People in glass houses
May.12, 2006, filed under Miscellany
Last night I turned on to BBC4 to watch a new programme called Never Mind the Full Stops, a panel game for the grammatical pedants amongst us.
Actually, to be accurate, I ran down and had a quick shower after watching The Pedant’s Revolt so I missed the start.
I came back to discover them embarking on a round about euphemisms and what they called ‘cacophonisms’. I think they meant dysphemisms. Having watched the rest of the round I wouldn’t be at all surprised as they didn’t seem to have a clue.
May I just point out that substituting ‘foul’ for ‘disgusting’ is not using a euphemism: it’s employing a synonym. A euphemism for disgusting would be ‘an acquired taste’.
I think I will have to write to the BBC and complain. This was supposed to be a panel show the likes of which John Humphries would enjoy. It was, euphemistically, lacking in preparation and in need of slightly greater expertise. Dysphemistically it was a demolition derby of incorrect word usage and smug hypocrisy from five people who talked a good game but obviously didn’t really understand the rules.
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Singularity
~something that is singular as (a) a separate unit, or (b) unusual or distinctive manner or behavior; PECULIARITY;
~the quality or state of being singular;
~a point at which the derivative of a given function of a complex variable does not exist but every neighborhood of which contains points for which the derivative exists;
~a point or region of infinite mass density at which space and time are infinitely distorted by gravitational forces and which is held to be the final state of matter falling into a black hole. Sight
