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Pedants' corner

Tragic

19 replies

OTheHugeManatee · 05/08/2011 18:46

I can't stand the way people refer to unfortunate accidents as 'tragic'. Tragedy, in drama, is a dreadful chain of events brought about by people or situations that contain the seeds of their own destruction. So a tragic situation is one where the terrible denouement was contained in the logic of the situation. A child left orphaned because one parent killed the other and then committed suicide might be legitimately called 'tragic'. But describing as 'tragic' a attack by a wild animal, or a tsunami, or a road accident, is just wrong . It was a terrible event, but it was random, and while it is awful it is not. tragic.

And....breathe.

OP posts:

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NorfolkNChance · 05/08/2011 21:00

Are you Educating Rita OTHM?

PelvicFloorOfSteel · 05/08/2011 21:03

I blame the BeeGees for the popular misuse of tragedy.

SarkySpanner · 05/08/2011 21:07

Tragedy (and tragic) are polysemous words.

Or to put it another way, you are wrong :)

VictorianIce · 05/08/2011 21:38

It is tragic. It's just not a tragedy in the literary sense of the word.

Or to put it another way... wot they sed.

scurryfunge · 05/08/2011 21:41

I agree. It's when you lose control and you got no soul.

southeastastra · 05/08/2011 21:43

there's a band called the tragically hip who are fantastic as an aside

TheOriginalFAB · 05/08/2011 21:46

So it's not tragic that 2 parents have lost their child?

VictorianIce · 05/08/2011 21:49

I think they were hypothetical parents... And the OP did grant that that situation could be called tragic.

But a bear savaging a motorway pile-up during a tidal-wave was less tragic.

I may have misread...

TheOriginalFAB · 05/08/2011 21:55

A child died today having been mauled by a bear.

Olifin · 05/08/2011 22:32

You are wrong :)

It is perfectly acceptable to use 'tragic' to describe a horrifying or sad event, whether or not it has been foreshadowed by a fatal flaw of some sort. The word has been used legitimately in that way for some time. (Watch Educating Rita!)

Even 'tragedy' does now get used to describe natural disasters and so on. You might not like it but the language is always changing.

OTheHugeManatee · 05/08/2011 23:12

I know language changes, or else we'd all still be using an inflected language I just loathe the way 'tragic' has come to mean 'something we can all generally agree is really really bad'. I can see why it gets used in tabloid headlines, as it's shorter than 'horrifying', 'appalling' or similar; perhaps it's the tabloid association that bothers me really. The word seems so cheap somehow as a result.

OP posts:

Olifin · 06/08/2011 00:06

I agree to an extent regarding its use in tabloids but for me it does have slightly different connotations to 'horrifying' or 'appalling'. To me it suggests something that perhaps could have been prevented reasonably easily whereas the other adjectives don't necessarily have that connotation.

Thumbwitch · 06/08/2011 00:12

I think, even for me, it's a step too far in pedantry, Manatee!

May I just say here that I object to the meeja overuse of the word "ordeal"? I'm sure that anyone who has suffered anything probably has been through a terrible time - but can they not think of another way to put it? It just switches me off completely when I see the word now.

Funk · 08/08/2011 05:13

I disagree with OPs point re use of word tragic however I was BESIDE myself watching The Tour de France when the commentator kept saying "it's a disaster..." when talking about someone falling behind in the cycling race.

OTheHugeManatee · 08/08/2011 11:03

Sounds like I'll just have to grin and bear it then

Agree with Thumbwitch about 'ordeal' in the meeja though. 'Shock' is the same. And 'tot' for a small child is just uuuurgh.

OP posts:

Funk · 08/08/2011 11:11

A gracious loser, that's what we like. Tragically there's not enough of them.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 08/08/2011 11:43

I'm on the fence, actually. I don't think it's wrong to use the word 'tragic' for things that are accidental. Language usage does change. But I agree with the OP that overuse of any word sometimes cheapens it and makes it lose power. Like 'amazing'.

SarkySpanner · 09/08/2011 22:39

Awesome :)

TrillianAstra · 09/08/2011 22:47

Reminds me of Celebrity Watch in the Times on Steps reforming.

Although absolutely gungo-hojo for such a project, CW is aware of the potential pitfalls of bands reforming after a significant time apart and hopes the whole thing doesn?t end in Tragedy.

(Because Steps are famous for doing a cover of Tragedy, and CW would prefer it if they played it farther up the set ? ending on ?5, 6, 7, 8? instead.

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