Feb 23, 2010

Geoff Nunberg on Linguistic Pet Peeves

From Fresh Air from WHYY, National Public Radio

'Equation,' 'Gingerly' And Other Linguistic Pet Peeves

By Geoff Nunberg

My friend Scott is always sending me indignant e-mails with examples of people using the word "equation" to mean just a situation with a lot of factors, when nothing is actually being equated — as in, "Family members are a critical part of the doctor-patient equation." I tell him I think of this as just routine journalistic bloat, and not even he thinks it's a threat to the republic. But he enjoys grousing about it, all the more because it doesn't seem to annoy anybody else that much. It makes for a fine pet peeve....

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October 4, 2016