Newsletter and Grammar Coach

Many people these days have taken to speaking in pictographs, infusing their speech and writing with euphemistic visual metaphors in place of traditional terms. A pictograph is a pictorial symbol for a word or phrase. Pictographs were used to write historical accounts in ancient civilizations.

These days, “lens,” “guardrails,” “brick,” “cloud,” “funnel,” “weeds,” “onion,” “fruit” and numerous other visual words are being used like colorful crayons to masquerade for words and phrases that have more precise meanings.

While metaphors can enliven speech when they’re used in novel, clever ways, they dull increasingly with every repetition. The first person who portrayed deciphering the elements of a complex problem as “unpacking” undoubtedly captivated attention with that three-dimensional turn of phrase. So did the person who described the process of scrutiny as “peeling back the onion.” Many pictographic words began as witticisms in colloquial speech before becoming entrenched in business and academic jargon. But as sparkling as those figures of speech may have seemed the first time they were used, or perhaps even the 10th time, the luster of their thin shiny coating showed increasing signs of wear with absentminded parroting.

The first person in the 1990s who referred to aimlessly clicking links on a Netscape Navigator browser as “surfing the web” probably evoked grins of approval. Information technology folks have a knack for concocting action-figure terms for the functions of electronic circuitry. They reimagined clusters of computers as “the cloud” and instilled the idea of “uploading” and “downloading” files to an amorphous vault overhead in the sky — even though those banks of computers may be in a basement somewhere.

Somehow the capacity of people to absorb additional tasks took on a new electronics-inspired label: “bandwidth” (which is the maximum data transmission capacity of a network or the amount of electromagnet spectrum space that a radio signal occupies). Initially, the old large, blockish cell phones came to be known as “bricks” as new slimmer models were introduced. But slang usage turned that term into a verb; devices that stop operating are said to be “bricked,” meaning that they’ve become no more functional than a brick. Stand aside, Superman — web designers refer to the main, attention-attracting pictorial element of a web page as a “hero image.” In ancient Greek civilizations, supernatural beings that existed in the realm between humans and the gods were called “daemons,” but that term has been corrupted in information technology lingo to refer to “email daemons” — background electronic processes used in communications between email servers.

Terms associated with older analog electronic devices have been commandeered as well. Making progress on anything is often characterized as “moving the needle” — a somewhat obscure reference to an analog meter with a needle pointer indicating an increase in voltage, current or amplitude. A person who has remained quiet about something may be described as having gone “radio silent” — even though no radios are involved. If you’re aware of something, it’s now “on your radar.”

A lot of contemporary metaphors use exaggerated physical actions to describe decidedly non-physical activities. The concept is not inherently wrong, but buzzwords and colloquial phrases typically are imprecise, vague or can have multiple meanings. Therein lies the problem. Take the term “loop” for example. People who are part of a core group are said to be “in the loop,” leaving nonparticipants “out of the loop” — uninformed. What the outsiders learn later may “throw them for a loop” — surprise or astonish them. Meanwhile other people are working to “close the loop” — to bring a problem or assignment to a satisfactory conclusion. When closing the loop, they need to avoid leaving any “loose ends” (unresolved details). People who are done looping may have to “pivot” — shift their strategy in another direction. Inanimate objects can pivot, too, according to a tech company’s radio commercial that asserted, “we create nimble content that pivots easily.” If that’s not dizzying enough, perhaps they’ll need to “circle back” — revisit a situation later. In that case they may need to “reach out to” (contact) colleagues about the need to “drill down” (examine a topic more thoroughly) or do a “deep dive” (intensive brainstorming). If they’ve overrepresented something, they may need to “walk back” a statement. But don’t get in the way of “onboarding” — a buzzword that refers to assimilating a new employee or enacting a new idea or product.

A high “churn rate” (replacement) of employees or customers is a matter of concern. Situations no longer merely affect or influence people — they exert “impact” (a word that traditionally refers to an injurious collision). Get a firm grip on a grab bar, because everything is in motion all around you. Not more than a decade or two ago, a company’s announcement of its intention to drop a product meant that it would be discontinued. That term has now become inverted: the date scheduled for introduction of a new product is called the “drop date” — seemingly as if from a conveyor belt in the sky, hearkening back to that cloud concept obsession.

People also are fond of misappropriating sports terminology and applying it to business and other realms. If they succeed in reaching out, they might “touch base,” especially if one of them “drops the ball.” They know they’re under pressure to devise a “game plan” and produce a “ballpark estimate” of costs (alluding to the wide latitude from left field to right field). Political campaign managers refer to their candidates’ “ground game” for interacting directly with prospective voters. Employees who have a “track record” of success may try to “move the goal posts” (to ease their job or confound competitors, but if that strategy doesn’t work, they may decide to “punt” (delay or deflect as a stalling tactic).

Other everyday objects and even aspects of nature have been turned into metaphorical buzzwords. Once upon a time we would refer to viewing a problem from a certain perspective, but nowadays people habitually refer to assessing situations through a figurative “lens.” Organizations that invite public scrutiny as a symbol of integrity describe themselves as “transparent” (which could be more precisely characterized as ethical, principled or trustworthy). Marketers seek to “funnel” consumer interest, alluding to a conical spout that’s used when pouring liquid cooking ingredients or automotive oil. Speaking of cooking, low priority items are said to be on the “back burner” — the stove heating element that you’re least likely to use. The term for those gray steel barriers that prevent drivers from careening off bridges and cliffside roads — “guardrails” — has been commandeered to refer to standards, parameters or guidelines in policies to prevent problems of some kind. Use of the term “grassroots” to define a movement or organization that germinated spontaneously among concerned citizens gave rise to another buzzword, “astroturfing” in reference to an organization or company conducting a tactical marketing campaign disguised as a grassroots movement. “Downstream impact” has taken on new meaning in referring to outcomes or consequences. The propensity for buzzwords has turned impediments into “headwinds” and opportunities into “tailwinds.”

Maps typically are oriented with north at the top of the page — with a compass rose pointing up. Because the adverb “up” is in some contexts associated with an increase (as in “turn up the volume”), the direction “north” has become co-opted as a synonym for “more than,” as in “north of $5 million.” That usage is nothing but silly. Easy, opportunistic targets to attain results with minimal effort have been redubbed “low-hanging fruit.” While plucking fruit be careful to avoid becoming tangled “in the weeds” — that is, overwhelmed with minutiae. Another agricultural term, “silos,” is now used in reference to individuals or groups of people who work in isolation rather than collaboratively with other groups.

These and other once-whimsical metaphors become so habitual that they smother the proper, traditional terms for which they are substituting. For that reason, we urge restraint in such metaphorical use.

Kids may finish high school without a clear idea of what they will be doing throughout the rest of their lives. For, Jinni, however, the future was clear. As a senior class student only days away from turning 18, she knew exactly how she would spend her adult life. As the author who playfully goes by the initials STH revealed, Jinni is a genie — well, technically, not yet. But she will be soon, as she masters the magical art of granting wishes for people.

The author had a wish of his own — to make the story he had written on his computer materialize as a book that children could hold in their hands or read on an electronic tablet or smartphone. EditPros’ BookPrep service transformed that vision into reality for this fanciful children’s tale about Jinni’s maturation as a genie.

If you have been writing a book and you’re ready to publish it, EditPros’ BookPrep service can help you achieve your goal. As part of the BookPrep package, EditPros professionally designed and formatted the interior pages of Jinni the Genie, and prepared the supplied cover art and contents for print publication. EditPros also formatted and converted the digital file into e-book format for sale through Amazon (Kindle), Apple (iBooks), Barnes & Noble (Nook), and Kobo.

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We invite you to LEARN MORE about the EditPros BookPrep service.

Del T. wrote:

“Does the future lay ahead or lie ahead? I’m not asking a philosophical question. I need help figuring out the correct word to use.”

The grammar coach replies:

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