Satiated, 24/7, Gin and Ginger, Escalate and Triage

Satisfied, Satiated 

This one has been around for some time, even if it remains rare. Amanda Marcotte, of the New Republic (and you'd think that such a august publication would correct this): "I think that a lot of the people that pressured him into this bombing are not going to be satiated by that. I don’t think Benjamin Netanyahu is going to be satiated."

Satiated as fancy for 'satisfied.' 

Building with Opening Hours

I've heard this twice in the past year.  A fairly ingrained way of speaking is: 'The corner shop is open 24/7', meaning that the shop is open twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week. The slight mis-perception leads a speaker to say: 'The corner shop is open 24 by 7'. A mild confusion with speaking of a standard lumber size as 'two by four' (in the UK: 'four by two'). I say it's a mild confusion because you can then ask, of the lumber, 'And how long is it?'; whereas there is no analogous question about the shop. 

Gin and Ginger

I heard Laura Kunnsberg saying that Labour wants to "ginger up" their voters. I've always thought that the expression is to "gin up" the voters. You can see the meaning of "ginning up": They want to get their voters feeling good (as if getting them drunk). The meaning is lost with "gingering up" the voters. 

'Escalate', 'Triage'

This might be only a remark about me (hypersensitive me). I'm not all sure of this. As far as I know, and strictly speaking, these words are not used incorrectly, by and large. But I feel their use is strange, at least by people interviewed on the radio, the internet or the teevee. First, the average listener is probably vague on the meaning of the terms. Second, I'm not confident that the interviewee really knows these words, or could 'define' them (especially in the case of 'Triage'), explain what they mean by the words. Third, the words -- again especially 'triage' -- are used in highly specific contexts (a overworked medic's decisions about who to treat etc., going on urgency and other factors), to sound important, a bit insider's technical talk. And to 'escalate' almost always sounds bad as intended by the interviewee, not only implicitly importing ideas of warfare but that the act referred to is unjustifed. But the word carries no such meaning -- escalation is sometimes right and justifed. Together, these points suggest that these words should not be used (in the context of the news etc.); their use is a recipe for miscommunication.