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Sunday 15 November 2015

So-called.

Here's a word that annoys me. So-called. Journalists use it a lot.

What it actually means, is "I'm going to use this word, but I think it isn't really appropriate". It's used a lot by so-called journalists (also known as "journalists") who are too lazy to find out the correct word for the so-called inappropriate word.

Look. If you think you know a better word for what you're referring to, then use it.

2 comments:

  1. Calling someone a "so-called journalist", or a "so-called geocacher", etc., is rarely an avoidance or unwillingness to use another word. Rather, it is a particularly direct insult. Calling somebody a "so-called" thing is saying: you describe yourself as a "thing", but I don't think you are that "thing" at all; or if you are, you're very bad at it.

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