Sunday, November 09, 2008

Paling around with the language

Sarah Palin of Alaska, accused Mr. Obama of “palling around with terrorists.”

Politics throws up ugly words from time to time; but palling? With so much else going on I let it slide for awhile, but it worried me. It looks wrong ad sounds wrong – it’s plain ugly. Thanks Sarah, we need more ugly.

I no longer have a hard copy Oxford English dictionary, but the online version simply reverts the word to pal. Dictionary.com lists the word as ‘informal’, which means something Americans accept as normal apparently.

If the word endures it will only be thanks to US media – palling is a stinker…

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The other day, Bill Ayers said that when he heard the phrase, "I pictured us sharing a milkshake with two straws."

D.K. Raed said...

you mean "paling around" is not used much down there? it could be worse. she could've accused Obama of terroristing around with pals.

Cartledge said...

DK, we don’t even do a milkshake with two straws, well not that I know of anyway. And never with terrorists! You pair are a hoot…

Can’t tell you how much I regret American language seeping into real English. We don’t even do pal – why would you when you’ve got cute greetings like: miserable old bastard?

Anonymous said...

chumming with terrorists probably sounded too much like shark fishing.

Cartledge said...

Sera, LOL she's still good for a laugh.