Among the young of a certain generation and class in the US, "disrespected" is often used. Only, to be clear, the slang term is "diss", e.g. "the police officer dissed him."

I'm well aware of that. It's used in the UK too. My daughter often takes the micky of other kids in her class - "Hey, you disrispectin' miii?" - normally said in an Essex accent, with overlays of faux Jamaica gangsta...

But it shouldn't be used on a BBC web site.

I've actually written to the Beeb about it, but I don't expect anything to change.

My pet peeve at the moment is the incorrect use of sat/sitting, which I have even heard on the once-prestigious BBC TV programme Panorama. The reporter (once famous for interviewing the late Princess of Wales "There were three people in this marriage") said "I am sat among a group of school children . . ."
I just came across a similar eg in the book Complete Surrender by David Sharp. He turns out to be the brother of novelist Ian McEwan, but was given away at birth. I realise that he didn't have his brother's chances in life but someone could have helped with the editing. One of the photos is captioned "I am sat with my mother." Can you hear my teeth grinding?

Martin, respect/disrespect? That sounds similar to a Wodehouse wordplay gruntled/disgruntled.
The "Do you know who I am?" remark always reminds me of something else that makes me laugh.....wryly.
A politician was visiting a senior's nursing home and asked this question of one of the residents. To which she replied "No, I don't but ask Matron and she will tell you!"
I am a senior and I know who I am but sometimes have problems with which day of the week it is when I wake up!

Annpan, your anecdote reminds me of a funny story about Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway, flush with recent literary fame, complained at one of Gertrude Stein's salons about having to wait behind the velvet rope at a chic Paris restaurant. Hemingway reportedly said "I finally had to tell them who I was." Not missing a beat, a very deadpan Alice B. Toklas asked "And who were you?".

I have no idea if the above story is true, but I still love it.

Great story, timallen.

Our online local news site just reported that a drunken college student was lying on the sidewalk, mumbling unintelligently. I wrote a comment to say, yes, he probably was unintelligent but also mumbling unintelligibly.

The reporter wrote back and said thanks for catching that. Nice.

I think news stations have cut back on their budgets for editors, judging by the number of typos and use of slang.

My favorite was in a local news article on the front page where it was reported that " a deer crashed through the window of the restaurant and ransacked the place ".

Malice with forethought?

I giggle at all this but it is too true. I've written to newspapers a few times to complain about outrageous spellings and mistakes but I've given up or I would do nothing else. I've noticed that the text may be correct but the captions and the introduction or preamble (I don't know the correct terms in English) is wrong as if the editor hadn't read the article.

I've sent in corrections once or twice myself, but I know full well all they do is roll their eyes and think I am some cranky fussbudget who thinks the world is going to he!! in a hand basket because we aren't all living exactly the way people did 100 years ago. Most of the print media no longer sees any part of its role as upholding standards of language. I suppose that in part it is economic, but I can't help thinking that it is also in part simple ignorance. Often they themselves don't know any better. >>SighMost of the time I manage to remind myself to save my ire for things that really deserve it: deceit, cruelty, betrayal, destructiveness. Set against such a standard, poor grammar or lack of editing seems to be pretty small potatoes.

Rosefolly

Just read our local weekly 'rag' and found, within one article, a couple of howlers.

The headline "Double whammy for town's brass band" apparently referred to a recent contest in which the band won two prizes. If you are unfamiliar with the term double-whammy is means something that causes two problems/setbacks, so not an achievement to be celebrated.
It went on "Rising star Matt Kibble won best soloist on the coronet" . . . such a difficult instrument to play as the silver decorations get stuck up your nose.

I've given up on the American chronic substitution off "lay" for "lie", etc. It's hopeless and one even sees it in books now, as well as newspapers, signs in shops, etc. Newspapers on the whole are declining in subscriptions, so long ago, proof-readers were let go.

Is anyone familiar with this usage for "trespass"?

"John Doe has been trespassed from the building."

It appeared in a memo that came from the management of the apartment building I live in, and I've seen it mentioned since in other documents.

I had to ask what it meant. It means that John Doe can't appear on the premises, and if he does, law enforcement can be called to remove him.

It still looks wrong to me but apparently it's an accepted usage at least around here (western state in the US).

jwttrans, I have never seen/heard of trepass being used like that. It must be grammatically incorrect.

jwttrans. Interesting. Could it be a very old use of the word?
I have noticed that words from 17th and 18th Century English are still in use outside of the UK but are no longer common there.

I shudder every time I hear, "like" as opposed to, "as did"

"She vacationed in England like me"...
"She vacationed in England, as did I"

And, as Sheldon said, if one uses the word "one" in one's
speech one is going to get beaten up.

Jwttrans, I have lived in one of the western states of the United States (Bay Area California) for well over twenty years, and I have never heard trespass used that way. It must be local to your immediate region.

Rosefolly

I appreciate the input about "trespass."

It may be something dreamed up by this particular management company--or maybe by the law enforcement authorities in this city.

Here's the most recent instance, in a memo called "Tenant Selection Plan":

"Anyone who has been trespassed from any of our properties will be ineligible for housing at any community housing...."

Last night on my local television news, there was a piece about some incidences when the announcer clearly meant incidents.

The above incident illustrates what worries me most about how the American-English language is evolving. I am a big fan of the simple and the precise. I dislike the current trend of substituting longer, more obscure words for plain, clear ones. The current trend of adding superfluous verbal curlicues to speech, particularly in the media, only hinders communication. I wonder if these affectations are meant to make the speaker seem "smarter", or at least more educated, and therefore more authoritative.

So many of the examples in this thread originate in the "news", print and otherwise. Is this a coincidence?

Tim, I agree with your point of view with regard to the use of longer, more obscure words to our language, e.g. why create "orientate" as a verb, when the older "orient" was perfectly servicable?

Ann, I've noticed, as well, that some older 16th and 17th English words/phrases that fell out of use in the UK are still in use in the US. (In the south, we still say, "I'm going down yonder".)

Almost every time I pick up a book there are numerous spelling errors, grammar mistakes and misuse of words-it is a pet peeve of mine!

I also have never seen trespass used in that way.

The one usage that bothers me more than any other is using the word "invite" in place of "invitation", as in, "I sent Joe an invite to my party."

Frances, I would hear that "invite." as a short form of the word. Joe will tell people (if he is an Australian) that he has sent a "Resveep" back!

jwttrans, I have heard and seen "has been trespassed" in the same way you described. I also live in a western U.S. state. I asked my aunt who is a property manager about it, and she said that it is the common and accepted phrase in documents identifying persons who have had suits brought against them for the act of trespassing. It seems to be legalese that is not typically used by laypersons.

You can do an Internet search for "trespass" and read about the law and its history at several sites. I did not know before that "trespass" in Tort Law was both the act by the perpetrator (to trespass persons, to trespass property, to trespass chattels) and the charge or suit (of trespass) brought against the perpetrator. In the 20th century it became usual to add -ing to trespass to differentiate the form between verb and noun, which were originally the same. Also, the verb form "trespassed" was originally for both the perpetrator:
He trespassed the building. and for the lawsuit against the perpetrator:He has been trespassed from the property. Essentially, he has been trespassed for trespassing! Confusing, isn't it?! No wonder it fell out of favor in ordinary use.

Thought you might find that interesting. I tried to post a link but I could not get it to work, so I will have to suggest that you Google it. Sorry! :(

Thank you so much for the information. The first time I saw it was a couple of years ago, when a maintenance person for this building was fired ("terminated," as we're saying now, I guess), and a notice went around announcing that he'd "been trespassed from the building." We were told not to allow him back on the premises.

In a weird twist, after having lived 53 years never hearing the word 'trespass' used this way, I just saw it in a work email in reference to someone who was fired.

The word "shuttered" meaning closed is new to me...and I've never heard the word trespass used that way either .

As a point of reference, I've been using up oxygen for more than 53 years !

I have heard "shuttered" being used that way. I think it is rather new, but it doesn't feel as wrong to me as that use of "trespassed" to mean "banned".

I have been doing some internet browsing, and it looks as though this use has just started. All the examples I found on several searches are from 2012. One source suggested that it first showed up on a police blotter, not exactly a bastion of correct grammar or graceful use of language.

Irksome though it is, I suppose that constant changes like this are part of the reason English is such a rich language. We can comfort ourselves with this idea anyway.

Rosefolly

Yoyobon, I have heard shuttered used and would think it is an older usage from back when houses had shutters that actually worked as opposed to the small, plastic, supposedly decorative things that new houses have now. (Old fogey, old fogey, old fogey.)

Shuttered has been used for many years to indicate a closed house. "The Miner's Dream of Home' an old song, sprang into my mind as soon as I read the post.
I just Googled and found that song dates from 1891. I have a head full of old Music Hall songs as we used to play our grandparents ancient records on wet days. They never had television!

Now this is strange, after I delved further and got the words for the song, there isn't a mention of a shuttered house in the lyrics I found, so either I am recalling another song or the version I remembered had more verses to it!

I am familiar with that use of the word "shuttered," and as an old fogey I deplore those fake shutter-like things placed on houses these days. Harumph.

I always thought that shuttered meant 'with shutters' at the windows, or when they covered the windows.

Now the use seems to be when a place is closed for business.
This appears to be a new 'in' word.

Yoyo, Not a new use, I believe. I am still trying to find the "shuttered" song and have come up with "Scarlet Ribbons"
"All the stores were locked and shuttered"
I have too many songs in my head, I think!

Oh, Ann, now I'll have Scarlet Ribbons running through my head for days. It always makes me teary at the end.

Shuttered can also mean that the shutters are closed. In fact I suspect that is the primary meaning, or was before shutters became decorative rather than functional parts of a house.

Carolyn, sorry about that. I dread coming across the mention of a song in a book because I play it in my head and cannot concentrate on what I am trying to read!

re shutters

We live in an old-ish house (pre 1840's) and have wooden shutters on all the ground floor windows. These are on the inside of the glass and when closed at night they are held together with a strong metal bar. They certainly help to keep out the cold and the noise of passing traffic.
I think shop shutters would have been on the outside of the windows, there are still a few eg's of these in the UK in 'preserved' areas. Often smaller shops/stores wouldn't have had any glass in the window and customers would have been served through the 'hole in the wall' rather than coming in to the building/room.

OT but apparently we should be able to tell the 'age' of our house by looking at the counter-weights of the sash windows, or the number of panes and size of the glass which indicate when they were put in (but we don't know what to look for !). We do, however, have quite a few panes of old 'crown' glass, slightly wobbly in texture and very thin, rather like 'picture glass' and no-longer used in windows ('ealth and safety). When a pane has to be replaced the windows no longer open/close so smoothly; the weight is different.

I guess that the visual of shuttered is that of shutters pulled closed over a window ( old style REAL shutters !)

Now when I read that the business was shuttered and it actually has no windows with shutters, then the meaning is that it is closed or out of business.

For me, that is a new meaning.
Did I miss that use of the word all my life??
Could I be wrong? ( horrors !!)

So much of the 'new' seems to be whizzing by me on the highway of life that sometimes I just think it's preferable to take the off ramp .
(do you love all those metaphors ?...and by 'off ramp' I don't mean the BIG off ramp of life to the great "rest stop in the sky" !)

Actually I have shutters on my windows but they are the modern electrically operated type. Really necessary for keeping out the heat, wind and noise!

My boyfriend and I have constant conversations about language and word usage. He is more of the traditionalist (and also 9.7 years older than me - we are math people) and sees language as a "certain way." I see it more as a way to communicate, thus, if the meaning gets across it has been effective.

That being said, I will still correct my students' spellings and grammar when I catch mistakes, but more to help prevent them from looking foolish to others who have less tolerance for "creative" language.