Additions to the lexicon

Kipp McMichael via pbs pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
Fri, 18 Sep 2020 08:56:23 PDT
exasturbated: the feeling, during times of pandemic and social distancing, that you've done everything you can to entertain to yourself and yet you are still bored.

Thank goodness for backyard gardens!
-|Kipp
________________________________
From: pbs <pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> on behalf of Robert Lauf via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2020 8:22 AM
To: Tim Eck via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Cc: Robert Lauf <boblauf@att.net>
Subject: Re: [pbs] Additions to the lexicon

Now it we could only get TV news readers to stop adding -ing to the end of every verb!  What morons.  It's no wonder kids today are illiterate.
Bob
    On Friday, September 18, 2020, 11:14:10 AM EDT, Tim Eck via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote:

 Jane said:
"The second new word I learned today is something that we on the Pacific
coast are all yearning for at this moment: "petrichor," the fragrance of
sun-baked earth when it is first struck by rain."

I had been familiar with "petrichor" already, though back east we mostly
don't get much sunbaked earth and have to rely on sunbaked boulders since
they bake a lot quicker.
A word that I recently enjoyed learning was "mondegreen", named for Lady
Mondegreen, much regaled in Scottish ballads.
But as uplifting as it is to learn a new word, I find it increasingly
frustrating to hear perfectly good old words being confounded and macerated
on the airwaves.  I am begrudgingly accepting that "death spiral" isn't
just for airplanes anymore, as "spiralling out of control" becomes a
mandatory phrase in every broadcast and that "epicenters" aren't just for
earthquakes anymore.  (By the way, isn't the west coast about due?  Maybe a
"fire sharknado"?)
But lately as so many situations are being "exacerbated", I keep hearing
PBS commentators confounding it with "exasperated" and have begun shouting
at my radio on a regular basis.  As a child I revered Walter Cronkite and
other well educated and well spoken commentators and personalities like
Dorothy Parker and Bennett Cerf.  But just the other day I heard someone on
public radio say "exasturbated" for "exacerbated".  Every time I start to
visualize that as a portmanteau, I lose my train of thought.
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…

_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…
_______________________________________________
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net
http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…


More information about the pbs mailing list