I find myself increasingly irritated by some of the terminology used in the media. One example is the phrase "friendly fire". It's a horrible mix of euphemism and oxymoron; we wouldn't say "lovely murder" or "chummy rape", at least not in mixed company.
It's strange how these phrases get lodged in the national consciousness. Even when most people would agree that they are offensive or even nonsensical, they survive. Do we secretly enjoy the tension created by using them? Is there a clever irony at work? Or is it, more likely, because newspaper editors prefer alliteration and assonance to accuracy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment