The Americanisms and words that Telegraph readers love to hate

Goats are everywhere right now, and not just in farmyards. They’re in the news, on our screens and I even saw a few in the television coverage of the Golden Globes. I remember the first time I heard someone called a “goat”. This seemed rather uncalled for, as I regarded them as being outstanding in their field (again, not in a farming sense). 

However, as most sports fans will now know, in today’s world a goat isn’t a somewhat derided animal with satanic associations, rather the Greatest of All Time – although one can imagine that players on the same pitch as Lionel Messi, widely regarded as the best footballer to ever play the game, may believe his skills can only be attributed to some sort of Faustian pact.

While some of us might not be a fan of goats in either sense of the word, the Telegraph’s Puzzles Editor, Chris Lancaster, has a distaste for both the animal and the overuse of GOAT in the sporting sense. He made this the subject of a recent puzzles newsletter, and asked readers to write in to let us know what words get their particular goat. The response was overwhelming.

The good news for lovers of hircine animals is that some readers are definitely on the side of the goats. Ian Dalziel gives a wholesome account of how goats can help to clean up after the holiday season; his Pennslvanian neighbours keep goats as pets, which prove to be rather good at munching through old Christmas trees (the goats, not the neighbours).

“It seems that goats will eat a pine tree’s needles in no time flat and will then proceed to strip the bark, munching happily as they go.” It’s hard to argue with the green credentials here. Ian goes on to say that the word that drives him up the wall is “misinformation”. Topical.

Sue Corbin has a variety of words she dislikes. “Actually” which she deems “pointless”, “so” when it appears at the beginning of sentences such as “So, how can I help?” and “nuclear” as in  “nuclear threat”. Sue and my mum might agree when it comes to overuse of the word “like”; I definitely received a number of Paddington-style hard stares as a teenager for that one.

On the topic of casual language, Ian MacDonald’s hackles rise (do goats have hackles?) when he hears of prizes being “up for grabs”. Which, now Ian mentions it, does seem like a strange phrase when it’s broken down, given that most prizes are politely accepted, rather than being rudely snatched out of someone’s hands.. Pete Philips dislikes “diarize” and “verbalize”, which is understandable given that, as is the case with our new Cross Atlantic puzzles, we are definitely in favour of ending verbs with “-ise” wherever possible. 

Speaking of Americanisms, Shelagh McCauley, an expat living in the US, has become accustomed to what she considers “bad grammar” as she can’t stand “off of”, such as when one takes plates off of the table.

Inevitably, some readers took issue with words used in some of our crosswords, mainly as some answers are seen on a regular basis. Maggie Newnham is “utterly sick” of “utter” as an answer, while Paul Gover would like to see less “asti” and a little more “cava” in his wine-related clues. 

Edward Meehan hasn’t got it in for our crosswords, but instead hates both Sudoku, the word and the game. The good news is that there are plenty of different puzzle types available to play online if you aren't a fan of one particular brainteaser.

Some of the conversations turned to pronunciation. Tim Bochenski is angered by actors pronouncing the word “wrath” any other way than “wroth”. Peter Holt can’t stand it when people say “haitch” rather than “aitch”, nor “privacy” when it’s pronounced similarly to privation rather than privy. And Irene Macleod despises “communal” when the emphasis is on the second syllable. “It’s not about ‘communing’ it’s something to be used in common! I find the ‘com-myoon-ing’ pronunciation infuriating.”

My personal goat is got by a phrase, rather than a single word: “I could care less”, which seems to make no sense at all. It’s always said by our friends over the pond to mean that they could not care less about a particular subject, but the missing word completely negates the phrase’s meaning. I have to stop talking about it, otherwise I think I’ll grind my teeth into dust.

Which words and phrases get your goat? Tell us in the comments below. You can also sign up to Chris Lancaster’s regular Puzzles newsletter or try out our prestigious range of Puzzles.