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Calling
All Verbivores Welcome to another year of Between the Lines and “Calling All Verbivores” (CAV). This column is devoted to the peculiarities, the joys, and the anguish of the English Language. It is addressed to those for whom Richard Lederer has coined the term “verbivore.” A verbivore is one who devours words, one who revels in chewing, gnawing, nibbling them, rolling them round ones mouth, and dribbling them down ones chin. If you count (or discover) yourself to be a member of this tribe, you are invited to respond to the call of CAV in each issue of Between the Lines. Some old business remains to be dispatched before I begin this year’s agenda for CAV. The CAV two numbers back posed a Will Shortz puzzler, “All but Q.” I gave the answer in the number of CAV following that one and preceding this one. One reader, Lynnette Viste, submitted a correct solution to the puzzler. Her solution reached me after submission and before publication of the number of CAV immediately preceding this one, so this is my first opportunity to recognize and congratulate her publicly. Well done, Lynnette. Now let’s get down to business. The preceding number of CAV dealt with a couple of ways language seems to work overtime—in poetry and in the pun. Previous numbers of CAV have dealt with jargon or buzz words. I turn now to the buzz word, which, for the sake of this discussion, I distinguish from jargon. One definition of the word “jargon” in Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (WNUUD) is “the specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same work, way of life, etc., . . .” We can recognize the legitimacy and value of jargon, providing practical utility to a particular community in economy of expression, specificity, and precision. We can also recognize that, from outside the community, its jargon more nearly fits the first definition in the WNUUD, “confused, unintelligible talk or language; gabble; gibberish.” Many business expressions that might be taken to be jargon because they have currency fail to live up to the standards of good jargon. These expressions, recognizably buzzwords, fall into yet another category of language. In contrast to poetry and puns, which can be thought of as language working overtime, the buzzword looks more like language that has fallen asleep on the job. Anne Fisher takes on “Business Buzzwords That Make You Gag” in her column, “Ask Annie,” in Fortune (online edition), August 3, 2005. Two weeks earlier she had asked her readers to submit nominees of “expressions in common business use today [which] make you grit your teeth.” She expresses surprise at the number of nominees for Most Annoying Lingo awards, Mallies. The top three nominees each received more than 100 nominations. The second runner-up is “new paradigm.” She reports that its “evil twin,” “paradigm shift” was also widely despised. The first runner-up is “bandwidth” when it is used to refer to people. “Do we have to call hiring people adding bandwidth?” asks reader Lauren. The winner is “Any phrase—uttered by any businessperson at all, at any time, for any reason—that contains the word ‘vision.’” She lists 24
of the responses from “bottom line” through “one
off” before the top three. I report a few of them here for
purpose of illustration. You can read the whole column at Some of the
nominees (I quote): How about you? Do you have any candidates for the Mallies? Are there any buzzwords that make you grit your teeth or gag? If so, send them along to me, and I will report them. Also, in the next number of CAV, I will return to the Plain English Campaign to report their list of “most irritating phrases in the English language” for 2005. The puzzler
posed in the previous column is the following, from Will Shortz: The puzzler
for this column is another one from “Ask Marilyn” (Parade,
February 27, 2005): Until next time,
send me your solutions (or suggestions or complaints or stumpers)
at hfox@juno.com or 2005 Burroughs
Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45406. |
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