Terms to Make You Squirm: 200 Words You Shouldn't Use (Chambers)

I hold my hands up to having used some of them

I was attracted by the title of this book. I was interested to know which 200 words you shouldn't use.

Language is a controversial subject and one persons pet words or expression is another cringe making experience.

Although we write a lot more than we used to people do not seem to read serious works so that there are large sections of the population who only hear words rather than read them . This creates a situation where they are using words that they only have a tenuous grip on and as a result they misuse a lot of words.

We are also in a jargon creating society so that what might appear fresh and apposite one minute then gets used to death by those who want to appear clever.

My only complaint about this book is that there is no index which I find very lazy in a work of non fiction.

The book is divided into misused words, overused words, cliches and confusables.

I scoured the book for words I had been misusing or that I did not understand properly. Unfortunately there are alot of them. We all exhibit various levels of ignorance but we have to keep learning.

dichotomy which is a division between two strongly contrasted groups. People are now using is as a mere choice.

disinterest- even the solicitors regulation authority got this wrong recently I wasn't pedantic enough to point it out to them. It means having no interest in or impartial as apposed to uninterested which is not being interested in.

large size and small size- large means large in size so size is unnecessary.

Most of the words are the overuse of a long or posh word for something that is simple such as methodology for method or process.

over simplistic contains the meaning over within it so it is just simplistic.

safe haven when haven will do as it means safe.

to be fair - don't use it.

absolutely for yes

basically should be avoided

Certain cliches become very popular such as moving goalposts, level playing fields and ring fencing. they become stale and boring in no time at all. As the book says it is not rocket science.

The worst example is at the end of the day. this is constantly used to death. I always wonder which day they are talking about when they just mean ultimately.

Apart from the lack of index this is a great book and again required reading for anyone who has a love of language.