Raising concerns.

Concern is classic journalese to describe any degree of worry. Everyone, everywhere is concerned about something. A quick search of Boston Globe archives turns up 39,000 hits. Of course, some of those may refer to a business or company. Our Journalese Dictionary’s definition of concerned is: “Somebody’s worried. Vince Filak found that concerned citizens are usually loud people who showed up at something.” Our definition of concerns is: “When not referring to companies, it means worries, ranging from red tides hurting Maine’s clam bed to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into Taliban hands.” Worry, meanwhile, has at least 30 synonyms in Synonyms.com, from anguish to worriment.

As this is written, New Englanders, as well as much of the east coast of America, is concerned about the snowstorm, which, of course, is brutal and punishing. But that doesn’t prevent concern about other important subjects, as illustrated in a Jan. 3, 2017, story in The Boston Globe sports section: “For all the concern revolving around the Patriots’ offense, it might surprise some fans that this year’s unit has scored more points than its Super Bowl-winning counterpart did in 2016.”

File under: Worry? Who, me? I’m just concerned.

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