English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

[Cowsham]

Woke

[thirdcrank]

Not so much "Does your head in" but sounds like gobbledygook:-

We need to ensure we have a real wrap-around with victims

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... r-57256098

He's also get the "colleague" bug where the buzzword might have been "stakeholders."

[Oldjohnw]

Tired of seeing “Wax jackets” advertised. They are not made of wax. They are made of cotton that is waxed, which makes them “Waxed jackets”.

Got that one off my chess

[Jdsk]

Never seen that before, but it's really common.

I'd guess that the difficulty of the consonant sequence changed the pronunciation, and the subsequent written spelling followed that.

But it's also possible that someone thought that they were made of a thread called "wax cotton".

Jonathan

[Oldjohnw]

While I'm on my high horse, I cringe at "equally as important" instead of simply "equally important".

[PDQ Mobile]

Tired of seeing “Wax jackets” advertised. They are not made of wax. They are made of cotton that is waxed, which makes them “Waxed jackets”.

Got that one off my chess

As the actress said to the bishop.
Or vice versa.

[Jdsk]

While I'm on my high horse, I cringe at "equally as important" instead of simply "equally important".

In all instances? Including as a modifier of a whole sentence and placed at the start?

Jonathan

[Stradageek]

Without going back through 60 pages of postings, has this list appeared? I actually found this very useful when writing reports or presentations, though it does miss out my favourite: 'Anadiplosis is unnecessary, unnecessary and affected'.

Avoid Alliteration. Always.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
Employ the vernacular.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Contractions aren’t necessary.
Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
One should never generalize.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
Profanity sucks.
Be more or less specific.
Understatement is always best.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
One word sentences? Eliminate.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
Who needs rhetorical questions?
Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
Avoid archaeic spellings too.
Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.
Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
Subject and verb always has to agree.
Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.
Don’t never use no double negatives.
Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
Eschew obfuscation.
No sentence fragments.
Don’t indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
The adverb always follows the verb.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
And always be sure to finish what[/list]

[Oldjohnw]

While I'm on my high horse, I cringe at "equally as important" instead of simply "equally important".

In all instances? Including as a modifier of a whole sentence and placed at the start?

Jonathan

You are right, of course, but most cases.

[Jdsk]

While I'm on my high horse, I cringe at "equally as important" instead of simply "equally important".

In all instances? Including as a modifier of a whole sentence and placed at the start?

You are right, of course, but most cases.

I'd never noticed it before, and I'm trying to work out why. Thanks for raising it.

Jonathan

[Oldjohnw]

In all instances? Including as a modifier of a whole sentence and placed at the start?

You are right, of course, but most cases.

I'd never noticed it before, and I'm trying to work out why. Thanks for raising it.

Jonathan

I think it is slightly ugly and unnecessary rather than contravening a particular rule

[thirdcrank]

equally as

(...)

2. The use of equally as instead of either equally or as by itself is an illiterate tautology (......)

Modern English Usage AKA Fowler (1926)

He did go on to say (in my words) that there's a lot of it about.

[Jdsk]

You are right, of course, but most cases.

I'd never noticed it before, and I'm trying to work out why. Thanks for raising it.

I think it is slightly ugly and unnecessary rather than contravening a particular rule

It's most often an adjectival phrase, and I agree with your dislike. As a sentence modifier it's an adverbial phrase. That should be equally as importantly but I wonder if we tend to shorten that because the repetition of -ly is clumsy?

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

Voting on this in a 2015 ballot:
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/se ... r-usage-2/

Jonathan

[Bmblbzzz]

Without going back through 60 pages of postings, has this list appeared? I actually found this very useful when writing reports or presentations, though it does miss out my favourite: 'Anadiplosis is unnecessary, unnecessary and affected'.
[...]
[/list]

VG!