Jargon
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.
Continue reading "“Fizzy”, “gusto”, “disco” and other words we love" »
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.
Continue reading "“Gifting”, “journey” and other words we hate" »
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sophie rose says:
I’ve just moved back to Tassie after 28 years on the mainland - every single bloody person says ‘youse’. Read more »
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Ambre says:
@TJ Along the same lines. I HATE it when people write ‘youse’ as ‘use’ FFS! Read more »
Australia is one of the most multi-ethnic societies on earth. As a result, we are living in a kaleidoscope of different cultures and different languages. Among these is one which has always been around.
Ever since democratic politics emerged, and expanding rapidly in recent years, politicians have developed a distinctive language of their own: pollie-speak. This is especially evident among Ministers, but all politicians have learnt to use it.
It is an unusual language. Other languages have developed as a means for people to communicate with each other, with reasonable clarity. Pollie-speak, however, seems to be designed not to communicate but to obfuscate: to make communication unclear, unintelligible, or bewildering.
Continue reading "Moving forward, let me say this on working families…" »
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James Ricketson says:
Jolanda I’ve had precisely this same experience with various government departments and presume that there must be a hand-book somewhere that is handed out to public servants that recommends how to deal with questions they do no wish to answer: (1) Ignore all correspondence for as long as possible, (2)… Read more »
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Tator says:
Alcotrel, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/04/3260815.htm sort of indicates that the ALP didn’t get their infrastructure priorities right either. You also have to remember that the Constitutional responsibility for infrastructure actually lays with the State Governments, which between 2001 and 2008 were all ALP Governments and the majority up until early this year were… Read more »
Another arrival from the crowd that brought us this indecipherable press release, but this time the gobbledegook’s even worse.
SAP Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) today announced the availability of hosted offerings from its channel partners for midsize companies, providing a new delivery channel for SAP solutions for mid-size customers in ANZ.
SAP integration partner CIBER is the first ANZ partner to offer hosting as an alternative to the traditional on-premise deployment option. The hosted offerings allow midsize companies to implement and run SAP® Business All-in-One solutions without the need to hire and train dedicated IT staff to implement and manage the software. SAP Business All-in-One is comprehensive and flexible software for midsize companies with deep industry best practices built-in.
My eyes.
Over to you: translations please?
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Chris says:
From my experience, I can assume this was a release written by an SAP representative outside of Australia for global distribution, which was meant to be localised. However SAP Australia’s comms team and external PR agency have dismally failed to do this - instead just pasting ‘ANZ’ into several parts… Read more »
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Trolldoll says:
Basically it means that if you have a decent internet connection for your buisness, these people will store the information for you buisness and make sure it’s running so you don’t have to sully your hands with Geeks, BTW I am a Geek. So if you don’t mind running up… Read more »
This just landed in The Punch’s inbox. Can anyone explain what it means?
To meet a growing demand from companies of all sizes for software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence (BI) tools that are easy to use, SAP Australia New Zealand today announced the local launch of the SAP® BusinessObjects™ BI OnDemand solution.
Targeted at casual BI users currently under-served by products on the market, the solution will deliver a complete BI toolset in one flexible offering. Leading local on-demand services and solutions provider Sqware Peg is the first local partner to offer customers the new solution, which will provide analytics capabilities for customers using core on-demand solutions.
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iansand says:
Whatever it is it is likely to dissolve, so be careful. All those solutions. Read more »
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Jenni says:
*like* good job Matt ... you’re not in advertising by any chance? Read more »
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd today said that the Government was moving with “the utmost urgent speed” to fix what might be “perceived as an unfortunate conceptual misalignment” regarding the issue of asylum seekers.
“Up until now we have described our policy as ‘tough but humane’, however from now on the correct designation will be ‘harsh but kind’,” Mr Rudd said.
The Prime Minister looked annoyed when a reporter suggested that perhaps a better alternative might be “sweet and sour”. “Let me say this, do I apologise for saying what I mean and meaning what I say? Not withstanding the various qualifications existent for meeting the dynamic fluidity of changing contingencies, no, I do not apologise, not in the slightest,” Mr Rudd said.
Continue reading "Unapologetically tough and unapologetically fair" »
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Finishbottle says:
Pass Alone,exist name inform man gain cost normal largely lot desire additional offence damage discussion responsible place painting including standard seat hang under settle growing earn separate liberal works attack hence show comparison discuss last mother employer criterion trade order emerge transport clearly image border great everybody much occur available… Read more »
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Not Rudd says:
Paul Keating said it best back in 2007 on Lateline when he said Rudd wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning until someone had done an opinion poll to find out which side was the most popular to get out on. Read more »
I admit it: I’m in danger of being a language bore.
I’m that guy who, when you say you’re ‘honing in’ on something, asks derisively if you’ve ever heard of a honing pigeon or a honing missile.
If you call me a ‘font of information’, I’m liable to take offence on the grounds that a font is a shallow bowl used for church christenings, and I’d rather be a fount, thank you.
Continue reading "Some key learnings about the debasement of language" »
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Jose Imenez says:
Confusing good writing with good thinking. Awk! No. not the Great Auk, but the Awk! of exasperation. Correct writing arrives from correct thinking, neither of which has been taught since Rockefeller tampered with education as noted in the book, “The Leipzig Connection” by Paolo Lioni. Liz claimed “Language… Read more »
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Darryl Price says:
Worse than “learnings” in place of “lessons”, the past 5-6 years has seen “pedagogy” - the art of being a teacher - and its various forms used to describe almost anything to do with schooling. Why not just keep it simple. Also - “way, shape or form” - a Ruddworthy… Read more »
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