It won’t have escaped your notice that the internet giants are going though turbulent times, with huge job losses announced at Twitter, Meta and Amazon. In the case of the last, it has been reported that the company is to start cutting 10,000 jobs within days to make its “fulfilment centres” more streamlined. In my day, a place where goods are stored, packed and sent to customers who have ordered them used to be known as a warehouse.
In the same vein, reader Jeremy Stonehouse emailed me. “Spotted in John Lewis, a staff member wearing a ‘Profit Protection’ badge. More usually known as a security guard.”
And thank you to Roy Perry for the following: “An offering from the November magazine of Weardale Railway Trust (of which I am a member): ‘Train operations have continued throughout the summer and ridership has been very encouraging.’”
It’s not just in this country, though, that sins against the language are being committed. John Langan writes: “Here’s one for you from Texas. Last week at a departmental meeting where I work a senior director told us we would be ‘solutioning to make us futureproofed’.” Typical of Americans – they always have to go one better. Back at home, former PM Gordon Brown has also been getting in on the act. “The hyper-globalisation of the last 30 years is not giving way to de-globalisation or even slowbalisation, but lowbalisation: a globalisation-lite defined by near-shoring, friend-shoring and shortening supply chains.”
Lance Quirico spotted this in a newspaper recently and laments: “I got the gist but it looks so inelegant.” I couldn’t agree more. I have railed often against the use of “community”. Kathy Enfield shares my annoyance. “The final straw was hearing the word used by a local artist, who had painted a portrait of an unshaven homeless man. She described him as being a member of the ‘beard community’. Aargh!”
Email jonathan.bouquet@observer.co.uk
• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist
