Friday, April 27, 2012

"going forward" and "takeaway"

My buddy Charles alerted me, in a recent email, to a trend that I hadn't really noticed until he mentioned it: the overuse of the expression "going forward" (or any variant that incorporates "forward") as a way to say "in the future." I need to go back through my own archives to see the extent to which I myself have been hypnotized by this trend.

One thing that I've noticed is the increasing use of the compound "takeaway" as a surrogate for "moral," as when referring to the moral of a story. "The takeaway is that we should be more vigilant going forward." Those familiar with British English know that "takeaway" (or "take-away") is the UK version of "take-out." I wonder whether the Brits have adopted this newest meaning of "takeaway"... or whether the new meaning originated in the Isles.

Language changes fast, and as I get older, it seems to change ever faster. I'm still trying to deal with the popularity of "I know, right?" --which has been around a couple years, now.


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4 comments:

John said...

My takeaway from this post is that going forward I'll be more careful with my usage. I know, right?

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Well, my takeaway is that we live in a driveby culture . . .

Jeffery Hodges

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Charles said...

When I was younger, I told myself that I would not become a stodgy old man, set in my ways and resistant to change.

Now that I am older, though, I realize that I--like all young people--was just crazy.

SJHoneywell said...

The one that drives me nuts is "and plus." Listen for it. You'll hear it everywhere.