Proclivities wrote: 
What if you were arrested for, I don't know, deceitful composure or something, and they slap the Manbirds on you. How would you feel then? Huh?

 Proclivities wrote: 

That depends on how the phrase is coined.

 olivertwist wrote: 
That's about as bad as when someone says a book was "authored" by someone, instead of just saying it had been "written".

Back in the olden days, I never heard "Where do you office?"  Now it's everywhere, along with "I gifted him with a new book."  It makes me cringe.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I guess it's essentially just a word choice.  When I did book covers in the pre-historic era of the 1980s, the editors I dealt with were usually very specific about elements like body copy and captions, so they seemed to expect the lowly designers to be just as specific.  If they used the word "verbiage" it was usually referring to some ramblings submitted by the author, which they were going to edit down.
It's still mildly annoying when I hear a co-worker say something like "...there's some verbiage about that on page 23 of the manual".

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 

A former boss of mine used the word that way. It's just one of many reasons I didn't have the utmost respect for her

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
right up there with comic sans?

 olivertwist wrote: 
Oh, no, that's a capital offense.

 Proclivities wrote: 

Another word that some people like using is "wordsmith" - as in, "we'll wordsmith that copy before it goes out." I guess it's considered a verb now.

 Proclivities wrote: 
I have always understood/used verbiage to refer to something like body copy. Saying "text" or "body copy" could mean the same thing but also could be too specific. From a layout standpoint, if I say there will be some verbiage on this area, I don't personally care if it's a headline, caption, slogan, legal disclaimer, or the actual body copy of the piece, only that it's some frickin' words. AND it usually implies that I don't have the text yet so the person I'm talking to should understand that we're not going any further until I get some verbiage to put there. Whether or not it's verbage makes me no nevermind.

 oldviolin wrote: 

 Proclivities wrote: 
what, no kiss?

On two different occasions this week, co-workers have used the word "verbiage" to describe the "body copy" of some materials which were sent out to clients.  I had always considered the word to have a negative connotation - indicating that the author indulged in too many words or deliberately-obscure terminology.  Now, it seems, people are eager to use the term as just meaning generic, written content.  It turns out that is the secondary definition.  Oh, well.

from the O.E.D.
1. Wording of a superabundant or superfluous character, abundance of words without necessity or without much meaning; excessive wordiness.
2. Diction, wording, verbal expression.

The word passion has changed meaning.

Now it is used to refer to strong emotion, such as anger or sexual desire.  It's original meaning in English was physical suffering (from the Latin "passio", "suffering").

It is still also used to refer to the suffering of Jesus Christ.

 Zep wrote:
 
It was on TCM recently. Archie had some great lines:

" I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed."

"No. No, Mother, I have not been drinking. No. No. These two men, they poured a whole bottle of bourbon into me. No, they didn't give me a chaser."

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I do not think that word means what they think it means....

Apparently, "behemoth" means "small-to-ordinary" now.
 
  

 oldslabsides wrote: 
I think I have to side with George here.

 Inamorato wrote: 
And Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest.

 manbirdexperiment wrote: 
Another song of theirs, "She's a Muscular Boy"