Culture

In a Word: phrase

‘Give it up’ for those that ‘have your back’ but not ‘going forward’

Going forward, an appalling phrase, somehow associated with the last recession.

Patsy McGarry's face
Patsy McGarry
Sat Feb 9 2019 - 00:30

There are things in life I will never understand. What people mean when they say “give it up’ . . . for Bill or George (any damn one but Sue!). Or when they tell you, face to face, “I have your back”.

Then there is the eternal mystery of why, come what may, my remaining hair is always standing to attention when I wake up every morning.

I will never understand it.

In Luke’s gospel (Dear Colleagues up there at the top of this page, I am not invading your territory. Just making a point. And I’ll be off.) we are told God pays particular attention to our head hair.

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“The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows,” we are told. In my case it takes far less time to number the hairs on my head, now also worth fewer sparrows.

I don’t have nightmares. I don’t toss and turn at night. Sparrows never come near me in my sleep, so why, oh why must my hair seem animated by static electricity when I get up every morning?

O hair….’give it up’ for Jaysus sake! Now, isn’t that just the daftest phrase. You see it on these TV shows where a presenter invites the audience to ‘give it up’ (applaud) for someone or other.

But all I can think of is Lent and fasting for six weeks.

It seems the origin of that irritating phrase was 20 years ago on US TV entertainment shows, then it crossed the Atlantic.

Likewise with “I have your back”. Another American import.

A person saying they have your back means they are there to help you; they will watch out and take care of the things you’re likely to miss. They are a second set of eyes and hands.

Another example of this genre is “I’ve got your 6 o’clock”, (Yeah. Sure!) also referring to the idea that when you are in a sticky situation you can’t easily watch out for everything .

And people laughed when George Bernard Shaw said Americans and other English speakers were people separated by the same language.

But all that said, please, please spare me ‘going forward’; forever associated with the last recession and, hopefully, buried with it.

Phrase: a 'group of words with some unity'; from Latin phrasis (diction)

George Bernard Shaw