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Tom Dodds on transport matters »Thanks for the replies I've been getting about that special language spoken only by journalists.
As well as the replies to my initial posting, I've had a number of colleagues suggesting words that are only ever used in newspapers but never in real life.
These include:
* "hailed" - as in, "A city's car-free day has been hailed a success" - do you think anyone at the event actually said: "I hail this car-free day a success!"?
* "revellers" - a fantastic journalese word once you've already used "drinkers" to describe people in pubs (yet you never hear real people say "Blimey - there's lots of revellers in here. Maybe we should go somewhere more quiet.")
* "probe" - to the shame of some journalists, this has come to mean an investigation that involves either leaving the office or involves more than three phone calls.
* "lambast" - as suggested by the editor of a top Scottish newspaper I happen to know. "That's a terrible decision, I'm really going to lambast it" - as people never say.
* "swingeing" - always used in harness with the word "cuts". Journalists seem to think that it is better than just saying "large".
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