Wedded Words that are less than what they think they mean

[novella]

There are some words that are only used when wedded to other words, as if they’ve lost their ability to be used independently and are now auxiliary words. Whenever I hear them, I think the phrase would be so much more meaningful without them. They suck the air out of sentences.



Some examples:


Why is gall always unmitigated? Is anything, even gall, ever mitigated?

Why are tribulations always with trials? Has anyone ever had a tribulation without having a trial too?

Is every liar “bold-faced” (unless he’s bald-faced)? Both are legit, apparently, but neither is fun to hear.

What does “categorically false” mean, as opposed to plain false?

Why are Republicans always “staunch”? Is a liberal physically capable of being staunch?

Why is Christmas always merry? Why isn’t a birthday merry, but always happy? Can't I please have a happy day or a merry day instead of a nice day?

 

[Freya]

The only one I've really notice myself is the Happy Birthday - Merry Christmas... I'm sure you'll be stunned (and amazed) (or is that just from the song come to think of it...) to find out that I always write have a Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year

COMPLETELY RELATED AND ON-TOPIC - When we went to uni, everybody picked up these same three words/phrases, and felt the need to use them repeatedly:

To be fair...

Blatantly.

How rude!

Ooooh thinking about it now is making me all angry. GET A THESAURUS GODDAMIT!!

 

[Ashlea]

My dorm in college had a semester where everyone continually used "dearth" and "plethora."

It got old very, very quickly.

 

[Cathy C]

My favorite is "irregardless". My usual comment (unless my husband hits me first) is "Really? How kind of you to agree!"

Cathy
The penguins give me strength! Long live the penguins...

 

[Sun-SSS]

My favorite is "irregardless". My usual comment (unless my husband hits me first) is "Really? How kind of you to agree!"

Cathy
The penguins give me strength! Long live the penguins...

How about "Period of Time"? What else do those morons think there could be periods of?

 

[cajunmama]

My favorite is "irregardless".

I'm with you. That drives me up the WALL!! That is a non-word. Go look it up in the dictionary! It says : "See regardless". I have a bunch of other misuse and mispronunciations that drive me batty. My biggest one : nuclear. Not nucular. Nuclear.

 

[Yobmod]

Can't sentences be mitigated? in fact lots of things can be mitigated!

And period can be a full stop or (in UK at least) refer to menstruation,
so 'she sat by the roadside for a period' could be ambiguous.

 

[Sun-SSS]

Periods and ambiguity

OK -- there are periods of all sorts. Games can be divided into periods, and we had periods when I went to school. Periods spent in a particular class, it meant.

In this country, at this time, we rarely hear the words period and time uttered apart from one another. Especially from politicians and political commentators. Saying one without the other looks like becoming illegal. I think they might be drafting legislation as I write…

"She at outside for a period of time" sounds worse than ambiguous: it sounds clumsy, pretentious and silly. What's wrong with "She sat outside for a while"?
And surely if one did choose to write "She sat outside for a period", no one with any sense would take it to mean she sat outside to menstruate.

Joke:
Q: How many editors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A, Editor: Do you mean how many editors does it take to have sex in a light bulb, or how many editors does it take to change a light bulb? Re-write to remove ambiguity.

Q: How many writers does it take to change a light bulb?
A, Writer: I'M NOT CHANGING ANYTHING!

 

[cajunmama]

Sun-- those jokes are hilarious!! LMAO!!!

 

[Batty]

How about unthawed? That one makes me turn blue trying not to "notice" it.

 

[Kookamoor]

My topical favorite is 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. When they were looking for these mythical weapons in Iraq, would they have ignored weapons that didn't have the potential for 'mass destruction'? What about all those 'Weapons of Minor Damage'?

 

[Acolyte]

On the topic of Iraq, I found it amusing that the vaunted "shock and awe" attack policy was pretty much the same as the WW2 "blitzkrieg" but they didn't call it that.

On a more related note, what amuses me more than typical word pairings (which are slightly silly when you think about them) are words that if you remove a common prefix or suffix, cease to be words. For example, "-less" means "without", as in a penniless beggar or sleepless nights. The word "feckless" means without strength, power, or influence, connotation weak and pathetic. And yet, no one has "feck". He cannot be feckful. Yes the -less in feckless is clearly functioning as "without." WHAT HAPPENED TO FECK?!?! *grin* It's very odd.

 

[Sar]

Obviously you've never watched Father Ted then Acolyte (brilliant irish comedy show), cos feck gets mentioned plenty of times there!

Sorry to go off topic for a mo, but I had to laugh after the pope died & some bookmakers in america actually had odds for Father Dougal McGuire (character from this series) being the next pope

Back on topic though (sort of) you can have nonsensical, but have you ever heard of anyone being sensical in the first place?

 

[Halo]

Obviously you've never watched Father Ted then Acolyte (brilliant irish comedy show), cos feck gets mentioned plenty of times there!

"That would be an ecumenical matter!"

Sorry to go off topic for a mo, but I had to laugh after the pope died & some bookmakers in america actually had odds for Father Dougal McGuire (character from this series) being the next pope

That is either hilarious, or very worrying, I can't quite decide.

Back on topic though (sort of) you can have nonsensical, but have you ever heard of anyone being sensical in the first place?

Good point, well made. I also remember a character in a book I read remarking that you are always in "high dudgeon", it is never low dudgeon or just dudgeon (and what is dudgeon, for that matter?)