Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

This is either the best article you’ll ever read — or I’m exaggerating

Post Thumbnail

The English-speaking world is being polluted by hyperbole. Every day it is used a trillion times too often, if you see what I mean.

In a crowded world with an abundance of every type of information streamed and snapchatted and old when it happened half an hour ago, the preponderance of hyperbole is an effort to gain attention. People say “disaster” when they mean incident, “tragic” when they mean a little sad, and “panic” when they mean vexation.

Smartphones are largely to blame, but the use of exaggeration has spread to news outlets which should know better.

I often suspect that what is termed “snow chaos” in these parts would be a “light dusting” to a Norwegian. And that some “traffic gridlocks” could be better described as a medium-sized queue of cars. A heartbreak is a temporarily lost cat, a pile-up is three dented bumpers, and a pandemic is a few cases of the sniffles.

Reporters, and I believe radio and TV correspondents are worse than print journalists, reach for ever more dramatic adjectives to pepper their spoken pieces.

Print journalists, with those of The Courier a good example, take a soberer approach.

But outwith these august pages it isn’t uncommon to read about a “wind maelstrom” (quite a blowy day); a “tidal surge” (several biggish waves); or a “worldwide security lockdown” (for events in Syria which do not result in armed police stopping me visiting the Co-op).

I heard a radio report recently that used the phrase “terror from the skies” to describe a seagull that was squawking loudly.

The aim of reporting news should be to give clear, accurate and balanced information.

There might not be a need for adjectives at all. In many cases, the facts could be left to speak for themselves.

I’m far from the first to complain of this. Aesop’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf is intended to show that a proven liar will never again be believed, but a serial exaggerator would have similar problems to the shepherd boy in the fable.

There is a genuine danger in all of this. Sometimes extremely serious events must be reported. Terrible things happen in the world. But if we’ve used our most dramatic words on irked sea birds, what do we have left to describe something that really is a calamity?


 

Word of the week

Scorbutic (adjective)

Of or relating to scurvy. E.G. “Despite his mother’s hyperbolic claims, little Timothy’s rash turned out to not be scorbutic.”.


Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk