In terms of

‘One good term deserves another,’ said my husband in his infuriating way of almost making a joke. As he was talking to the wireless, it hardly mattered. His provocation, a serious one, I admit, was someone saying ‘in terms of’ when she meant no such thing. It is happening more and more, and my husband’s response is unvarying. It can’t go on.

If any meaning can be ascertained in the misuse of in terms of, perhaps ‘as for’ is the one often intended. Instead of saying: ‘As for a cheap holiday, you’ve left it too late’, people say: ‘In terms of a cheap holiday…’. There was a corker in a report last month in the Times-Picayune (of New Orleans) about beaches: ‘In terms of the United States, Louisiana was 20th in the country in terms of the weight of trash collected.’ The first example should have been blotted out; the second is bearable.