Misuse of words

[Brains]

Orientated seems OK to me but should it mean only facing East?


What I really hate (note cleaver link) is wind direction.
If I am on my bike travelling north I am going in a northerly direction. A bus going the same way would be the North Bus.
Why then is a northerly wind or a north wind one that blows FROM the north?

We have answered the wind issue, so now to the Orient issue.

Maps:
Olde worlde maps had the center of the world marked as Jerusalem, this also being the edge of the known world (Beyond which was the Orient)
(In some case the centre of the world was Rome, Constantinople or Mecca)

This meant that your map drawer put the end of the known world at the top (much like we put the north pole at the top today)

Hence the expression to 'orientate the map' means to point it north today, but was originally to point it east.
Same reason as the 'Far East' exists but we don't really have a far south/north/west
Also Oriental refers to China etc.

I looked this up on Wikipedia, nothing there, so maybe I should start my own entry there!

 

[ComedyPilot]

I use the word turgid when describing the press 'turgid pile of SH1T'

 

[Aperitif]

Should be 'turdid' CP

 

[cchapman]

Its a pet hate of mine. Unfortunately, the English language has been abused and lacerated! People just don't know how to use the English language. Text talk etc, young people just think this is the norm! Well, America has a large part to play in this. If we take language, its a very good boarder protector. France, Italy and Germany have not had the deluge of crap from the USA as we have experienced!

Protect our boarders!!!

 

[Nicensleazy]

Protect our boarders!!!

Ah, so you are awake!

 

[rich p]

Should be 'turdid' CP

Ape has just jogged a synapse. The word people mean when they say turgid is probably turbid

See here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/turbid

 

[Globalti]

Back to the Nigerian porno mags... it's always a shock when you're stuck, half asleep in yet another go-slow in Lagos and some hawker sidles into your peripheral vision with a pile of ghastly religious DVDs, then just as your eyes begin to focus he separates them and in the middle is some terrible DVD cover with a massively-endowed black guy about to drive the black-skinned bus into toytown, which is lying shockingly exposed like a pink flower in a box of chocolates.

I usually open the window a crack, ask "Any gay porn?" and point to my colleague in the front seat.

To contribute to the thread: my hatred is the over-use of thanks, as in "Cheers, fanks a lot mate" when you hold a door open for someone.

 

[Aperitif]

Back to the Nigerian porno mags... it's always a shock when you're stuck, half asleep in yet another go-slow in Lagos and some hawker sidles into your peripheral vision with a pile of ghastly religious DVDs, then just as your eyes begin to focus he separates them and in the middle is some terrible DVD cover with a massively-endowed black guy about to drive the black-skinned bus into toytown, which is lying shockingly exposed like a pink flower in a box of chocolates.

I usually open the window a crack, ask "Any gay porn?" and point to my colleague in the front seat.

To contribute to the thread: my hatred is the over-use of thanks, as in "Cheers, fanks a lot mate" when you hold a door open for someone.

Positively Bournvillian description RR...