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Dr. Phil illiterate?

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on January 19, 2005

In Reply to: Dr. Phil illiterate? posted by Word Camel on January 19, 2005

: : On television this morning, Dr. Phil, one of America's television advice gurus, said, "If you enter a relationship with too many expectancies..." It sounded strange to me as I thought 'expectations' would be preferred. He went on to use 'expectancy' where I thought it should be 'expectation.' Any help here on preference or which is more correct? Thank you.

: : SR

: Strictly speaking, it is gibberish, at least, it's not in the dictionary yet. A similar word I've heard is "dependencies" meaning a number of factors that something depends upon. It's used in project management. Are these words jargon? Are they malapropisms? Are they expressing something it wasn't possible to express in quite the same way using standard English? I'm not sure but I hear these all the time and sometimes I'm oblidged to use them to be understood by others who use them.

I think Dr. Phil, astute marketer that he is, is deliberately dumbing down his vocabulary so as not to alienate his customers.

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