{"id":72,"date":"2003-01-08T09:28:13","date_gmt":"2003-01-08T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/?p=72"},"modified":"2003-01-08T09:28:13","modified_gmt":"2003-01-08T16:28:13","slug":"90156580","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianeduane.com\/outofambit\/2003\/01\/08\/90156580\/","title":{"rendered":"90156580"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every now and then, a particular word strikes me as ugly, or redundant, or useless, or sometimes all three, and then I get cranky for a day or so. The last word to provoke this response from me was “liaised.”<\/p>\n

This morning I have a new one: “surveilled”. As in a CNN story this morning on possible dirty money in the (rap) recording business in New York: “…an individual was surveilled and videotaped…”<\/p>\n

Okay, okay, it’s a predictable back-formation. But why this passion for using the amputated, still-bleeding stump of a longer word when a shorter, older, whole one would do? How about “watched”? “Followed”? Or even “trailed” or “shadowed”? …Or are those in some way too loaded \/ connoted for an “official” source trying to sound just as serious and important as it can?<\/p>\n

(mutter) All right, maybe I just need more caffeine. Or I’m too much of a purist. I still think it’s ugly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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