Palin interviewed by Hannity

Post by **Vympel** » 2008-09-19 10:20pm

Olbermann and Stewart both call it - it was like watching a late-night infomercial.

Link

Link

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2008-09-20 02:21pm

She really screwed up the use of the term "verbiage". According to the dictionary, its "a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content". Either she really meant "wording" or she's inadvertently calling McCain a verbose windbag.

Raw Shark · Post by **Raw Shark** » 2008-09-20 02:55pm

Spin Echo wrote:She really screwed up the use of the term "verbiage". According to the dictionary, its "a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content". Either she really meant "wording" or she's inadvertently calling McCain a verbose windbag.

That exact misuse has penetrated English-speaking corporate culture bigtime, from Denver to Manila, I discovered the last time that I was part of it. If I were going to idly speculate I'd say that she probably picked it up from one of her campaign consultants; they tend to snow the clients with a lot of verbiage.

Feil · Post by **Feil** » 2008-09-20 04:04pm

If you had bothered to read the second definition in your dictionary, you would have realized that her usage was perfectly correct.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2008-09-20 04:20pm

Feil wrote:If you had bothered to read the second definition in your dictionary, you would have realized that her usage was perfectly correct.

I guess the word must be making it's way into common usage. Checking some online dictionaries, it looks like some people are now using it that way. And it still doesn't account for the fact she was pronouncing it "verbage" and not verbiage.

Post by **Edi** » 2008-09-20 04:34pm

The second definition is certainly more common these days. I wasn't even aware that the word had any negative connotations in and of itself unless accompanied by a descriptor that gave the implication (such as "excess verbiage" etc). Then again, that's me being one of those ESL people and that's a fairly obscure word as they go.

What with Palin's usage, it's not such a long way from "verbage" to "garbage", so she's probably on the right track there anyway...

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-20 05:02pm

My dictionary (Van Dale '06) only lists the negative meaning. Etymologically the negative definition is the only one that makes sense in-context, unless verbier changed meaning while I wasn't looking.

If she did intend it to mean "the use of words", it's an recent American bastardisation of the original word, and not a very elegant one. Maybe someone's trying to launch yet another buzzword.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2008-09-20 05:05pm

Bounty wrote:My dictionary (Van Dale '06) only lists the negative meaning. Etymologically the negative definition is the only one that makes sense in-context, unless verbier changed meaning while I wasn't looking.

Aut Oxford aut nihil.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-20 05:10pm

If you happen to have access to it, be my guest. I row with the oars I'm given.

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2008-09-20 05:21pm

Edi wrote:The second definition is certainly more common these days. I wasn't even aware that the word had any negative connotations in and of itself unless accompanied by a descriptor that gave the implication (such as "excess verbiage" etc). Then again, that's me being one of those ESL people and that's a fairly obscure word as they go.

What with Palin's usage, it's not such a long way from "verbage" to "garbage", so she's probably on the right track there anyway...

Back in my day, verbiage only had one definition and it was considered improper to use it to mean wording. The problem with language is that if you have enough people using something incorrectly, eventually it will become correct.

Edit: Seems like some people are still holding out

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2008-09-20 05:38pm

Does it matter what it ought to or ought not to mean? Laughably cheap two-dollar words like that are just the sort of piddling bullshit that Hannity and his ilk are known for using to try to build themselves up in their own eyes. I still remember being divided over whether to laugh or to groan when he started sputtering incoherently at the end of an interview with Christopher Hitchens, and in his hysteria managed to seize upon the word "pseudo-intellectual," no doubt because the funny combination of silent letters made him feel like a really learned motherfucker.

Themightytom · Post by **Themightytom** » 2008-09-20 05:46pm

Hannity really DOES try to build hismelf up. I thought he was a litle disparaging when he started to ask if palin felt the mdia was coming after her unfairly, especially as he was CLEARLY interviewing her as a PR piece, He was criticizing other journalists for making her look bad, when he was trying to make her look good, but some of those interviewers palin has had trouble with are more credible than hanity, Charlie Gibson for one. Hannity seemed to paint her inability to ask honest, straightforward questions as "Are those bullies picking on you?"

That doesn't say much of his opinion of her if he thinks he ahs to shelter her.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-09-20 06:34pm

Does it matter what it ought to or ought not to mean?

Does the American populace deserve a vice-president who knows what a word means before she starts throwing it around as part of a catchphrase?

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-09-20 06:42pm

Bounty wrote: Does the American populace deserve a vice-president who knows what a word means before she starts throwing it around as part of a catchphrase?

We've got a President who does that already anyway.

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2008-09-20 07:13pm

Bounty wrote:
Does it matter what it ought to or ought not to mean?
Does the American populace deserve a vice-president who knows what a word means before she starts throwing it around as part of a catchphrase?

My point exactly. What the word itself means is an issue less crucial to this election than the fact that this woman is a self-inflating windbag.