I'm annoyed with "reached out"

@firefly,

firefly wrote:

Knowing it's perfectly acceptable in the U.K. doesn't make it any less grating to my ears.

One hell of a lot of things that Americans say grate like hell on my ears, and knowing they are perfectly acceptable in the US doesn't affect that one bit. (Why should it?)

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Ya know what really burns my ass ? ! ? ! ?

. . . a fire about three feet high.

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@contrex,

As G.B. Shaw once famously said of the Brits and the Yanks, we are one people separated only by a common language.

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@roger,

Not in my work world, but I was never in the corporate zone.

I had a major repulsion situation going on when at the end of my land arch classes some doobie came in to tell us how to write. I wouldn't mind that if that person had brains. I took her as the birthchild of the then department head who was having an affair with oh-nevermind, and treated it accordingly. Grabbed myself a C on purpose, not wanting to flunk out the last of 3o or was it 40 courses.

1 Reply

@Pearlylustre,

Pearlylustre wrote:

Quote:
The one that absolutely drives me nuts, and that I cannot adapt to, is when they say someone "went missing."

I didn't know this was British English - it's perfectly standard here in Australia as well.

It's still weird, though.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Pearlylustre wrote:

I didn't know this was British English - it's perfectly standard here in Australia as well.

Australian English, is, more or less, British English.

Less, in many ways.

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@ossobuco,

Replying to myself, I get legal concerns. I get matters of professional practice that need to be addressed. I don't get being taught how to smaze with words.

I made smaze up.
Live with it.

Also - it wasn't that the smaze was all suggested, it was taught as how to write.

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@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Those Americans who find "went missing" an annoyance (and they have every right to feel that way about linguistic instrusions and novelties, if they want to) will be getting a taste of how many Brits feel when they hear people asking "can I get..." in a shop or café,

or hear that frequently occurring things happen "oftentimes",
or hear that something that was free was "for free".

I 've lived my entire life in America, mostly in New York with some time
in Arizona; very briefly in Florida. I take your word for what u say,
but I (for one) have never said ofentimes. I 've said: "ofen".

I 've said it both ways, qua "for free" or more ofen
simply: "that 's free." "Free of charge" is also common here.

contrex wrote:

Just saying.

Will u reveal what idea
u wish to express by that phrase ?

David

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@roger,

roger wrote:

Great! And ever since,
I suppose you guys have been taking trials.

No. We kept them in the same place after that.
We don 't wanna lose any witnesses, straggling away.

David

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@firefly,

Quote:

After a while, you hear these phrases used so often, they begin to sound normal.

That would be because that is how language works.

Quote:

How can anyone "go missing"? Is "missing" an activity you engage in, like going swimming?

The same way that folks could read your post and say, "Firefly has gone crazy".

Quote:

What happened to, "He hasn't been seen or heard from since Tuesday," or, "He dropped out of sight on Tuesday,"? Or just, "He's been missing since Tuesday"?

Nothing happened to them. They are also all available to us.

Quote:

Who, and why, threw "went" into it? And why did everyone in the media adopt it?

That would be because that is how language works.

1 Reply

@JTT,

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=reach

Quote:

Old English ræcan, reccan "reach out, stretch out, extend, hold forth," also "succeed in touching, succeed in striking; address, speak to," also "offer, present, give, grant," from West Germanic *raikjan "stretch out the hand" (cf. Old Frisian reka, Middle Dutch reiken, Dutch reiken, Old High German and German reichen), from Proto-Germanic *raikijanau, perhaps from PIE root *reig- "to stretch out" (cf. Sanskrit rjyati "he stretches himself," riag "torture" (by racking); Greek oregein "to reach, extend;" Lithuanian raižius "to stretch oneself;" Old Irish rigim "I stretch").

Quote:

Quote:

Who, and why, threw "went" into it? And why did everyone in the media adopt it?

That would be because that is how language works.

It came about because after they threw go into it all went from there.

Talking Heads

Speaking In Tongues

This Must be the Place (Naive Melody)

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You know, I had a sudden feeling that "reach out" seems to carry something of a condesending tone. As if the reachee were incapable of doing their own reaching.

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@roger,

Quote:

You know, I had a sudden feeling that "reach out" seems to carry something of a condesending tone. As if the reachee were incapable of doing their own reaching.

Amazing what a little thinking can do, eh, Roger?

Quote:

"Nobody is defensive on a2k." Lolaessence

Lola is, firefly is, Roger is, BillRM is, Finn is, coldjoint is, h2oman was, Farmer is, ... .

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@roger,

Yeah, there is something sanctimonious about the phrase. I suppose not always, butI hear it in its present proliferation of usage.

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I am used to seeing "reaching out" being used to describe, er, "outreach" activities - churches reaching out to sinners, voluntary and public agencies to the homeless, drug addicts, victims of crime or abuse, etc, and used that way it seems to carry an implication of help, compassion or reconciliation. One can imagine extended arms reaching out to embrace and welcome. The more modern, less precise apparent meaning of "attempting to communicate with" does seem like an annoyance.

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@roger,

roger wrote:

You know, I had a sudden feeling that "reach out" seems to carry something of a condesending tone.

I reached out to the Opulent; I suppose that might have implied condescension
toward their forgetfulness of their honoring their dinner reservations.

roger wrote:

As if the reachee were incapable of doing their own reaching.

Well, not enuf of them reached the restaurant,
in violation of their respective committments. That was the problem.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Yes. Well, um yes.

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Sometimes it's good to be an editor. There are no "take a decision," "take a meeting," etc. in the books I edit--when I'm done with them. As for reaching out, it often becomes "contacted."

The latest thing that's driving me nuts is, "That said." I deleted it at least fifty times from a book I recently edited.

That said, I am outta here.

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@Roberta,

Go take a lunch with someone and calm down.

1 Reply

@roger,

It's 6:45 p.m. Almost time for breakfast. Go take a lunch yourself, you big lug.

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I'm annoyed with "reached out"

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