Middle England battles Strategy Boutiques

Mother tongue menaced by 'product-set deep dives'

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 28th February 2007 13:33 GMT

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Readers of the Daily Telegraph have got themselves into a bit of a tizz over alleged abuses our our beloved English language.

Since one correspondent wrote in to express his dismay at some linguistic outrage or other, Middle England has been falling over itself to decry the erosion of decent standards.

Among the examples to be found here, we have "gobsmacked", "train station" (instead of railway station) and "I'm good" (in reply to how are you?).

Shocking. One submission, though, struck a chord down here at Vulture Central. Take it away, Nick E:

The company for which I work has just been acquired by an American company.

Following the takeover, we have had to "align around the sales community". We "reach out" to other "communities", for example the "marketing community". The response to "How are you" is "I'm doin' good". Anything to be discussed after a meeting is "taking it offline". I'm not sure what "carving out" means, although we are all "on the same page" following the "product-set deep dives". Customers will be delighted to know that "going forward, we'll be solutionising our sweet spot".

Ah yes, it's that word "solution" again, as recently savaged by you, our beloved readers. Regarding the magnificent "product-set deep dives" and "taking it offline", both present fresh evidence that the Strategy Boutique menace still threatens western civilisation. Stay vigilant. ®

Bootnote

In response to the reader who wrote in earlier this week to complain about my use of the word "decimate" (see here), to mean "completely destroy" as opposed to the original sense of "kill one tenth" (punishment for errant Roman legions), I'd like to point out that the Spanish* word for horse (caballo) comes from the Latin "caballus" (= packhorse or mule).

I for one am not going to write to the Spanish press demanding an immediate reinstatement of the term "equus", which as any self-respecting English-speaking playwright knows, is the historically correct word.

*And the French, and the Italian, etc etc.

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