'When push comes to shove' wise to abandon the cliché

This week's Sunday Independent carries an interesting piece on buzzwords and clichés in the English language.

The writer of the article, Dr Declan Collinge, lists 25 words or phrases.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin described their divorce as uncoupling.

Collinge explains how whistleblower became fashionable.

"The American activist, Ralph Nader, reputedly coined the epithet whistleblower in the 1970s as a substitute for informer/snitch. Since this term carried a pejorative association before that time, it is surley as politically as correct to use the term informant."

But does Collinge not get it wrong? At least in this part of the world informant also has a pejorative sense to it?