descriptions such as "There is situations that..."; or "There is several ..."
I have heard this usage on the radio including NPR/WNYC and the BBC.
"IS" there reasons for this?

Ideology is from idea. Divisive from divide. Lately I've heard them pronounced ID-eology and di-VIH-sive, including by WNYC on-air staff.
Aren't I-deology and di-VY-sive correct? .

The decision by the New Oxford Amer Dictionary to add Sarah Palin's refudiate to their next edition is an outrage and a disgrace. These dictionary editors have committed a monstrous crime against the English language and have mocked and ridiculed generations of lexicographers by making this absurd decision. Wm Strunk, EB White, Wm Safire and Edwin Newman are rolling over in their graves.