Another week and another list of words and phrases that are now not to be used, this time courtesy of the Scout Association. Previous name, not maiden name, human kind, not mankind. Both seem to be in common usage and reasonable. But dinner ladies becoming midday supervisors? What would Victoria Wood say about that?
One word we could definitely do without is pre-planned. If I’ve heard it once in the past week, I’ve heard it a dozen times. What is wrong with plain and simple planned? It conveys exactly the same meaning, so it’s high time to ditch the “pre”.
And so to this week’s gripes from readers. This is from Alexandra McDevitt: “I’ve just been reading your column on the use of superlatives in current speech patterns. One that irritates me is the use of ‘surreal’ for almost any slightly unusual occurrence. I’m assuming that users don’t actually know what the word means.” A very fair assumption. This from Chris Baker: “‘Challenging/challenge’ is all too often used; what is wrong with ‘difficult/difficulty’ or ‘problem/problematic’? Those alternatives are often more appropriate or more specific. Perhaps significantly, ‘challenging’ is much used in government communications, where the alternatives might be too uncomfortably close to the truth!”
And Philip MacEachan writes: “Am I the only one exhausted by the overuse of the phrase ‘hidden in plain sight’, preferring to use ‘not obvious’, or ‘previously overlooked’?” Actually, Philip, you’re not alone – you’re in very good company in being heartily sick to the back teeth of this phrase and I’ll certainly help you chuck it in the dustbin.
• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
