Cliches. Organic. Bully pulpit. Fimfy.

Cliches. Organic. Bully pulpit. Fimfy.

951. In honor of National Cliché day, we uncover why some overused phrases rub us the wrong way. What is the boundary between idioms, slang, and clichés—and should we give "adulting" a break? Then, we trace the 700-year history of "organic," from bodily organs to natural growth, and ask whether using a bully pulpit makes someone a bad person.

The "cliche" segment was written by Kirk Hazen, a professor of linguistics at West Virginia University, and Jordan Lovejoy, a visiting assistant professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It first appeared on The Conversation and appears here through a Creative Commons license (BY-ND 4.0).

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Avsnitt(965)

076 Starting a Sentence With "Hopefully"

076 Starting a Sentence With "Hopefully"

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21 Sep 20075min

073 Simplify Your Writing

073 Simplify Your Writing

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30 Aug 20076min

072 The The -- The Double The

072 The The -- The Double The

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23 Aug 20075min

070 The Asterisk (Trust Me About Grammar, Not About Baseball)

070 The Asterisk (Trust Me About Grammar, Not About Baseball)

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10 Aug 20073min

068 Unlawful Versus Illegal

068 Unlawful Versus Illegal

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20 Juli 20074min

067 Your Versus You're

067 Your Versus You're

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20 Juli 20076min

065 Regionalisms

065 Regionalisms

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29 Juni 20077min

064 Between You and Me

064 Between You and Me

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26 Juni 20074min

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