Fareast Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 No !! Not FootBall-----FOOTFALL----it 's the new ' in ' word. Just been reading in the Star [ via internet ] about Pollards closing on Charles Street and in a fairly short article, the word ' footfall ' appeared about 4 times. Living abroad, I might have already missed the word 's debut in Sheffield ? Anyone else come across it much ? Not long ago, we had ' awesome ' sweeping the nation-----used to describe anything ---from a new type of biscuit to an earthquake. Is ' awesome ' still on the go ? I suppose ' innit ' will never die out. Nothing wrong of course with new words but the way people use them in a sort of ' copycat ' fashion, always looks a bit ' daft ' to me-----rather like the featherbrains who MUST wear the latest fashion ----whether it 's suitable for the occasion or not ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Six Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 If you work in retail, footfall is just a word you use. I expect there are words you use in other industries that I don't know of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strewf Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Another damn irritating "in" word lately is "Epic". Everything is flaming "epic".Sick of hearing it.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illuminati Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I used to work in the museum industry, 'footfall' is a very common term to describe the number of people passing or visiting a certain area, it is quite old, it puzzled me at first but when you think about it it is a very good term to use. The Pollards term refers to the amount of people passing the shop on a daily basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 If you work in retail, footfall is just a word you use. I expect there are words you use in other industries that I don't know of. I used to work in the museum industry, 'footfall' is a very common term to describe the number of people passing or visiting a certain area, it is quite old, it puzzled me at first but when you think about it it is a very good term to use. The Pollards term refers to the amount of people passing the shop on a daily basis. I've worked in a number of jobs which have 'in-words' (previously known as 'jargon'.) There's nothing wrong with 'In words' but if they really are 'In' words why send them 'out' when there are perfectly good words/phrases already out there? What's wrong with 'pedestrian traffic'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 There's nothing wrong with 'In words' but if they really are 'In' words why send them 'out' when there are perfectly good words/phrases already out there? What's wrong with 'pedestrian traffic'? If you mean, why hasn't the Star used that phrase - I would guess the piece was written by a business journalist. It may even be an article originally written for a business newspaper, and reprinted in the Star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R i chy Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Footfall is a standard word. Dates back from Shakespeare in the 1600s. You're only four hundred years behind the times, don't worry. Edit - Same with epic, first recorded in 1706 and has been in regular use since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fareast Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Richy-----it 's not really about how old words are......etc.....it 's the sudden, ' copycat ' rush to use a word that irritates some of us-----plus the fact that the ' in ' word is sometimes inappropiate e.g. ' awesome ' ' epic '.....etc....I mean what 's awesome about a chip butty or visit to Milton Keynes ? Children often use words like this. They hear a word they 've never heard before and then use it for a time on every possible occasion. I 've heard ' footfall ' before [ I think ! ] but I 'm sure I 've never seen it used so often in such a short piece of writing........and as Rupert Baehr said, if it is for ' general consumption ' and not trade jargon, why not use words that already exist ? I suppose for hundreds of years people have been saying, " Isn 't it ? " at the end of a sentence, so there 's not much wrong with the short form " innit ? ".......but a lot of teenagers use it constantly .......and inappropriately. It 's a bit like being in the company of someone who 's got permanent hiccups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DUFFEMS Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 How often do we hear "gutted" to describe your football team losing, your house being burgled, being told bad news etc., it's used by so many people now, I'm fed up with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaniBabi Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I'd never heard of the word footfall until I worked in retail. Epic is really starting to wind me up, all you ever see on fb is epic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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