UKH

Why has misuse of this word entered common parlance? Even on the BBC the newsreaders talk of the Epicentre of the Chinese Corona virus. Why? Have they discovered that the virus originated deep in the bowls of the earth and the nearest point to it on the Earth’s surface is a Chinese City?

Surely that's the definition in seismology/geology, the common use definition would be "the absolute centre of something".  So the news are using the word correctly 

No the Epicentre is definitely not the absolute centre, that would be plain boring sounding “centre” . The very definition of Epicentre means that it is some distance from the actual centre. The incorrect common use has only evolved because Epicentre sounds more dramatic than centre

It seems a tad churlish to be so irate that a words usage has evolved. Perhaps you should go climbing and calm down a little

Errr. This forum is for non climbing debate, like the pub after climbing? I’d be happy to entertain you with lots of climbing banter on the other forums if that would help you to calm down?

I'm calm, thank you for worrying though.

Back to your misunderstanding of word evolution, a quick google seems to confirm that there is in fact a common definition and a scientific definition.

More to the point, the common definition doesn't simply mean the geographic or positional centre point, rather the focus of activity or the point most closely associated. E.g. it may be claimed, with some justification, that Sheffield has at times been the epicentre of UK climbing, though I'm pretty sure it's never been notably central in any geographic sense. 'Epicentre' carries an implication that 'centre' by itself cannot as easily convey.

Lots of phrases take on a meaning of their own. If you want to get upset about one  how about 'meteoric rise'? Surely it should be a meteoric plummet?

Are you not just pointing out that the usage Kevin's annoyed about has become commonplace?

OK, there isn't much point in getting worked up about it, as language does evolve - but he did say that in his original post.

And epi- means above, doesn't it? I don't think that really works with the Sheffield thing.

Grammar hasn't evolved Kevin

Signed Disghusted of TW

Surely it should be "bowels of the earth".

A. N. Other Pedant

I was pointing out that his suggested replacement - centre - would often not do the job as well as epicentre. Also, once the meaning of a word starts evolving, the logic behind its etymology often becomes redundant.

As commonly used, epicentre does indeed have a secondary sense - it means I’m the sort of person who is happy to use words without understanding their meaning.

Meteoric rise is pretty shoddy too.

If you never allow a meaning to evolve do you still use, for example, 'awful' in its original definition of 'magnificent and awe-inspiring' rather than the modern day usage as 'very bad'? It could lead to some embarrassing misunderstandings.

sorry, that is just plane rong.

The Meteor amazed people at the time and was the first British jet to see air to air combat tho it didn't meet the German Whooshie 262 I believe.

To see one whoosh up into the ayr without benefit of propelling things was truly a big thing

Hmm. Can't be very reassuring to know you are flying round in an aircraft named after something best known for crashing and leaving huge craters

That’d be a meteorite - this thread is becoming a bit tangential isn’t it  

It would have worked well in the 80's when everyone trained in callars.

To me the word epicentre conveys the sense of where an earthquake's seismic waves spread out from, so it works well metaphorically for Wuhan.

I get similarly irritated by use of the word 'ecosystem' to describe product ranges   Fair grips me shit, it does.

T.

This is a fabulous thread, then again perhaps not!

Ecosystem can be fine when it is appropriate metaphorically. The one that really irrirates me is "in the DNA" when it clearly not something inherited from anywhere.

Pet hate of mine: "(the noise) ... rose to a crescendo", the acoustic equivalent of "(the vehicle)... speeded up to an acceleration". 

I was listening to someone on the radio recently, he using geography and geographies instead of place and places.  Don't know if it's valid, but I found it incredibly irritating, can't remember what he was talking about.

"Get airborne, up with the wheels, hold it low until you were about 380 knots, pull it up and she would go up, well we thought then, like a rocket"

Norman Tebbit's opinion of it seems to justify "Meteoric rise" as a comparison with this aircraft

Don't get me started on 'decimated'.

As I've said before, "optics " means stuff like lenses , not the outward appearance of a socio-political situation. 

But that's not the actual meaning. The epicentre is the point on the surface above the actual centre.

I understood the Epicentre to be in Ambleside - I thought at first you'd had bad service there. My mistake

Epicentre in this current context simply means the centre of the epidemic.

exactly - the Centre.  nuff said.

We seem not just to like plastic packaging but also linguistic packaging, giftwrapping "spade" instead of just saying it.

OP's complaint seems to stem from the obscure geological point that earthquakes do not originate at the epicentre but at the hypocentre. Luckily this is totally irrelevant to the majority of humans who do not live deep in the bowls [sic] of the Earth.

I think epicentre is rather apt for this outbreak because it implies that the location is both the origin and the place where the effects have been most severe (a bit like climbing in Sheffield?).