OK, it's peeve time: I'm hearing this more and more in news reports and it's getting real old real quick. Where else you gonna be if not on the ground? In a plane? On a ship? If that's the context, and a contrast is being drawn, OK. If not, the wrath of ASp is upon you.
Seems in "some circles" I have a reputation to uphold around here.... 
Step up to the plate.
By golly, I'm SO TIRED of hearing this! Anna, please save a bit of your wrath for this one, OK?
Betsy,
I've not heard this. Is that Fox News or summin? Can you give us a bit more context?
The ones I hate are "ramping up" and "growing a business."
TEd
I had thought it meant "reporting with feet on the ground" as opposed to sitting in an armchair or with eyes in the sky.
I think we're supposed to be impressed by the fact that the reporter is actually present at the scene of the action, rather than in a control room miles away or some other remote place.
Isn't that where it's happening, baby? Right where it's at? You better believe it!
Geesh, folks, it's just an expression. You don't have to be impressed by the fact that the reporter is on the scene in Rillarillabad instead of in a bar in Nukehavistan, but it is a piece of information. And it can be used in reference to anyone. Soldiers on the ground in Bait as-Sahain are in a much different situation than those in Camp Swampy.
Having the reporter at the place the action is happening is worthwhile info but there are other terms that could be used for variety: front-line, on-site, on the scene, reporting from, eyewitness report from, on location at. . . .
'in the air, at sea?'
I think that's probably just the contrast that is being drawn -- that or 'on a map.' It sounds like a military term that the press has adopted -- and that in itself could be interesting. ... Still, I see your point.
Sure, there's other ways you could say it. There's always other ways you could say it. Why pick on this one in particular. You might as well rail against the phrase "around the corner" as in "Oh, the old Same place? It's just around the corner."
Faldage, you been reading the Onion again?
I don't mind "on the ground" but will someone please inform the military that "cache" is pronounced like "cash" and not like "cachet"?
reading the Onion again
Was it the tear in my eye that gave me away?
will someone please inform the military that "cache" is pronounced like "cash" and not like "cachet"?
Amen! And that "niche" is "neesh", not "nitch".
I, too, hate the term "growing your business". And I have yet to get a satisfactory answer when I ask what the difference is between a problem and an issue. I don't have an issue with someone tapping the glass on my aquarium, I have a problem with it, and whoever does it is going to have a problem with me.
And that "niche" is "neesh", not "nitch"
I suppose, if you're speaking French. It's an English word and we don' need no steenkeen French to tell us how to pernounce it.
And what's the difference between growing corn and growing a business?
And what's the difference between growing corn and growing a business?
Less manure out on the farm.
Oh i see you are well acquainted with the ever so popular american style of management, MUSHROOM MANAGEMENT.
for those of you who are unfamiliar, its simple, you treat the workers like mushrooms
Keep them in the dark
Bury them in cow manure (a more vulgar slang term is use for manure)
and if they pop their heads up to see what is going on, LOP them off.
a very popular (with management) style.
> It's an English word
What 'it' are you referring to, Fong? Since the loanword came from French the earliest English usage was definitely 'neesh' and therefore the 'English' word thus created used that pronunciation. Of course, if you're referring to the much later bastardised American mangling of the word... ;)
Since the loanword came from French the earliest English usage was definitely 'neesh' and therefore the 'English' word thus created used that pronunciation. Of course, if you're referring to the much later bastardised American mangling of the word
Not sure what English pronunciation you're typing of. The OED, first edition, allows only /nItS/. The American-Heritage gives both /nItS/ and /niS/.
What 'it' are you referring to, Fong?
It came from French, yes. But it's now English and we can pernounce it any way we dang well please, thank you very much. Y'all should talk about "proper" pernunciation with y'all's Don Quick-soat.
good thing we're all in the same clique here...
Y'all should talk about "proper" pernunciation with y'all's Don Quick-soat.
Speaking of which, why do people say "Kee-hoe-tay" but "Kwix-otic"? At least saying "Quick-soat" has the virtue of consistency.
saying QUICK-soat, JFTR, is the Queen's own proffered pronunciation, as recorded by the OED. I suppose it's by "back-formulation" from quixotic. :)
We say Don Quick-soat in English??? Good lord, if anybody had ever said that to me, I have to admit that I wouldn't have had a clue who he was talking about.
In French Québec, we prounounce it "qui-shot" with qui pronounced as in quiche.
why do people say "Kee-hoe-tay" but "Kwix-otic"?
Quixote is a Spanish name, so we pronounce it in Spanish (or as close to Spanish as our poor little gringa tongues can extend themselves). Quixotic is an English word derived from that name so we pronounce it English like.
I don't have Fowler's MEU with me, but I'm pretty sure that he says that originally the Don's name was pronounced Quick-soat in English, hence quicksotic, but then people decided to show off how much Spanish they knew and hypercorrecting it to keehotay till that became the usual pronunciation.
Bingley
> hypercorrecting it to keehotay
well, now I feel much better about how I used to pronounce Yosemite Sam... oh, and the Adirondacks...
<smile>
Yo-semm-itty
A-deer-on-dacks
Na??
ok, fine... I'll put myself out there...
I used to say: YOZE-might and ad-I-ern-dax...
sad, ain't it?
deeba-deeba-deeba, that's all folks...
No, no
(snicker) perfectly understandable,
(snicker, snicker) happens to the best of us.
Seriously though, unless you've ever heard a word spoken, the pronunciation isn't always evident...for examply, I still don't know how to pronounce "awry."
Is it AH-REE or A-RYE?
I'm not sure of the context. The form with which I'm familiar is "boots on the ground" and it's meant to mean more generally "in theater" as in contrast with doing support work somewhere back in NorthCom or Pacom. OTOH, even in theater, the number of "boots on the ground" doesn't directly translate to "number of people out in the field."
I expect the reporters borrowed this term from military people and have run with it.
> awry
pumpernickel...
love ya, Gin
Awry: for this one, forget your French, Sweetie--it's leading you astray.
Man--astray sure looks close to ashtray, doesn't it? And they're not even remotely related.
>>bastardizing<<
Is that the annulment of a birth's legitimacy?
(What, incidentally, is the status of the offspring of anulled marriages?)
And, anyway, what's wrong with being a bastard, anway?
[sic]
Fong's right.
Though insofar as I use neesh, I use "neesh"
>>>pumpernickleAh, so it's A-RYE is it mister smarty "teasing the poor French girl who's never heard the word spoken in her life and is only trying to educate herself by opening up on-line, in hopes that nobody will laugh at her ignorance" pants.
love you too Rog
I really *am* trying to keep a straight face about your ignorance pants.
Do you wear them often? (Answer: "I don't know.")
hypercorrecting it to keehotay
Going back to a pronunciation more nearly like the original seems like a new definition for "hypercorrection."
I've always understood hypercorrecting to be being so anxious to use the correct form that you use it where it's not appropriate.
So, pronouncing the capital of France as paree when speaking English is hypercorrect, the English pronunciation is Paris. Similarly, pronouncing the Spanish name Quixote as kee-ho-tay in an English context started out as a hypercorrection which has now taken root as the standard form.
I don't know but I suspect that from whenever the book was first translated into English the character's name was generally pronounced Quick-soat until comparatively recently when more English speakers heard the Spanish pronunciation.
Bingley
Vee-va Pancho Vee-ya [twirling moustaches-e][grin]