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

Aimless has the right of it: "built like a brick shithouse" simply means "very built." Built, that is, to the same degree that an extremely-built thing is built. What is more built than an extremely sturdy structure? Nothing. None builder. There is none more built. It also carries a message of reliability and substance and strength: She is mighty mighty.

It doesn't mean that she is rectangular or that you use her as a bathroom. Geez.

The song, I always believed, referenced the idiom but left out the "shit" for politeness and radio airplay, allowing the instrumental pause to stand in its place.

Plenty of idiomatic expressions don't make actual sense but they carry meaning in similar metaphorical ways, and are used as intensifiers even when nonsensical. Compare "___ as hell" or "___ as fuck."

Cold as hell and hot as hell make equal sense - not because the speaker knows or cares about the temperature of hell, but because ___ as hell means extremely ____. Lame as fuck, boring as fuck, etc.

But it's still got "shit" in it, and a reference to a place where you shit. Just not a very nice sounding compliment. There must be other well built things that would be preferable.

Unfortunately that's not how idioms work

what the shit is going on here

Built like a brick savings-and-loan building

You remember what it was like, living in one of Mr. Potter's shithouses!

I watched that for the first time in my life two days ago

merry christmas shithouse

the logs, the fire, fill me with desire

can I put in for "not to be that guy, but..."?

That needs to stop

"Cheeto Jesus"

Just saw "trial balloon" for only the second time in recent memory and I'd already like to see it banished

fire a rocket at the trial balloon

Shes built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B54E30hIAAIQJG3.jpg

"at a high rate of speed."

This phrase rates as one of the ones that uses a larger number of extra words - by which I mean, more words than it needs - to say the thing that it is trying to say.

It's for when "fast," "quickly," and "high-speed" are too concise.

It smacks of the artificial language of police reports, which has leaked into civilian use. "We observed an individual who was engaged in an altercation with another individual. We approached the gentleman, who initially eluded us. We pursued the gentleman on foot through an egress and into an alleyway, at a high rate of speed. We were later able to apprehend the individual." Etc.

loool

altercation is a hilarious word

I hate the name of the animal species 'Kinkajou'.

Yeah but "Too Shy" was a jam, admit it.

Speaking of police verbiage, I hate the use of "suspect" when it refers to someone obviously doing something.

"We interrupted and restrained the suspect as he was knifing the deceased victim."

You now hear witnesses in TV news clips use that phrasing.

"The alleged perpetrator appeared to be engaged in a knifing-related incident."

I suspect that is for legal reasons

altercation is a hilarious word

― marcos, Tuesday, February 7, 2017

ugh I hate it too

what's worse is when journalists repeat it. It's like, "No, dude – you don't get to repeat ridiculous police jargon; it's your job to translate it."

Thoroughfare

I feel like police reports should get Blackadder treatment.

"The suspect then contaminated a pedestrian passageway with unsanitary solid matter, creating an undesirable environment for civilians trying to negotiate the crosswalk."

'Are you saying he shat in the middle of the street?'

I don't like the fake neutrality of 'altercation'. It makes it sound like all of the parties were equally responsible for whatever happened.

maybe replace it with "donnybrook"

"The victim then shouted 'Gardyloo!' before emptying the contents of a bucket of slop out of his window. The slop accelerated until it came to rest upon the suspect's head. The suspect became quite agitated and began issuing a strongly worded challenge to the victim. The victim chortled, and insinuated he had inappropraite relations with the suspect's spouse and began to describe her genitalia in language inappropriate for these proceedings. That, Your Honor, is when the suspect reached for his revolver..."

i hate it when a new restaurant is referred to as a "concept", like "so and so's new seafood centric concept." i hate only slightly less references to a cocktail "program."

I prefer cocktail regimes

I prefer conceptual restaurants, like where you order the food but aren't allowed to eat it.

"so, so _________" (which i have seen exclusively online)

no need for so x2
why the comma?
cmon

^so, so much this

there is always a comma too
i'm kind of obsessed about how these things spread -- who is the person using this to such effect that so, so many people are adopting it? does it signify something? so, so unnecessary

phrases and things, it's fascinating how viral they become. i think i noticed it more in this past year. maybe especially in relation to the election season. which is why when Hillary used the word "deplorables" i think i felt a cold chill.

Can we blame Trump for this one, perhaps?

xp - language has always been like that, but the speed of proliferation is much faster. i am also obsessed with the various usages of "don't @ me" but that's another story. it's not annoying but it does interest me.

i doubt so, so has to do with him. trump has definitely ruined exclamation points, the word "sad", and message final exclamations. Wrong!

speaking of deplorables, recently my parents went to a wake and the people hosting it introduced themselves to my parents and said "we're deplorables!"
whoa

jeez...

i think my aunt changed her twitter name to include "deplorable". otm, tbh.

i've yet to hear the word "cuck" IRL.

using the word "practice" to make yourself sound rigorous and academic. i.e. instead of art "artistic practice" or instead of theatre "theatre practice"

theater practice is what we had after school on tuesdays + thursdays in sixth grade to get ready for the year end performance

"what i want to examine is the dialectics of actual soccer practice"

pretty sure that's "soccer praxis"

i hate in top chef & fancy cooking shows the way they repeatedly use "a little bit of" describe how their dishes are composed

"we have seared duck liver with a little bit of lime, a little bit of smoked sea salt, a little bit of sea urchin etc etc etc"

we can *see* that you didnt use a truckload of each of these things! quit modifying it all so incessantly

Or "simply!"

"Simply sous vide the cut for 12 hours, removing it from the bag every hour and a half to re-season it."

"Simply make a chiffonade of all of the different vegetables and roast them, turning them every 5 minutes until they are evenly golden-brown."

i will have a little bit of duck liver with gobs of lime, oodles of sea salt, and a butt-ton of sea urchin, please

Wish they'd say "an immoderate handful of" from time to time like normal ppl

today through the magic of twitter dot com i became aware of george takei using the word 'butthurt'

I am into ''practice'' where it has some relation to the ''practice of everyday life'' - recognizing that your job/calling/duty/ethics are not static things, but made up of countless little actions and choices, is super important to me. Also implies getting better at something, working towards something, trying an approach through doing... idk I think it's okay.