I ongo, you ongo, he ongoes

Posted on Sat Mar 4 2006 by Tim

:rant: It started with ongoing, but is now pandemic. Today’s annoyance, in press articles about Tessa Jowell, DOWNPLAY.

What is wrong with “play down”? why do we need to keep inventing new verbs to say things we can say perfectly well and a lot more clearly using adverbs?

Who decided to declare war on adverbs?

Why not go the whole hog and only have compound verbs…..

Abouthink it! This would English bettermake. It would upneaten our sentences hugely and awaydo with lots of unnecessary words.

If that is not totally upfucked, I don’t know what is.

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14 Responses to I ongo, you ongo, he ongoes

  1. HelenHaricot says:
    Sat Mar 4 2006 at 11:25

    my cheif exec asked us all to make sure we do our outcomings???

  2. Tim says:
    Sat Mar 4 2006 at 12:10

    he probably meant to tell you to “suremake”

  3. Angela says:
    Sat Mar 4 2006 at 20:20

    Hear, hear!

    My current personal favourite takes it a step further – “upcoming” (used as an adjective to describe something that is coming up) – why make up a new word for this when we already have the perfectly good “forthcoming”?

    Maybe, though, we should just outchill and aboutforget it?

  4. Tim says:
    Sat Mar 4 2006 at 20:41

    Jax likes outchill…….

    Noooooooooooooooooooo…………………

  5. Jan says:
    Sat Mar 4 2006 at 20:57

    Well, Tim, that made me outloudlaugh :)

  6. Libertus says:
    Mon Mar 6 2006 at 0:04

    You’re just speaking English with German syntax!

  7. Libertus says:
    Mon Mar 6 2006 at 0:11

    Surfwebbing, smokejointing and outchilling.

    Where’s my seekjobber’s allowance?

    :)

  8. Tim says:
    Mon Mar 6 2006 at 1:02

    See it gets worse!

    Now everyone is outchilling.

  9. Libertus says:
    Fri Mar 10 2006 at 0:25

    As I have adopted the word “outchill”, honour must be served. Share and enjoy.

    http://www.libertini.net/libertus/2006/03/09/fan-chart/#brainstorm-3

  10. Liz (attamum) says:
    Fri Mar 10 2006 at 9:50

    I sent this to my daughter who’s studying linguistics (just like I did 20 years ago – blushing with pride-) as we often have conversations like this. My most recent bugbear concerns ‘concerns’, the way it has started to mean ‘worries’. Grr!

  11. Tim says:
    Fri Mar 10 2006 at 21:46

    Hi Liz

    My permanent gripe is proactive. Yet another meeting bingo buzzword.

    Mostly it is used as a synonym for “active”. So the “pro” is merely a waste of breath.

    More rarely it gets used to mean preemptive, which was a perfectly good word, clearer and more expressive.

  12. Christina Springer says:
    Sat Mar 11 2006 at 16:49

    On your page, Jax! If I could guarentee my son would have all 12 years of his education from this teacher/poet, he’d be in school the minute I could get him registered. (Disclaimer – Taylor Mali is a fellow poet/friend/acquaintance – so I’m biased.)

    These are fun reads along the same lines.

    Totally Like Whatever
    http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=21

    The the impotence of proofreading
    http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=30

    Like Lily Like Wilson
    http://www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=15

  13. Jax says:
    Sat Mar 11 2006 at 22:11

    We like the poems. A lot. :)

  14. Tim says:
    Sat Mar 11 2006 at 22:32

    the red penis your friend :rofl: