Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

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Re "language is fluid": yes it is, and its flow is ahem dialectically determined BOTH by those who make new words and wilful or ignorant mistakes AND those of us who like to complain and attempt to stem these changes!

― OleM (OleM), Saturday, 20 August 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

oh oh i forgot the only thing in the entirety of all galactic language formation which annoys me is the phrase "a cup of joe"

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 20 August 2005 09:59 (twenty years ago)

"community"

― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Saturday, 20 August 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

YO MAMA

I met a girl recently who always says this! I love her to death, but it's starting to annoy me!!! She always tries to make some kind of "mama" joke after it. oh..........

― Aja (aja), Saturday, 20 August 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

I wonder why?

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Saturday, 20 August 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

"...unless it isn't."

(in critical/cultural discourse following assertion "X is true...")

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 20 August 2005 12:45 (twenty years ago)

"...as it happens..."

(au courant journalistic convenience for making contrived conclusion read like casual observation)

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 20 August 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

it's rare to hear, but i'm unsually amused when people say "andaconda".

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 20 August 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

grammar nazis annoy the shit out of me

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Saturday, 20 August 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

"[anything] nazis"

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 20 August 2005 21:17 (twenty years ago)

Hi, I'm new. Living in New Jersey, there's a couple NJ-centric phrases that drive me nuts....

"Not for nuthin'"
When used as a preface, this can be translated as: "although my next comment comes unsolicited, please pay attention because it is germane to the topic at hand."
IE "Not for nuthin, but nobody wears acid wash jeans anymore."

"The City"
Referring to New York City
"You going into the city tonight?"

But the worst, which isn't just in NJ, is when people misuse the term "penultimate." It's not a larger, more powerful version of ultimate. You can't say, "Dude, Eruption is the penultimate guitar solo." Penultimate means second to last. So while you can say "There's only one burger left, I just ate the penultimate one," you cannot say "That burger is so good, it's the penultimate burger."

― Anyone For Newcomb?, Saturday, 20 August 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

On a modernist/postmodernist literary group I'm in, one person said that Tristram Shandy was 'the penultimate postmodern novel'. I asked him what the last one was.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 20 August 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

my father says "not for nuthin'" ALL THE TIME. usually preceding a smartass though well-meaning but ultimately mundane observation ("y'know, not for nuthin', but uh, it's 100 degrees outside and you're wearing JEANS!")

― joseph (joseph), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:09 (twenty years ago)

you people are completely uptight

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

"Not for nuthin'"

note: with Howard Stern being nationally syndicated for years, he's helped plenty of NY/NJ speech patterns spread across the land. This phrase is one of 'em.

― kingfish fucked up his login (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 21 August 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

People misunderstand "penultimate" as better than ultimate? What the hell?

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 21 August 2005 05:33 (twenty years ago)

The word "snarky" makes me sick. I also hate it when people say "whuuuut?" when they hear something that offends them. Then they'll call it "problematic."

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Sunday, 21 August 2005 05:42 (twenty years ago)

People misunderstand "penultimate" as better than ultimate? What the hell?

I think this is pretty common!

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 21 August 2005 07:08 (twenty years ago)

It's certainly spreading, yes.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 21 August 2005 07:47 (twenty years ago)

So is everyday-as-noun. Just means more knobs to line against the wall when the pedantariat seize power!

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 21 August 2005 07:57 (twenty years ago)

I'm all for being elastic with the language - I mean I love ee cummings and Joyce and the like - but really, completely misunderstanding the meaning of a word is just wrong.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 21 August 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)

the ultimate one = last one ever = you are sad after

the penultimate one = there is more to come which may be better = you are shivery w.hot anticipation = better than the ultimate one

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 August 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

QED

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 21 August 2005 08:41 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

"That's X hours of my life I'll never get back."

I can't tell whether this annoys me more because it's become a stupid cliche, or because I dislike thinking of aesthetic experiences (it's usually used in reference to movies) as wastes of time. The notion that a piece of art owes you something is particularly noxious to me.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

OTM. I hear this at least once a day and it makes me homicidal.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

"alot," unless you intended to say "allot" and you just misspelled it.

also, "so, therefore"

I know a guy who vehemently hates "kudos."

― emilys. (emilys.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

it's not suggesting it owes you something, is it? it's being pissed off that you made a stupid decision to go and watch some piece of shit film and you could've been doing something good.

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe no-one's mentioned the abuse of "in terms of" yet. It's become a plague; a catch-all solution for when people are too inarticulate to put two parts of a sentence together.

― Crackity (Crackity Jones), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

Give me an example of what you're talking about.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

fauxhemian OTM with "whatnot". I wince when I hear someone say it.

― Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

I briefly dated a girl who, instead of "whatnot," said "whatsuch." I think I thought it was cute at the time.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

My guess is that it would've gotten old if you'd kept dating. We have a couple of "value-added" guys in this office. They're lucky I don't carry a weapon.

― Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:11 (twenty years ago)

K THANX BYE

if its been mentioned upthread, it deserves mentioning again

― daavis sztaayenszz, Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

The inexcusable "copacetic" is still the stoner guy big vocab word.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:17 (twenty years ago)

Completely! My old perma-baked landlord would end off every conversation we had with it.

― Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

INEXCUSABLE! THERE IS NO EXCUSE!

― n/a (Nick A.), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 17:27 (twenty years ago)

"out and about" - I can't be bothered to check and see if it's been mentioned upthread.

― dan m (OutDatWay), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

" can't be bothered to check and see if it's been mentioned upthread."

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

oooh cutting

― dan m (OutDatWay), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

Sorry. I just don't really understand why some people can't use CTRL + F. It takes about as long to use as it does to type out the phrase "I can't be bothered to check and see if it's been mentioned upthread."

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

profiles of actresses that begin by saying "[X] is funny, smart..."

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

A girl I had a huge crush on used to say "Cool beans!" I momentarily fell out of love with her each time.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

I describe things as being "rubbish" far too often.

― Zoe Espera (Espera), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

'asshat' is just stupid. like a beacon for nerds to attract other nerds.

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

I'm amused by "asshat," though I am not an "asshat" user.
Here's what pissed me off today. It seems subtle—maybe I was just in a bad mood. A slightly shrill woman in the car parked next to me kept saying, in response to something her softer-voiced companion had said, "Not a problem!" She said it three times, and all I could think was, what she is really saying is YES IT IS A PROBLEM!!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 13 September 2005 22:38 (twenty years ago)

"Nosh" - such an unappetizing word.

― Markovitz, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

I used to think I got annoyed about stupid things

I will probably think I get annoyed about stupid things, again, at some point

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

radicalized.

― jeffrey (johnson), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

drinkin' from a bag

― Drinkin' From A Bag, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

Whenever I tell my mother that pizza is oily, she describes the cheese as "weeping." All I can think of when she says this is weeping sores. I find both usages gross and irritating.

― Laura H. (laurah), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

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