Don’t get me wrong, “boutique” as a noun is fine. It’s “boutique” as an adjective that grates. From hotels to hedge funds, it seems that everything is “boutique” these days. (more…)
Archive for November, 2008
Words that should be banned: “Boutique”
Friday, November 28th, 2008Words that should be banned: Decline
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008Here’s something annoying that I’m spotting more and more often: journalists’ increasing use of the word “decline” when they mean “refuse”. (more…)
Seven pernicious euphemisms of the current financial crisis
Thursday, November 13th, 2008Shares – down.
House prices – down.
Commodities – down.
But there’s one market that’s booming: the market for disingenuous financial euphemisms. (more…)
What’s missing?
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008I recently blogged about the perils of assuming too much knowledge on behalf of your readers (see “Why you should write for grandmothers and Martians”).
Today I came across an example of writing where the most fundamental question in the reader’s mind was, very confusingly, left unanswered. (more…)
And a “negative increase” is what, exactly?
Monday, November 3rd, 2008One of my readers spotted this piece of brain-frying copy, from “Inflation punctures deflation fears”, an article by Krishna Guha in the usually crystal clear FT:
“The danger is deflation defined as a sustained negative rate of underlying domestic price increases.”
Huh? Any economists out there got any idea what this means? Am I being too simplistic to think “falling prices” would have been a better way of putting it?
