Madam, – My copy of the Oxford Dictionarywas printed in 1984, but it is mercifully free of newspeak, which in these days of vaunted pluralism monopolises management, media, politics and pulpit in the English-speaking world.
The dictionary records "oncoming", but, oh happy day!, not "ongoing" an ugly neologism which has completely erased "continuing" from printed matter. From the London Timesto An Phoblacht"continuing" is rarer than an Albigensian in the Vatican, or a Jesuit in the DUP.
Am I the only one repelled by the new usage or who finds it repulsive? Could I be the only one that is not persuaded of its greater attraction? Or the last not convinced that it is an improvement on what was, well into my middle age, standard and adequate usage?
– Yours, etc,