There are a load of Christmas menus around now. A lot of them urge you to "pre-order" your meal. What does that mean? When you order a meal, you do that in advance of getting your grub - it's one of the preliminary stages. So what's the point of adding the prefix "pre"? "Pre-ordering" must be something you do before you order - i.e. choosing what you want to eat, or maybe signalling to the waiter that you're ready to order. In short, it has naff all to do with actually ordering the food. It's bad English.

And don't get me started on "pre-reserve"!