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

'That's cringe' is cringe as an adjective not a noun?

we already did this tom

cringe has been a noun since like 1600

probably earlier since turning verbs into nouns is like eng lang trick one

we have NOT done this, mark!

"that's cringe" could be both adjective and noun or either/or. but lately, more and more, it is used as a noun

one cannot deny the increase in the use of the word "cringe" in all ways recently

every time I post in this thread I set off a grenade

yes, you have the best ratings, just tremendous

like you FB i tend to think it's noun not adj in the formula under discussion hence said so upthread = "we've done this tom" to tom, plz pay attention in the very bad thread

mark otm!

xp more and more, people are saying this!

I don't post often. But when I do? Get the sawdust out

Am I the only person below the age of 30 who is familiar with the phrase "second banana"?

You're the only person below the age of 30.

hate when sports media ppl get lazy and say “number one” instead of “first round”

xp tfw children of men 😔

there's a sports media story today on which hockey players are 'most unique' and i had to restrain myself

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/b6/75/dab6756c5f15759ac87100e772097254.gif

in re: cringe. it is getting play because it is new and different. it will fade soon because it will become old and overdone. then we can move on to the newest cringe-inducing slang.

Seems like every new response to Covid-19 is "a potential game-changer" - I'm starting to suspect that this phrase just means that they've found another way to make disaster capitalism work in their favor, because the game of actually saving people's live isn't changing all that much.

there's a sports media story today on which hockey players are 'most unique' and i had to restrain myself

if a person by some criteria is one in ten thousand and another person by some different criteria is one in a million, the latter is arguably more unique. you'd expect to hear this from a sportscaster, since they spend all their time ranking athletes according to arbitrary criteria.

if a person by some criteria is one in ten thousand and another person by some different criteria is one in a million

unique means one of a kind, not one in some finite number. use 'unusual' or some other more suitable term

there's a bit in the radio version of Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge when he is interviewing an immensely annoying child prodigy who corrects him on his use of "unique" and I have never been able to listen to complaints about it without hearing him saying "one cannot have gradations of uniqueness, one either is, or is not unique" - for this reason I have never corrected anyone on this in my decade and a half teaching English.

LOL that is a classic episode.

Cringe as an adjective is a pretty decent playful shortening of cringeworthy, which feels rather old fashioned, no? Having said that, I heard an American politician on the news earlier describe the current situation as "troublesome" and even "worrisome", both words that I feel must be on their way out, esp. the latter; I can't imagine anyone here in the UK using it.

Troublesome will be around for a while yet.

there's a bit in the radio version of Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge when he is interviewing an immensely annoying child prodigy who corrects him on his use of "unique" and I have never been able to listen to complaints about it without hearing him saying "one cannot have gradations of uniqueness, one either is, or is not unique" - for this reason I have never corrected anyone on this in my decade and a half teaching English.

lol, yes me too. Whom!

unique means one of a kind, not one in some finite number. use 'unusual' or some other more suitable term

Uniqueness always has a context, otherwise everything would be unique. "Unusual" also doesn't work, only "more unique" conveys both the uniqueness in that context and the rarity of that uniqueness in a larger context. Also "unusual" has a lot of connotations.

Someone ought to tell that prodigy that a synonym for unique is singular. Consequently, to say "one is either is, or is not, unique" is equivalent to saying "one is either is, or is not, singular". However, by definition, one is always singular, therefore your statement contains a logical error. Take that, you snotty kid!

None of my posts are unique Worst TV adverts of the moment

xp IS! I meant "None of my posts is unique!"

Someone ought to tell that prodigy that a synonym for unique is singular. Consequently, to say "one is either is, or is not, unique" is equivalent to saying "one is either is, or is not, singular". However, by definition, one is always singular, therefore your statement contains a logical error. Take that, you snotty kid!

― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, April 21, 2020 10:47 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

If you listen to the episode you will find a very satisfying conclusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AknwHCIzhg

on the topic of disgraceful comma usage:

We talk on the phone, with Jamil calling from her home in Los Angeles, which she shares with her boyfriend, the musician James Blake and three friends.

yes, there is some ambiguity there, yet you seem to have figured it out.

i get annoyed when ppl take issue with hyperbolic use of "literally" (multiple times in this thread) esp when they say it's used to mean "figuratively" which it's not it's literally just an intensifier

& idc how well established it is now sneery use of "woke" is still gross & often seems to be a way for ppl to complain about SJW/PC culture w/o sounding like mail readers or alt right types

I'll have to encounter some of these before they begin to annoy me--haven't thus far.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-22-2020-1.5540906/covidiots-quarantinis-linguist-explains-how-covid-19-has-infected-our-language-1.5540914

"gross"

Dumb, quotidian things that apparently 'hit different', plz just fuck off.

these x times, where x is extraordinary, unprecedented, difficult etc

first responders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiuf8y7SHss

this song really do be hittin different in 2020 doe

first responders

Yes, I'm not fond of this either.

we could refer to firefighters, police, and emts collectively as firpolemts.

'in anger' to mean 'in earnest'

these x times, where x is extraordinary, unprecedented, difficult etc

"Amidst this clusterfuck" covers it better.

'in anger' to mean 'in earnest'

"I feel seen / feeling seen / I see you" must stop

xp I haven't encountered it too often but in tech "when x is used in anger" typically means used by real life customers not just devs and testers.

Don't look back in anger.

yes i've usually heard it in a UK tech context i.e. "in june we'll be in a position to start phase 2 in anger" or "once we start really coding in anger"

it would be funny as a throwaway, but it's become A Thing

I notice there's also a military expression 'fire in anger,' meaning to fire for real, not in practice. I wonder if that's where it originated.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fire_in_anger

I don't know who needs to hear this but