Pedantry alert!
Over the last few months I‘ve noticed a linguistic shift that is driving me insane. I first noticed on podcasts (hence the picture), but I‘ve even noticed in work emails (written by educators no less). There seems to be a trend to shorten words. “Priorities” becomes “priors”. “Comparisons” and “Competitions” both become “comps” (which previously was used for “comprehensive exams”). ⬇️
Sace In each case it wasn‘t exactly clear which word they were abbreviating. I find this unacceptable. Educators and bookish podcasters especially shouldn‘t take shortcuts. (edited) 6d
Sace PS: I find it doubly annoying in speech because there‘s no character limit when speaking. 🙄 6d
Amor4Libros Agree!! 6d
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kspenmoll I totally agree! 6d
Mollyanna Absolutely agree! 6d
Sace @Amor4Libros @kspenmoll @Mollyanna Thanks for supporting my moment of annoyance 😂 6d
Clare-Dragonfly Wow! I haven‘t encountered those to my knowledge but they sound very annoying! Those words already have meanings that are not really distinct enough from the new ones. 6d
Sace @Clare-Dragonfly I just don‘t get it. 6d
MoniqueReads305 I agree with most of this except comps. I thinks that's publishing language bleeding into education through social media.. When authors sell their books to publishers they provide comps. That's why you'll hear stuff like Little Women meets Lord of the Files. 6d
dabbe This retired high school English teacher agrees 💯! 💙🩵💙 6d
Hooked_on_books “Priors” for priorities?!? I get the desire to shorten words sometimes, but that changes it to a completely different word and thus the meaning as well! Accuracy and clear communication is far more important than shortening a few words! 6d
Hooked_on_books And that‘s absolutely not pedantry! 6d
julesG What about speakers of English as a second/foreign language? That's so wrong. Don't make it harder for us. Language is evolving, of course, but that's just sloppy. An email is not a handwritten letter that takes ages to copy, 6d
julesG ... It's just lazy and confusing. 6d
Sace @MoniqueReads305 Ah! Thanks for the information. It was in fact a bookish podcast that used “comps” so knowing that bit of publishing language makes sense now. 6d
Sace @julesG absolutely agree! And that kind of usage doesn‘t make it into dictionaries either (at least it would take a bit of searching to find). 6d
Sace @Hooked_on_books Right? I‘m seeing/hearing it more than I would like. 😂 6d
Sace @dabbe 🩵 I can imagine how infuriating this kind of thing would be for English teachers. I don‘t think students have started doing this (yet). 6d
rwmg I haven't come across those yet. But I have come across comp as a verb meaning, as far as I can make out, (of a business) give somebody something free to pacify them after they make a complaint. 6d
Sace @rwmg oh yes! That‘s another common one that (I think) most of the general public knows. 5d
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