"as such", "you think?", "gone missing"

Derrick Chapman derrickchapman at MINDSPRING.COM
Fri Apr 21 17:36:45 UTC 2000


Subtle influences (mostly from TV) are causing an increase in these phrases.
About a year ago, most reports on TV about people who weren't accounted for
used the term "disappeared" or "vanished" or "was reported missing."  Now
the media has picked up on the Brit/Ozzie phrase "gone missing" and are
using it every chance they can.  Is Rupert Murdoch behind this?  The latest
person I heard saying this was Peter Jennings who spent enough time in UK
for it to be semi-natural to him, but I think he was reading a script,
rather than his own words.

The "you think?" bit seems to come from Stargate: SG-1, but it may be a
regionalism that simply is getting a lot of broadcast play as a subtle
catchphrase.

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of jester at PANIX.COM
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 2:07 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: as such


>
> Has anyone else noticed the (increasing, I think) use of "as such" to mean
> simply "as a result"? Witness this mailing from the webmaster to the staff
of a
> volunteer organization I belong to:
> [...]

What about this:

1992 R. Limbaugh _Way Things Ought to Be_ 185 Feminism is another of
those issues which has established itself in the political
correctness hall of fame. As such, it is not fashionable to take
issue with or poke fun at the philosophy which underlies this
movement.

Jesse Sheidlower
Oxford English Dictionary



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