I frequently get grammar-related bees in my bonnet, and this is my current one.
Methodology. To all those pompous word-spinners who misuse words like this, I would like to shout from the rooftops (and I'm very bad indeed when it comes to heights): "
methodology" is not, repeat not, the same as "method". It is:
a. A body of practices, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline or engage in an inquiry; a set of working methods: the methodology of genetic studies; a pollmarred by faulty methodology.
b. The study or theoretical analysis of such working methods.
Okay?
When exactly did this ridiculous usage begin? I hear it on the radio, and read it, too. Only last week we had a form which wanted to know "what methodology of payment were we going to use". It's like the "glazing enhancement specialists*" (yes. Really.) who clean our windows. Come on, guys. You're window cleaners. Stand up and be proud of yourselves. You don't need posh titles to show that you do a good job, and we don't need posh words to convey simple meanings. More and ever longer words are being used to express less and less. I love words, but I'm beginning to despair.
I shall now go and roast a chicken (I'm sure there's a posh expression for that, too).
*One of my sons refuses to believe this, but I have a piece of paper that proves it. Besides, I couldn't make it up. Really.
