What alternatives would you suggest? What are you willing to bet that they will stand the test of time without also becoming overused icons of language? "Reached out" at least has a warm diplomatic connotation so I personally don't mind it at all.
>What alternatives would you suggest?...
>"Reached out" at least has a warm diplomatic connotation...
What I also loathe about it is that, having thus been foisted upon us from nowhere [5 years ago I'd only ever seen the phrase in the Four Tops song], all of a sudden, all over the globe, people who have been quite happily "getting in touch with" others or "contacting" them are suddenly "reaching out" instead.
And, while you're all downvoting away. Just be aware that, in addition to the "reaching out" crime, my benevolent dictatorship is going to take a similarly flagellatory view of:
* Beginning the reply to a question with "So..."
* Using the word "super" instead of "very"
* Describing anything as "awesome" which does not meet an officially defined standard of awe-inducement
* Having entire conversations on social media, which consist entirely of fucking emojis.
* Using the phrase "I could care less about..." when you mean precisely the opposite.
[Phew! --that'll do for now. I think I need to lie down til that vein in my temple stops throbbing]
"Contacted" isn't the same as "attempted to contact" so you are semantically incorrect even though the syntax is well formed.
Despite the claims from some quarters, it wasn't what it wasn't; despite the hopes from other quarters, it won't become what it won't become.
Some want it to be what it was, while others want it to not become what it is.
Everyone can agree that it might or might not become what it is. All anyone can do is learn from what it was, understand what it is, and work to make what it will be what they want it to be.
It's obviously designed to imply so much more 'progression', 'improvement' and 'boldly striding into the future' than the wholly unambitious "from now on"
Where did I put that cat'o'nine tails?