Stupid Phrases

[carpiste]

Another one that makes the vein in my forehead throb...

People using the word 'literally' when they actually mean 'figuratively'. It literally makes my blood boil.

Literally fell off my chair laughing

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Another one that makes the vein in my forehead throb...

People using the word 'literally' when they actually mean 'figuratively'. It literally makes my blood boil.

Aye, it's so obvious one means letters and the other means numbers or drawings.

 

[Landsurfer]

Police calling the public 'civilians'.

Why do the want to set themselves apart in the first place, but having done that, why choose a word for the public that better represents them as the civil servants they actually are?

The Police are Civilians ... even though they dress up as Soldiers .... they are Civilians ....
Some of my best friends are Police ...

 

[DRM]

boys will be boys, ??? what else would they be

Anything that they think of being in this day and age !

 

[Alex321]

The Police are Civilians ... even though they dress up as Soldiers .... they are Civilians ....
Some of my best friends are Police ...

Not according to the dictionary
Google - (Oxford Languages)
Civilian
noun

1. a person not in the armed services or the police force.
   "terrorists and soldiers have killed tens of thousands of civilians"

Dictionary.com
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/civilian

civilian
[ si-vil-yuhn ]SHOW IPA


See synonyms for: civilian / civilians on Thesaurus.com
📙 Middle School Level

noun
a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.

Cambridge Dictionary
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/civilian?q=Civilian

civilian
noun [ C ]

UK

/sɪˈvɪl.jən/ US

/səˈvɪl.jən/

C2
a person who is not a member of the police or the armed forces:
The bomb killed four soldiers and three civilians.

Collins Dictionary
That one suggests that it is American usage to include the police force in non-civilians.

 

[Drago]

1

The Police are Civilians ... even though they dress up as Soldiers .... they are Civilians ....
Some of my best friends are Police ...

They are indeed civilians in reality, but as constables and servants of the crown they are neither civilians or military. Someone did explain it to me once but Im buggered if I recall the rationale.

 

[Landsurfer]

Not according to the dictionary
Google - (Oxford Languages)
Civilian
noun

1. a person not in the armed services or the police force.
   "terrorists and soldiers have killed tens of thousands of civilians"

Dictionary.com
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/civilian

civilian
[ si-vil-yuhn ]SHOW IPA


See synonyms for: civilian / civilians on Thesaurus.com
📙 Middle School Level

noun
a person who is not on active duty with a military, naval, police, or fire fighting organization.

Cambridge Dictionary
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/civilian?q=Civilian

civilian
noun [ C ]

UK

/sɪˈvɪl.jən/ US

/səˈvɪl.jən/

C2
a person who is not a member of the police or the armed forces:
The bomb killed four soldiers and three civilians.

Collins Dictionary
That one suggests that it is American usage to include the police force in non-civilians.

Gosh, your bored aren’t you .....
Why don’t you ask the Police .... they say they are civilians ... have a word with Cressida or Drago ... and the courts etc ...

 

[Drago]

I know the guy that runs Ask the Police. He is not a copper.

And yes, they are civilians in actual fact, but their historic legal status is a little hazier. For example, the constable as a crown servant, unlike your everyday civilian, have to seek permission from the Chief Freemason before they can live at an address, cohabit with certain categories of person, etc, the sort of things that regular civvies aten't encumbered with.

It gets even messier with European Law, which is higher law than police regulations.

Civilians with slight reservations is probably the closest description these days.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

One I used to use when I was working in a big business - and then in schools

'I'm not sure I agree with that'

what I really meant was - "you are talking total b****x but I can't say that without showing the disrespect you deserve to I'll just say this instead"

and then explain - in words on one syllable - how dumb what they said really was - by using worrying things like facts




was quite funny at times

 

[Landsurfer]

I know the guy that runs Ask the Police. He is not a copper.

And yes, they are civilians in actual fact, but their historic legal status is a little hazier. For example, the constable as a crown servant, unlike your everyday civilian, have to seek permission from the Chief Freemason before they can live at an address, cohabit with certain categories of person, etc, the sort of things that regular civvies aten't encumbered with.

It gets even messier with European Law, which is higher law than police regulations.

Civilians with slight reservations is probably the closest description these days.

My dad was the Chief Freemason in Ireland for a while ... Sir David John W ... he was always a little hazy when the Police ( B Specials) did naughty stuff ... alledgley .... He died when i was 5 (death by Airfix Kit) so i never got the benefit of him to be honest ..

 

[theclaud]

As a member of the public I think the term serving officer adds some clarity to a media report. Not just the way @T4tomo put it but also if dealing with the account of a former, retired or suspended officer.

The various former officers who've been putting their two pennyworth post Couzens might describe things they or others did while serving officers.

This. Like most things in this thread, 'serving' has a rhetorical function as well as a descriptive one. Whether one experiences the police as a service or as a force is a question of politics, which (as we know) is verboten. However the mainstream belief that the police exist to perform a public service remains even when the actual behaviour of the institution it describes indicates otherwise. Hence the blurb about the edition of C4's Dispatches (airing as I type) says 'Across the country, the scale of sexual misconduct by serving police officers is exposed'. The use of the term here indicates a sense of betrayal of purpose or abuse of power. There's also the obvious point that ex-cops tend to remain cops, as policing is a social tendency as well as a formal role - so a bit of precision can be necessary...

 

[DaveReading]

One I used to use when I was working in a big business - and then in schools

'I'm not sure I agree with that'

what I really meant was - "you are talking total b****x but I can't say that without showing the disrespect you deserve to I'll just say this instead"

and then explain - in words on one syllable - how dumb what they said really was - by using worrying things like facts




was quite funny at times

Another one I particularly like is "There may be some truth in what you say ..."

 

[Profpointy]

I've mentioned these in previous similar threads but I hate "reaching a crescendo". No! A crescendo is a gradual getting louder, it isn't "the exciting bit" When you actually reach the crescendo only then do you even start getting louder. Something like Ravel's Bolero could be considered a long crescendo from beginning to end (dunno if it's actually written like that)

And the other one is "quantum leap", which is the tiniest difference you can have in something. OK maybe in physics terms it's conceptually sudden step compared to classical physics, but still the tiniest possible change.

"Begging the question" when people actually mean "that is the important question". "Begging the question" is the logical fallacy of assuming that which you want to prove / a circular argument, which isn't what most people are trying to say. sadly that battle is almost lost I fear

 

[Dolorous Edd]

Whether one experiences the police as a service or as a force is a question of politics, which (as we know) is verboten. However the mainstream belief that the police exist to perform a public service remains even when the actual behaviour of the institution it describes indicates otherwise.

So verboten, but not verboten. Nice.

 

[classic33]

I've mentioned these in previous similar threads but I hate "reaching a crescendo". No! A crescendo is a gradual getting louder, it isn't "the exciting bit" When you actually reach the crescendo only then do you even start getting louder. Something like Ravel's Bolero could be considered a long crescendo from beginning to end (dunno if it's actually written like that)

And the other one is "quantum leap", which is the tiniest difference you can have in something. OK maybe in physics terms it's conceptually sudden step compared to classical physics, but still the tiniest possible change.

"Begging the question" when people actually mean "that is the important question". "Begging the question" is the logical fallacy of assuming that which you want to prove / a circular argument, which isn't what most people are trying to say. sadly that battle is almost lost I fear

Best one to ask would be Sam Beckett, for his theory on it.