Saturday, December 13, 2008

Even More Word News: Devastated

Both Ed Stourton and Carol Vorderman are 'devastated'. People are always 'devastated' these days. I wonder why this word seems to be so necessary. 'Upset' is a bit weak, I suppose, and 'shocked' doesn't suggest any harm to the person. 'Violated' is, perhaps, a little intimate and 'depressed' carries overtones of mental illness. Personally, I'd go for 'pissed-off', it signals that your pride is intact and will make people want to buy you a drink. But, to be honest, if Ed and Carol want to feel 'devastated', well, so do I.

6 comments:

  1. I suppose a 90% paycut from 1.5m would depend very much on how much one had in the bank. And then dictate the degree, from devastation onwards. Bereft, that would be my feeling. Giving the correct amount of temporary grief, but would get over it.
    OTOH. That Riley woman, she'll do.
    The other guy, I do not know

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  2. Gutted, Bryan, I'm totally gutted. Brassed off as well. And mortified. Flabbergasted too if I weren’t so shell-shocked. My world’s fallen apart, the ground’s slipped from beneath my feet, and I’m reeling. I really am. In fact, I’m speechless. There’s no other word for it. Except ‘stunned’. And ‘dumbstruck’. And ‘paralysed’. The whole town has been left paralysed by this tragedy. Whatever it was...

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  3. sick as a parrot? maybe not...

    they got rid of the wrong guy, surely

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  4. Pissed-off is a good one, with a fine line in English understatement in Mr Stourton's case considering that most people would be furious at such shabby treatment. He must feel as if he's had his arse handed to him on a plate but I don't expect that can be said on Radio 4.

    I supposed the master of this art has to be Darth Vader. All you'd get would be a few sinister, heavy-breathed rasping sounds. You could decide this indicated that poor Darth was "devastated" and perhaps in need of counselling from HR, but you'd be wiser to leave town pronto.

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  5. I'm not very interested in radio, but the BBC does seem to make a habit of this kind of hamfisted treatment of its more respectable presenters while propping up dickheads such as Jonathan Ross.

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