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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
for those of us who agonize over usage, political correctness, and the POE (purity of essence) of our language <waving both hands in air>, I seriously suggest perusing this article from the Atlantic Monthly: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97mar/halpern/nunberg.htm
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 31
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 31 |
I used to have a friend who worked in a convalescent home and on more than one occasion she talked about patients being "impacted." I think I have the spelling correct. "Mr. Smith in room 105 is impacted — better get the nurse and the Fleet's enema!"
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Thank you tsuwm for an excellent reference. Reading it and its links means I have now done no work this afternoon.
Bingley
Bingley
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
michaelo, Just this morning, the Weather Channel had a heading of "Impact Weather" on the screen. Unfortunate choice, since the background setting was an airport! 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Many of you who post here are expatriates, as was I for 17 years. Doesn't necessarily mean we've lost allegiance to the motherland.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 218 |
>>Just this morning, the Weather Channel had a heading of "Impact Weather" on the screen. Unfortunate choice, since the background setting was an airport! It would be an unfortunate choice if the airport actually had planes coming and going. (Or did you mean the "Impact" on my life?  ) CANCELLED, DELAYED, BRANDED, Brandon
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 1 |
Chocoholic: that would be someone who is addicted to chocohol, would it? Whatever that may be...
Also 'attendee'. A <verb>ee should be the object of the verb, not the subject, e.g. payee, employee. 'Attender' would be much better, as would escaper instead of escapee, although the latter is somehow less annoying. Perhaps that's because it's been around longer. I know, I know, it's a living language. Even OED, sadly, has 'attendee'. Does anyone else dislike the word?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I dislike attendee. In arts marketing (in the UK, anyway) we tend to talk about attenders to differentiate them from intenders (people who are sympathathetic to an event but may never get round to attending).
I think it is just the rise and rise of business speak that makes these things grate so much. Conferences have delegates, performances have audiences, schools have pupils - I'm not sure if we need a word like attendee.
Incidentally - I spotted Jackie's suggestion in Information to install Gurunet and a couple of simple right clips came up with this:
"USAGE NOTE: Reflecting its origins in the French passive participle ending -é (feminine -ée), the suffix -ee was first used in English to refer to indirect objects and then direct objects of transitive verbs, particularly in legal contexts (as in donee, lessee, or trustee) and military and political jargon (draftee, trainee, or nominee). Beginning around the mid-19th century, primarily in American English, it was often extended to denote the agent or subject of an intransitive verb; for example, standee, returnee, or attendee. Although the pattern is very common and a number of these coinages, such as honoree, deportee, and escapee, have become widely accepted, in general they retain an informal character as jocular nonce words."
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Welcome, IanT. I will hazard a guess that you are British.
Chocohol does sound odd--would one drink it or eat it?? I can understand the usage, though: chocolatic simply doesn't carry the connotation of addiction that alcoholic does.
Re: attendee--my preference is to say people in attendance.
An 'attender' strikes me as indication that someone is paying attention, not always the case in an attendee.
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