something I loathe

The use of the word “rehearse,” in an academic context, to mean “repeat.” As in: “I will not rehearse Merleau-Ponty’s arguments here.” (That’s a made-up example.)

Why do I hate it? Because even though it’s allowed by dictionaries, no one uses it in that sense in everyday speech. There, everyone uses it to mean something like “practice ahead of time,” as with a theater rehearsal. But then as soon as we’re in an academic context, it seems to be an easy affectation to fall into.

Obviously, there are many things we do in writing that we would never do in speech, and vice versa. But I’m in favor of preserving some sort of natural parallel between the two.

This is why I also despise such sterile academic writing phrases as “in fine.” I almost stop reading any article or book that uses that phrase, because if authors make that sort of word choice, I find it hard to trust their judgment anywhere else either.

The growing use of “reticent” to mean “reluctant” also annoyed me for similar reasons, though that’s almost a lost battle now.

And to repeat, I’m not at all a language “purist.” Languages are living and should be modified. I just hate to see pretension serve as the motive power of their modification.

The increasing use of “begs the question” to mean “raises the question” rather than “avoids the question” is also frustrating, but at least pretension isn’t the problem here.