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Ghastly expressions you want to see the back of in 2011

Tumeni Notes said:
Yup, but they're doing something else which amounts to having applied the due amount of diligence to it.

Nobody can show an example of someone "doing diligence" or "diligence-ing" - it has no meaning, whether it's the due amount of it or not.

You have to do something in a diligent manner.
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It's an expression with a specifically understood meaning in legal and commercial matters though. It means, as you say, applying the level of diligence that is due (to the task at hand) but it's become a legal shorthand, because the task at hand may encompass a great many different things, such as:

confirming identity; verifying claims as to creditworthiness, or lack of criminal record; ensuring the product valuation is valid; and, and...

'Doing the due diligence' is just shorthand for doing the checks that need doing in any given circumstance.
 
Rcook said:
No, because people write it like that.

'Pacifically' when they mean 'specifically' is another.
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You get a lot of these where people use the wrong word, because they've never seen it written down and have misheard it.

I'm never sure whether the 'correct' expression is 'off his own bat' or 'off his own back' for example (though I favour the former and most people seem to use the latter).
 
Tumeni Notes said:
"due diligence" is another. "We did our due diligence". No you didn't. You did some stuff in a diligent manner, applying an appropriate amount of diligence to it.
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Although, to be fair, in my world, it does have a specific meaning. We are frequently called upon to participate in it in the case of a company takeover, e.g. to make sure that an apparently valuable patent is not the subject of a lawsuit that could invalidate it and thus render it of no value.
 
tones said:
Although, to be fair, in my world, it does have a specific meaning. We are frequently called upon to participate in it in the case of a company takeover, e.g. to make sure that an apparently valuable patent is not the subject of a lawsuit that could invalidate it and thus render it of no value.
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Yes, we get that. It's the b*stardisation of the language of it that is at issue.

If I research something, I can say I'm researching, I have researched.

I cannot say I'm due dilgencing, have due dilgenced.

Diligence is a QUALITY that describes something done, not an actual action of doing something.

You are not "dilgencing", you are checking, researching, reading, in a diligent manner.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
It's an expression with a specifically understood meaning in legal and commercial matters though. It means, as you say, applying the level of diligence that is due (to the task at hand) but it's become a legal shorthand ...
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Exactly my point, something which describes the quality of what is done (diligent, diligently, diligence) has been b*stardised into, as the thread says, a "ghastly expression"
 
I don't know why -age words bother me, but they do. Coinage, signage. What's wrong with coins and signs?

Weirdly, I'm OK with baggage, language and advantage ... and likely fartage if it were a real wordage.

Joe
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
You get a lot of these where people use the wrong word, because they've never seen it written down and have misheard it.

I'm never sure whether the 'correct' expression is 'off his own bat' or 'off his own back' for example (though I favour the former and most people seem to use the latter).
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Definitely "bat" as in cricket, probably. Like sticky wickets and queered pitches. Ah, by the way, anyone know if there is a link between Google and googlie/googly?
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
It's an expression with a specifically understood meaning in legal and commercial matters though. It means, as you say, applying the level of diligence that is due (to the task at hand) but it's become a legal shorthand, because the task at hand may encompass a great many different things, such as:

confirming identity; verifying claims as to creditworthiness, or lack of criminal record; ensuring the product valuation is valid; and, and...

'Doing the due diligence' is just shorthand for doing the checks that need doing in any given circumstance.
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And it's exceedingly irritating.
 
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