The Merriam Webster Dictionary | 
Pedantry alert!
Over the last few months I‘ve noticed a linguistic shift that is driving me insane. I first noticed on podcasts (hence the picture), but I‘ve even noticed in work emails (written by educators no less). There seems to be a trend to shorten words. “Priorities” becomes “priors”. “Comparisons” and “Competitions” both become “comps” (which previously was used for “comprehensive exams”). ⬇️
Sace In each case it wasn‘t exactly clear which word they were abbreviating. I find this unacceptable. Educators and bookish podcasters especially shouldn‘t take shortcuts. (edited) 6mo
Sace PS: I find it doubly annoying in speech because there‘s no character limit when speaking. 🙄 6mo
Amor4Libros Agree!! 6mo
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kspenmoll I totally agree! 6mo
Mollyanna Absolutely agree! 6mo
Sace @Amor4Libros @kspenmoll @Mollyanna Thanks for supporting my moment of annoyance 😂 6mo
Clare-Dragonfly Wow! I haven‘t encountered those to my knowledge but they sound very annoying! Those words already have meanings that are not really distinct enough from the new ones. 6mo
Sace @Clare-Dragonfly I just don‘t get it. 6mo
MoniqueReads305 I agree with most of this except comps. I thinks that's publishing language bleeding into education through social media.. When authors sell their books to publishers they provide comps. That's why you'll hear stuff like Little Women meets Lord of the Files. 6mo
dabbe This retired high school English teacher agrees 💯! 💙🩵💙 6mo
Hooked_on_books “Priors” for priorities?!? I get the desire to shorten words sometimes, but that changes it to a completely different word and thus the meaning as well! Accuracy and clear communication is far more important than shortening a few words! 6mo
Hooked_on_books And that‘s absolutely not pedantry! 6mo
julesG What about speakers of English as a second/foreign language? That's so wrong. Don't make it harder for us. Language is evolving, of course, but that's just sloppy. An email is not a handwritten letter that takes ages to copy, 6mo
julesG ... It's just lazy and confusing. 6mo
Sace @MoniqueReads305 Ah! Thanks for the information. It was in fact a bookish podcast that used “comps” so knowing that bit of publishing language makes sense now. 6mo
Sace @julesG absolutely agree! And that kind of usage doesn‘t make it into dictionaries either (at least it would take a bit of searching to find). 6mo
Sace @Hooked_on_books Right? I‘m seeing/hearing it more than I would like. 😂 6mo
Sace @dabbe 🩵 I can imagine how infuriating this kind of thing would be for English teachers. I don‘t think students have started doing this (yet). 6mo
rwmg I haven't come across those yet. But I have come across comp as a verb meaning, as far as I can make out, (of a business) give somebody something free to pacify them after they make a complaint. 6mo
Sace @rwmg oh yes! That‘s another common one that (I think) most of the general public knows. 6mo
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