ABC’s Nightline on Tuesday featured a Lose Weight Like the Celebrities segment that employed the word “relatable” at least three times (I stopped watching halfway through because I couldn’t watch anymore).
Here’s my question: What the hell does “relatable” mean?
Accessible? Understandable? Compatible?
Aren’t those perfectly good – and more precise – words?
Or is it all relata-tive?
Certified Campaign Outsider Sidebar (pat. pending) from our Absolutely Patrol:
Also in Tuesday’s Times, this quote from a piece on Facebook Faraoh Mark Zuckerberg’s money-raising scheme to delay an initial public offering of stock in the social media giant and “to allow it to remain free of government regulation and from the volatility of Wall Street.”
“Mark would absolutely prefer not have an I.P.O. until he absolutely has to,” said David Kirkpatrick, the author of “The Facebook Effect.” “He absolutely doesn’t want to sacrifice control because he believes that his vision is necessary to keep powering the company forward.”
The rare absolutely trifecta?
Absolutely.
Well, you know what they say about misusing words: familiality breeds contempt.
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