Here's another interesting UK/US distinction, prompted by one of Kalleh's remarks in another thread. She wrote: "Normally I use American verbiage..."

Now to me "verbiage" is a pejorative term; it means the excessive use of words, prolixity, using lots of unnecessary jargon. I'm quite certain that Kalleh wouldn't have used this term to describe her own writing - she's normally a model of clarity!

But when I checked I found there was a secondary meaning in the US: "the manner in which something is expressed in words". Wiktionary has the following usage note: "because of the pejorative connotation of the primary definition of 'verbiage' it is preferred to use 'diction,' 'phrasing,' etc. to describe the manner in which something is expressed in words".

I certainly wouldn't use "verbiage" in this sense. Is it common in the US?

Well, obviously I do, but I am betting the U.S. linguaphiles/logophiles here don't like this use.

We've discussed this before, in 2003. For the Record, the OED Online gives two definitions for the word:

quote:

1. Wording of a superabundant or superfluous character, abundance of words without necessity or without much meaning; excessive wordiness.

2. Diction, wording, verbal expression.

The first definition, the one I learned in high school, is attested from a1721. The second is attested from 1804.

As I said in 2003, "Verbiage is hot air, BS, verbal diarrhea. A verbose person talks a lot and says little."

I don't remember that discussion from 2003 at all. I don't tend to use "verbiage" to mean "wordiness," so I don't know what the heck I was talking about. I guess I'd disagree with you Tinman, at least in 2011!

We've been here a long time, haven't we?

I don't think of it as meaning verboseness, but then I don't agree with Rush Limbaugh's definition of "liberal" either.