I'm seeing that backsliding, too, and appreciate your bringing it up. So many new issues have come up, such as what pronouns people prefer, that they seem to have crowded out some of the basics.

A problem I've noticed in the U.K. is that the Guardian and BBC are becoming Americanized and picking up on U.S. sins. The more conservative media are doing better at resisting language fads.

Charles Moore, the former editor of the Telegraph, took aim at the word "learnings" (after the BBC used it) in a recent Spectator column that helped to inspire my recent piece on the "Worst Words of 2023." I read his column and thought, "Oh, no. This word has now crossed the Pond." I'd thought you heard it only in America.