http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/words/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fizzy-correct-disco-and-other-words-we-love/ Like yin and yang. Bono and Cher. Jekyll and Hyde. While they’ll always be a long list of words we hate, there’s just as many that we’ll always love.  Some are satisfying. Others are fun to say. And lots are hard to spell. Here’s a bunch of our favourites, add yours below. Mercenary: Such a whimsical sounding word with such an unfortunate meaning. Whack: As in, that shit is whack. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fizzy-correct-disco-and-other-words-we-love/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fizzy-correct-disco-and-other-words-we-love/#item8585 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/giftting-journey-and-other-words-we-hate/ They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/giftting-journey-and-other-words-we-hate/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/giftting-journey-and-other-words-we-hate/#item8523 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-pygmies-could-learn-from-giants-of-the-past/ Most Australians couldn’t give two hoots who runs the Australia Network. It is of no importance to them whether the ABC or SKY News is in charge of the television service this country projects into Asia. Just the same, the spectacular botching of the tender process during the week has a political impact because it reinforces the impression of government incompetence. The response of many voters to the scandal will be: “See, I told you. This mob couldn’t raffle a chook in a pub.” penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-pygmies-could-learn-from-giants-of-the-past/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-pygmies-could-learn-from-giants-of-the-past/#item7348 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/ Like kitsch, schnauzer and – to a lesser extent – gemütlichkeit*, schadenfreude is one of those excitingly guttural expressions that has hitchhiked its way from Germany into English-speaking countries such as Australia. The loanword is a combination of Schaden (harm) and freude (joy), and describes pleasure taken in other people’s misfortunes. It’s a phenomenon which can be observed with increasing frequency on internet sites such as failblog.org which revels in human error, embarrassment and outright idiocy. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/laughing-at-misfortune-of-others-a-big-moral-dilemma/#item6725 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-disasters-leave-us-lost-for-words/ Queensland really dodged a bullet. After the devastating floods of that fatal tsunami inundated the state, the waters had barely receded when it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Turns out Yasi’s bark was worse than its bite. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-disasters-leave-us-lost-for-words/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/when-disasters-leave-us-lost-for-words/#item5051 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lost-words-the-death-of-meaning-in-language/ Recently, much has been said about the death of the book. Perhaps more accurate though, is the death of words themselves. Not that this is anything new. Oscar Wilde lamented Victorian England’s loss of meaning through an obsession with politeness, appearances and crustless sandwiches. However, the difference now is that the meaning of words is decomposing because people use inappropriate synonyms to feel better about their insufficient vocabulary. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lost-words-the-death-of-meaning-in-language/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/lost-words-the-death-of-meaning-in-language/#item4761 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-weasel-words-erode-your-working-rights/ Our national political conversation is littered with words that have lost their meaning: ‘fighting for peace’, ‘protecting our borders’, ‘truth in sentencing’, the list goes on. When it comes to the economy – ‘productivity and flexibility’ are two more benign, if somewhat bland, words that have been abused so horribly it is now tough to remember what they originally meant. Often I read the commentary pieces in newspapers about these issues that make grand claims about the virtues of productivity and flexibility, a panacea to every business problem, a self-evident good. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-weasel-words-erode-your-working-rights/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-weasel-words-erode-your-working-rights/#item4369 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hate-bad-writers-with-a-fiery-passion-in-my-heart/ They come from far, they come from wide. They come with a fire in their bellies and a penchant for the written word that not even a million monkeys on a million typewriters could even dream of topping no matter how many sonnets they secured or peanuts they procured with their feverish and dexterous opposable thumbs. They are, of course, and without a shadow of a flickering doubt - bad writers. The bad writer is a mystery for the ages. A mystery, wrapped in a riddle, snug as a bug in a tightly woven and off-white or eggshell coloured woollen rug. The fact remains that since man has walked the earth since time immemorial, our command of language above all is what has set man apart from beast; what has separated the men from the boys (by men I of course mean men, and by boys I mean animals). penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hate-bad-writers-with-a-fiery-passion-in-my-heart/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/i-hate-bad-writers-with-a-fiery-passion-in-my-heart/#item3448 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/ It really is the best invention, ever. A company in the US has dreamt up a bit of punctuation to indicate that you are being sarcastic. As if you ever going to need it. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article, Lightweight http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/punctuation-mark-for-sarcasm-a-brilliant-idea/#item2156 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-updating-the-punch-business-dictionary/ Following the success of my colleague Paul Colgan’s call for entries to the Punch Political Dictionary, today we’re launching a parallel appeal for entries to the Punch Business Dictionary – those words and phrases that tripped off the tongue during the corporate gyrations of the past year. The good folk at Macquarie Dictionary have offered six suggestions. Here are ours. Over to you - and please give generously. Float-model: A beautiful woman used to attract investors to your listing on the stock market. Pioneered, and possibly perfected, by Myer with Jennifer Hawkins during its $2.4bn float. Investors, some no doubt encouraged to open their wallets by the presence of the former Miss Universe, are still waiting for the shares to reach their issue price. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-updating-the-punch-business-dictionary/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/call-for-entries-updating-the-punch-business-dictionary/#item2129 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 They can ruin a perfectly good sentence. Make your roll your eyes and scrunch up your face. Say grrrr. The worst ones have the power to ruin your day. They’re the words we hate and they’re everywhere. So we’ve made a list! And now all those horrible words can live together at last. Join in. Birthing/gifting/tasking There are too many perfectly good nouns being turned into improvised verbs. Here are some of our least favourite. Birthing is potentially the most annoying.  It’s used in sentences like: “when I was birthing Sally”. And usually by people gloating about the fact that they didn’t have an epidural. Panties Shudder. This word is the verbal equivalent of a recoil.