‘It was carnage’: students describe suspected mass food poisoning at New Zealand university
‘It was carnage’: students describe suspected mass food poisoning at New Zealand university
www.theguardian.com
‘It was carnage’: students describe suspected mass food poisoning at New Zealand university
Carnage is a real word, and it's definition isn't broad enough to encompass a mass vomiting and diarrhea event.
I say this not to be pedantic, but because I had to read the article to confirm this wasn't a mass death event.... because words matter.
Doesn't matter that it was a quote, the editor shouldn't have run with it. Find another quote, or use your own words. JFC.
Nobody thinks people are getting literally "slammed" when it's in an article title. Have you ever used or seen "decimated" to mean something other than "Every 10th man in a roman cohort was executed"? It's hyperbole, metaphor, a play on words.
Here's an article not describing mass death, but uses "carnage," as cited by Merriam Webster in their online definition for "carnage," emphasis mine:
https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/biking/redbull-rampage-recap-2024-women/
Carnage can mean any sort of chaos or harm coming to a group of people. I don't see the use in pedantically hating on colorful language or simple literary devices.
Context matters a lot here, because they could easily have been talking about 100 dead, not 100 icky. This is clearly a context where using death as a metaphor is beyond inappropriate. There are at least two The Office (USA) gags about exactly that concept.
Any editor that uses the word "slammed" in it's current cliche slang context, should be immediately fired.
The fact that you're defending that overwrought example of the degeneration of our media, and moreso, citing it as why this particular butchering of the English language is actually correct, is disheartening.
You can cite all of the other poorly written articles you want, stacking wrongs upon wrongs, won't make this right.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/carnage
It also has slang usages, but I agree that in this context it shouldn't have been used in the headline.
So what? Are you saying that all slang is appropriate when reporting on real world events? Even if it completely changes the context of the article to mean something entirely different?
This is The Guardian, not a blog post.
Would certainly agree it is an interesting use of it. Although the mentioning of food poisoning meant that I assumed it was toilet bowl carnage.
Also I have an Oxford English Dictionary subscription through the library, and it looks like this term has been misused for a hundred years. In case someone is curious:
It's a quote. Those little things around the sentence have a meaning.
'It was Carnage': Students describe...
Fr. Bro seems to have no context awareness. Lol
You do understand the importance of editors in a newspaper, and their role in crafting headlines for articles....right?
Simply because a student said it, doesn't mean it should be included in a headline, especially if use misrepresents situation i.e. a battlefield or terrorist attack, and not everyone just shitting their guts out.
Editorial discretion and competence, it has meaning. Or, at least, it should.
I know it’s a stretch, and certainly not what the author intended - but flesh of slain animals could just a way to refer to cooked meat in whatever tainted meals caused the poisoning? 🤔