Words & Stuff

5 Responses to “Word aversion”

1. 

   -Ed.

   02-14-2018 1:15 PM

   It doesn’t count as an aversion by the terms of the article, but I utterly loathe the verb surveil. Just hate it. And the worst part is that it’s a perfectly reasonable back-formation that is older than I am, fills a need, and is pretty much unobjectionable except for the objection that I hate it.

   Thanks,
   -Ed.

   reply
   • 

     Jed

     02-20-2018 8:11 PM

     I’m belatedly curious whether you can characterize what you hate about it. Is it the sound? The spelling? The back-formationness of it? Something else? Are there other words that you react that way to?

     reply
     • 

       -Ed.

       02-21-2018 12:05 PM

       It’s the back-formation-ness, I think, and also something about it smacks of euphemism and mealy-mouthedness and buck-passing and all of what I think people dislike about governmentese. But mostly the back-formation, from survey to surveillance to surveil.

       Thanks,
       -E.

       reply
       • 

         KTO

         02-26-2018 9:55 AM

         But to survey is not the root of surveillance! It’s from the French “surveiller”, to watch over.

         Some further exploration here:
         https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/05/surveil.html

         reply
         • 

           -Ed.

           02-27-2018 10:59 AM

           Thanks! I knew that ‘surveillance’ came from the French rather than directly from ‘survey’, but I had assumed that they were from the same root. Which, well, this is what happens when I assume.

           Thanks,
           -E.

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