3 ms·

Headlinese

45 points by missosoup 7y ago

downerending 7y ago
In the clickbait era, I've also noticed everything amped to 11. One no longer "disagrees", one "slams". One no longer "loses", one "gets destroyed", etc. Not a fan.
- rglover 7y ago
  "downerending destroys missosoup on HN over Headlinese spat."
- smcl 7y ago
  I think there's a similar effect in play to 1984's "Newspeak". While Newspeak was designed to restrict freedom of expression and quell any nascent revolutionary feeling, Headlinese seems to lend itself perfectly to these intensely polarised feelings. I don't think it's a new thing though, it's certainly been employed by the British press for as long as I can remember. And the constraint does lend itself to some fun creativity in the sports pages at least, see "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious"[1] and "Young Boys Wankdorf erection relief"[2] for example. 1: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/554447/where-are-they-now-whatever-happened-to-that-inverness-team-who-went-ballistic-and-the-celtic-side-they-battered/ https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/554447/where... 2: http://m.espn.com/soccer/story?storyId=337901&src=desktop http://m.espn.com/soccer/story?storyId=337901&src=desktop
adriantam 7y ago
Same in git commit message, we need to put as much information as possible in the fewest number of bytes to make it useful. I am looking forward to an article name "committese"
- gpantazes 7y ago
  I use these 7 git commit message style rules [1] to establish my foundation of "committese". Things like "Use the imperative mood in the subject line" give commit messages a succint, consistent style. Everything after that is finesse, personal effort, and ability to express things succinctly (much like the personalized "headlinese" styles mentioned). [1]: https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/ https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/
- kenforthewin 7y ago
  I don't mind longer, multi-line git commit messages. I find shorthand in commit messages annoying.
tcgv 7y ago
Interesting. Now I know why, as a non native english speaker, I sometimes get confused after reading english language online newspaper headlines.
KineticLensman 7y ago
My favourite example was "Foot heads arms body" which was allegedly created although not perhaps used by the Times when the UK politician Michael Foot was put in charge of a disarmament committee [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot [Edit: emphasised the ambiguity picked up Confiks]
- Confiks 7y ago
  However, Wikipedia suggests [1] (the primary source is unreachable for me) that "the headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century. It is found in a letter published in The Guardian in 1978. [2]" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_popular_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_popular_cultur... [2] https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39001580/foot_heads_arms_body/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39001580/foot_heads_arms_bod...

45 points by missosoup 7y ago

In the clickbait era, I've also noticed everything amped to 11. One no longer "disagrees", one "slams". One no longer "loses", one "gets destroyed", etc. Not a fan.

rglover 7y ago
"downerending destroys missosoup on HN over Headlinese spat."
smcl 7y ago
I think there's a similar effect in play to 1984's "Newspeak". While Newspeak was designed to restrict freedom of expression and quell any nascent revolutionary feeling, Headlinese seems to lend itself perfectly to these intensely polarised feelings. I don't think it's a new thing though, it's certainly been employed by the British press for as long as I can remember. And the constraint does lend itself to some fun creativity in the sports pages at least, see "Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious"[1] and "Young Boys Wankdorf erection relief"[2] for example. 1: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/554447/where-are-they-now-whatever-happened-to-that-inverness-team-who-went-ballistic-and-the-celtic-side-they-battered/ https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/554447/where... 2: http://m.espn.com/soccer/story?storyId=337901&src=desktop http://m.espn.com/soccer/story?storyId=337901&src=desktop

adriantam 7y ago

Same in git commit message, we need to put as much information as possible in the fewest number of bytes to make it useful. I am looking forward to an article name "committese"

gpantazes 7y ago
I use these 7 git commit message style rules [1] to establish my foundation of "committese". Things like "Use the imperative mood in the subject line" give commit messages a succint, consistent style. Everything after that is finesse, personal effort, and ability to express things succinctly (much like the personalized "headlinese" styles mentioned). [1]: https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/ https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/
kenforthewin 7y ago
I don't mind longer, multi-line git commit messages. I find shorthand in commit messages annoying.

tcgv 7y ago

Interesting. Now I know why, as a non native english speaker, I sometimes get confused after reading english language online newspaper headlines.

KineticLensman 7y ago

My favourite example was "Foot heads arms body" which was allegedly created although not perhaps used by the Times when the UK politician Michael Foot was put in charge of a disarmament committee [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot [Edit: emphasised the ambiguity picked up Confiks]

Confiks 7y ago
However, Wikipedia suggests [1] (the primary source is unreachable for me) that "the headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century. It is found in a letter published in The Guardian in 1978. [2]" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_popular_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Foot#In_popular_cultur... [2] https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39001580/foot_heads_arms_body/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39001580/foot_heads_arms_bod...