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

Four Words: Use Other Words Please
"Use other words please."
Commonly used phrases that inexplicably bug you
Most irritating cliche/phrase/expression
"Taking Things to a Whole `Nother Level!"
words that annoy
Words that should earn the author a slap
PROVERBIAL and other tip offs to poor writing

-- caitlin (wpsal...) (webmail), December 23rd, 2003. (caitlin)

Oh yes, yes yes. I second that one. And the people who say it, say it over and over.

I also have a horror of people who write prolifically in all caps.

This is true.

But, this is a topic that should be dealt with routinely and harshly... the only way we can correct the language and suppress it's organic growth is by exposing and banning every new usage as it occurs... Isn't that what the French do?

Also: 'fridge,' girls who refer to each other as 'girl,' proactive...i'll be back when i think of more....

'poetic justice'. Used by the lazy to describe all 'justice' the speaker approves of, instead of a particular type. The adjective is rendered meaningless.

Agree re 'bird' for woman/girl, and lament its threatened return. Stinks of 'I'm being un-PC, where's my medal?'. Also the C-person uses it, which kinda ends the argument.

Wait, huh? Fridge is the thing you put food in, whats wrong with it?

I'm picturing him saying things such as "Would you like me to remove another beverage from the refrigerator for you, whilst we watch some association football?"

punching old

99% of the time doesn't make particular sense in the context just like some compulsive content-free pejorative

language must be liberated from notions of content asap

"Doggo"

Also "very good boy"

14/10 heckin' good post

my puppo just done a bork

this is precisely the point of it
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Tuesday, November 5, 2019 8:27 AM (one hour ago)

how so? the point appears to be "acting like a self-satisfied older neoliberal is obnoxious and due for many of our current problems" not "let's call anyone annoying us a boomer" - it's like an even dumber bye felicia.

and responsible for* etc u get the pt

"give your head a wobble"

customer reps reassuring me with gentle words not to worry, as though I had called them in panic rather than exasperation.

https://i.imgur.com/N9PJi9a.png

I think that "don't worry" in that context is code for "please do not yell at me like everyone else does".

Shoot, is it? Too late.

Not sure I hate it, but lately the thing where people reply 'That's okay' to 'Thank you' is really tickling me:

CASHIER: 'That's £5.95, and here's your change'
CUSTOMER: 'Thank you'
CASHIER: 'That's okay'

FRIEND 1: I just got accepted for an amazing dream job!!
FRIEND 2: Wow, congratulations, that's brilliant
FRIEND 1: Thank you
FRIEND 2: That's okay

SUPERMAN: 'Here are the baddies to put in prison'
MAYOR: 'The city is safe again! Thanks Superman'
SUPERMAN: 'That's okay'

...and here's why

Been around for ages now but this use of "do a ____" in an attempt at being winsome is just awful and needs to stop (I did a cry, you are doing a frighten, &c)

"did a racism"

Knock yourself out

'Like', that fatuous word sticking out like a sore thumb in conversational English. It's like killed American podcasts for me, like, the word just pops up like every five seconds. I used to think littering sentences with 'like' was solely an American thing, but last time I was in England I heard it quite a lot?

My podcast bugbear is Americans starting an answer with "So" and ending it with "right?"

Starting an answer with "So" is just what politicians et al do in the UK these days.

'Like' has been a thing in UK and US English forever really and I'm guilty of it myself. But there's a certain tone to a lot of podcasts that amplifies it, definitely

"So" used to annoy me as the classic opener for broadsheet columnists and Guardian letter writers ("So Celebrity X claims..." etc). As the beginning of an answer to a direct question it just signals to me that evasion will follow.

State of this, state of that...

Screw 'so', go 'hwæt' or gtfo.

one of my supervisors does the "so..." opening to a "...right?" closing for nearly every sentence uttered. one of those things where once you notice it, it's very distracting and grating.

Chicken cacciatore.

No idea why.

across from the medical center

Been around for ages now but this use of "do a ____" in an attempt at being winsome is just awful and needs to stop (I did a cry, you are doing a frighten, &c)

"did a racism"

― Sam Weller, Monday, November 18, 2019 9:08 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah these are really bad but I think widely mocked for what they are, infantile regression... see also 'doggo,' 'heckin,' etc.

'Like', that fatuous word sticking out like a sore thumb in conversational English. It's like killed American podcasts for me, like, the word just pops up like every five seconds. I used to think littering sentences with 'like' was solely an American thing, but last time I was in England I heard it quite a lot?

― Le Bateau Ivre, Monday, November 18, 2019 11:57 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

creeping americanization.

i mean, like, i say like a lot, but i have been living with canadians for 7 and a half years. british people in britain should not be saying like

As an American I can say that saying “like” totally rules

Everyone should do it

Probably have said this before, but using BCE/CE rather than BC/AD is some shit-eating namby-pambyness. First of all, "common era" is a meaningless phrase. Secondly, if you want to pretend your dating system has no connection to Christianity, maybe start it in a different year.

stuff it, sick of seeing BC/AD still in 2019 CE, they're in different languages even.

Guess I could start using the Hebrew calendar exclusively tho

xp Fair enough, except that those abbreviations don’t say merely “Jesus,” which would be okay...they say “lord” and “Christ”

I’m happy to start writing “BJ” and “HJ” (for “h’after Jesus”)

lollll

Indeed quality of life has truly declined over the millennia

Secondly, if you want to pretend your dating system has no connection to Christianity, maybe start it in a different year.

Yeshua ben Joseph didn't start in that year either, but our commonly-agreed era of dating did

I thought this was some kind of criticism of Jdate before I scrolled up

Yeshua ben Joseph didn't start in that year either, but our commonly-agreed era of dating did

Even for you, sic, this is feeble trolling.

*wipes brow* lucky I wasn't trolling then!

(obv the dating didn't actually start that year either)

Lived in blissful ignorance of this crime against the English langauge until this Joshua v. Ruiz fight tbh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing

Such and such an artist/album 'slaps' is a construction I'll happily see the back of.

'We need to talk about... [ultra-niche, super-ephemeral, almost certainly insignificant cultural moment]'

“slab”

slab?

scottish labour?

Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here

to be clear I was saying "slab," not objecting to it