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?"

xps

Mmmm this can be a really important tactic to soften a question, if you are outranked by all the people you're presenting to. In fact a number of things noted here re teaching & facilitating are actually strategies to mollify & appear positive and unthreatening to listeners.

― Ima Gardener (in orbit)

It is, yeah. Thanks for articulating this, I couldn't quite get the right words for it. For me it's rarely a rank thing, more wanting/feeling a need to be deferential to clients. I worry that it comes off as lacking confidence, though, and I feel like lacking confidence probably comes off worse than being too 'forward'..? Guess it depends on industry/clients.

'jab' annoys me too.

But I hate learnings the most, learnings is the worst one.

I want to use this in a presentation some day:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/95/fc/a1/95fca1b5e282449ac701d93aeecb6e81.png

'jab' better than 'shot' imo. We get it, you like to shoot things

"Sick to my stomach" is one I really hate actually

‘Jab’ and ‘shot’ are both fine.

so much for the teaches of Peaches

people at my company say "learns" as a noun. I've never heard this before coming here. "What learns can we take away from today's training session?"

Canadian media constantly uses the phrase "top doctor" to refer to the chief public health officer of a given region. "Ontario's top doctor," "Canada's top doctor," etc. It's constant. It's this bit of conspicuous journalese, kind of like "shots in arms," that starts to grate really fast.

"Top soldier" has gotten popular as well.

The softening language discussion reminded me that about 6 months into the pandemic, my partner and I noticed we were both unfailingly saying "I think I might" instead of "I'm going to." So "I think I might go for a walk" while already putting on shoes, "I think I might have a beer" on the way to the fridge, etc.

We couldn't figure out how it started, but it probably was down to wanting to be less declarative with the only other person we were interacting with regularly (plus some kind of language-is-a-virus mutual reinforcement effect).

I do that a lot when I'm declining something.

"Do you want to come along?" "I think I might stay home this time."

How can you get learns if you don't make asks?

+1 on "learnings" - overused by several colleagues who want to sound 'with-it' and cool by dropping inane jargon

Also annoyed by the misuse of 'campus' - "Here at the Genentech Campus, we're solving today's blah blah..."

What they mean is bland business park and they should just admit it.

"learns" is so unnecessary I imagine the manager's child has been kidnapped and threatened with death should the manager ever say the word "lesson"

Ilx specific one but “thanking you”. It adds 3 unnecessary characters for the sake of doge-esque flare or something.

Some British people actually say that though

hmm idgi. Is it supposed to be an emphasis like "many thanks"?

‘Jab’ and ‘shot’ are both fine.

“get jabs into arms” is objectively awful tho, we have our own Dutch equivalent too

lol owned

otm

My best friend does ‘thx’ and it is the only irritating thing about her but mein gott is it irritating.

‘Jab’ and ‘shot’ are both fine.

Maybe you've been lucky enough not to hear 'jab' in every second sentence.

it's a word that means "person has been vaccinated against deadly pandemic" so it tends to make me happy as long as you don't call it "sticky thingy"

thx is gr8, thanking you is for wankers

ppl who say this are also most likely to call things "pants" ime

Maybe you've been lucky enough not to hear 'jab' in every second sentence.

Indeed. My current geographical location has no doubt helped.

No very good entries since tbh soz folx

I hate the word "the", do we really need it

Ilx specific one but “thanking you”. It adds 3 unnecessary characters for the sake of doge-esque flare or something.

― Evan, Thursday, February 25, 2021 9:35 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Some British people actually say that though

― kinder, Thursday, February 25, 2021 9:42 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is classic wee old woman in a shop patter when you pay for your morning roll and newspaper

Also annoyed by the misuse of 'campus'

What's weird to me is that the latin word 'campus' was ever chosen to represent the vicinity of a college or university. In latin it usually referred to a military encampment, although its oldest meaning was more like 'a relatively flat area of ground', which also happens to be the type of spot where you'd want to place a military encampment.

For "jab" let's just substitute "prick."

by all means, let's go Dutch!

(don’t think my lack of enthusiasm came across very well here)

"learns" is so unnecessary

It's February 2021 and a colleague just used this in an email: "Awesome-Sauce!"

That’s good not bad imo, especially in a professional context.

"amazeballs" is even worse

I was re-watching Kim's Convenience and it struck me how much you all must despise Shannon from that show

"cool cool cool"

"hustle and bustle"

especially in listings for apartments, spelled "hussle and bussle"

I just deleted this sentence from a report I've been asked to edit: "There are though a number of ways of structuring that body though and our ‘starter for ten’ approach will need further consideration."

I want to feel glee about deleting it but mostly I'm just annoyed it was even in there to begin with

My GF works for a big tech giant and says "Let's park that outside" is in common parlance these days.

"There are though a number of ways of structuring that body though and our ‘starter for ten’ approach will need further consideration."

OK, this sends what I thought was just a slightly twee conversational catchphrase into very strange territory. What the hell is that meant to mean? I suspect it wouldn't help much if I knew what kind of body we were talking about.

I think it translates as: "There are a lot of ways the landowners involved in this project can structure a partnership. Our report offers some options to consider."

"quote-unquote" followed by the thing you want to quote, which is by now outside of the quote marks and thus not quoted. Happy to see an example of this upthread!

that logic doesn't make any sense, quote-unquote is used the same way "said" is, at the beginning of the utterance that is its referent. this, for example, is not what we do in English:

The other day John said I'm going to the store said.

...although some languages probably do exactly that.

(object is probably a better term to use than referent there)

Inspired by reading this: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/mar/01/us-soccer-removes-seth-jahn-speech

“I’m sure I’m going to ruffle some feathers with what I’m about to say, especially given the athletes council that I’m on, but given the evolution of our quote-unquote, progressive culture where everything offends everybody" blah blah blah

He'd have been better off waggling his fingers in the air and affecting a sneer as he said it. Maybe he did that anyway, to be fair to the lad.

yes, it's often employed by jerks, it's just not syntactically problematic for an English utterance