The Blog
State of Origin
One of my favourite pastimes, as strange as it may be, is finding out the origin of some of our most common sayings. Even though it’s a tad strange, I find this type of investigation puts you in good stead to understanding what you’re actually writing about when it comes to putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard.
So we want to kick off our own State of Origin – and no, we’re not talking about football – we’re talking about the origin of sayings and statements. Here’s one to get the ball rolling…
Hair of the Dog
Today this phrase means ‘a small measure of drink intended to cure a hangover’. However, it all began way back when from the medieval belief that when someone was bitten by a rabid dog, a cure could be made by applying the same dog’s hair to the wound. A risky cure indeed, as I wonder how many people were bitten a second time trying to pinch a follicle from the cur in question!
So next time you find yourself a little dusty from the shenanigans of the night before and are feeling the need for a hair of the dog to revive you… think twice or you may find yourself nose to nose with that menacing mutt down the road.
Making sense of non-sense
Words are fascinating aren’t they? I especially love the way we group them together as figures of speech. They tend to make our language more expressive, to give it more oomph. But if you take a lot of these figures of speech literally they make no sense – such is the way with an oxymoron.
If you think about it, oxymorons are thrown around willy nilly on a daily basis and as much as they fly in the face of common sense, we’ve all recognised them as acceptable figures of speech – and that’s probably why I love them so much.
So bring on your oxymorons like: act naturally, pretty ugly, virtual reality, found missing, only choice, minor crisis, seriously funny, jumbo shrimp, original copies, living dead, working holiday, unbiased opinion, doing nothing and global village; because even though oxymorons are contradictory at heart, they make ‘awfully good’ sense!
Go on, admit it, you love them too!
Please make it stop… LITERALLY!
Ok, I just had to mention this because it’s something that really bugs me. I was reading the local paper and came across an ad that made me cringe. Here’s the first sentence…
“Located in a prime pocket of (insert suburb here) literally a stones [sic] throw from the station and a short stroll to the shops, this original, yet absolutely spotless unit will not disappoint.” (sic)
Putting the bad punctuation and grammar aside, the stone’s throw the author of this ad speaks of is exactly 700 meters. Now this is an interesting claim because as of about 10 minutes ago (I’ve just Googled it), the current world record holder for the furthest javelin throw is Uwe Hohn from Berlin, who threw 104.8 meters in 1984. Gabrielle Reinsch from Neubrandenburg claimed the world record when she threw her discus a whopping 76.8 meters in 1988. And Californian Randy Barnes hurtled his shot put 23.12 meters earning him the world record.
Taking all of this into consideration, I don’t see how any logical person could conceive that when the station is 700 meters from this prime property it is literally a stone’s throw away.
The word ‘literally’ has been so overused as an intensifier that it’s in danger of losing its literal meaning. And it’s not just the author of the ad that’s fallen foul of using literately incorrectly this week. Here’s what my eavesdropping ears overheard.
Kid on the train – “My math teacher, who is like, literally 1000 years old…” Girl in café – “I’d love a piece of cake but I already weigh 300kg…literally.” (By the way, this couldn’t have been further from the truth; her waist was the size of my thigh…literally). Same girl at café – “I was so angry my head was literally ready to explode.” My husband – “I’m so hungry I could literally eat a whole cow.” (This one is debatable because I’m sure he’d have a good crack at it). The list goes on, but I think you catch my drift.
These days people feel compelled to add a sense of drama to what they’re saying, so they throw in a few figurative phrases and try to emphasise them by saying ‘literally’. I’m here to say it’s not necessary – the word literally doesn’t add any validity or weight to what you’re saying, it’s just another extraneous word that makes you sound like a numbskull when used incorrectly. So here’s my plea; put more thought into what you’re saying and writing. If you spend the time getting the words right, you won’t need to use empty intensifiers because your words will speak for themselves.
And here’s a hot tip – if it can’t actually happen, it’s figuratively. The misuse and abuse must end…Literally!
We love prima donnas, voodoo and all things macho…
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but over the last decade the English language has picked up quite a few hitch hikers along the way. If you ask me, these foreigners are welcome companions on the communication highway. Kind of like your iPhone on a long tram ride.
The combination of our wonderfully diverse community and the increasing number of cooking, design and travel programs peppering our TV screens means we get served up a well seasoned diet of international words, idioms and phrases on a daily basis. So it stands to reason we’ve picked up a few tasty tidbits along the way. And, in true Aussie form, we’ve thrown these zesty morsels into our word mix, given it a whisk and spiced up the English language with some international flavour.
I love this about language, I call it Word Soup. It makes the way we communicate so much more interesting. And what’s more, it gives you the ability to create personality and a unique style – something that’s so important when selecting the perfect words to represent your brand.
Here are my top ten adopted words, in no particular order.
- Prima Donna – Italian
- Blitz – German
- Deja vu – French
- Chi – Chinese
- Voodoo – African
- Booze – Dutch
- Guru – Indian
- Harem – Arabic
- Klutz – Yiddish
- Macho – Spanish
Love em.
A word with wow factor
Don’t you love it when you stumble across something that makes you stop and say
wow, that’s really quite cool?
Hoorah, it’s official!
Our headquarters are buzzing big time. That’s because after five months of planning, planning and more planning, we’ve finally launched Words at Work Copywriting – the hottest copywriting agency on the block.
We’re smart cookies when it comes to web words
One of the best things about being a copywriter is that you get to learn all about other people’s stuff.
