Just a couple gripes about Americanisms...
Some phrases topping our list of most-hated neologisms

London, 22 Feb 2006 | Television viewers in the UK are becoming increasingly irritated by new words and phrases apparently imported from the USA and gaining a foothold in our television news bulletins.

Contributors to the TV Forum website have been listing some of the most irritating words and phrases recently to cross the Atlantic.

The debate was sparked when one contributor expressed his annoyance at the use of the phrase 'coming out of' rather than 'coming from', when referring to news or pictures.

Others were quick to pile in with their least favourite words and phrases. A growing list of linguistic bugbears include:

• 'through' ('Monday through Friday' instead of 'from Monday until Friday')
• the omission of the word 'of' after couple (a couple pints of milk)
• absence of 'and' in a year (two-thousand-four instead of two-thousand-and-four)

Most of the users' complaints are minor irritations, but they can also cause offence. One TV Forum writer complained that the name 7/7, aping 9/11, had been adopted "in a hurry to give [...] an appalling tragedy a catchy name".

The writer continues: "Why stop there - maybe in future tragic events could get their own logo and sung audio jingle as well?"