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

Ireland wouldn't function without it

sick to fuckin death of "this is the worst of all timelines", "in this reality [among others]" etc - devoid of meaning and trying to sound sophisticated/wry.

What about 'the best of all possible worlds'?

i dunno as long as there are Panglosses among us we're gonna need that one

tired of the inability of people to simply do things; instead, they have to verb their way to things

I have a deep-seated hatred for the word ‘bespoke’ - it really grates on me for some reason.

I've come to accept it as one of those Britishisms I'll never entirely wrap my mind around. See also: fortnight.

I'd have an easier time with the latter if it were 'fortnights' fwiw.

it's not difficult, a fortnight is two sennights

Now the scales have fallen from my eyes.

the only thing worse than bespoke about is to not bespoke about

It's a term from Old/Early Middle English, for which some speakers the plural of night was (roughly) "nighte" and not "nights" so: fourteen night and seven night.

'homebody'

It doesn't exactly annoy me, but every time I read or hear the phrase "white supremacist" it strikes me as tonally wrong. The 'supreme' part of it sounds far too positive. I can imagine that for people potentially attracted to this shit it could even sound appealing. Is there a better word to use? Or is this just down to people being scared to say "nazi" or "fascist"? "Racist" obviously is nowhere near strong enough.

isn't fascism positive? what's wrong with uniting people and thereby giving them strength?

yes, lots of people like that idea, but the word itself is tainted

I'd argue white supremacy has become tainted also

for my imaginary edgy teenager who is flirting with joining the alt-right, it's not anywhere near as tainted.

you're saying no self-respecting fascist would call themselves or even consider themselves to be a fascist?

no, I'm not saying that at all

I've misunderstood you

Growing tired of people saying everything surprising/that tests the limits of credulity is “wild”
- clearly a substitute for ableist “crazy”
- rarely genuinely wild
- yes this is a petty gripe
- still, watching the adoption and spread of “wild” as it makes its way from prestige users (AOC for example) to the average person.

I’m already embarrassed about having griped about this word
Wild!

when people say “i feel like …” followed by something they cannot possibly feel like, e.g. “i feel like too much sugar is bad for you”. no. you don’t feel like this at all.

I hear "I feel like" about fifty times a day now, I say it too.

Following up on the fortnight/sennight mentions upthread, I was reading some 17th century trial testimony and they repeatedly say "twelvemonth" instead of "a year" which is interesting.

The whole substitution of "I feel that X is so" for "My opinion is that X is so" has been around since I was young and it irritated people back then, too.

iirc people who use this sentence construction are likely to be "hands-on" learners? So if someone instead says "I hear that too much sugar is bad for you", they would prefer auditory learning techniques? I'm sure I read that somewhere once.

when people say “i feel like …” followed by something they cannot possibly feel like, e.g. “i feel like too much sugar is bad for you”. no. you don’t feel like this at all.

feelz before realz, amirite?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=793630104424865&set=a.350332562087957&type=3&theater

I love this so much

The phrase that I hate with a simmering rage atm is "It has recently come to my attention..." like who are you? Principal of a private school? It is like a BBcode suffix for [santimony]

*er, [sanctimony]

or the overuse "The opportunity to," i.e. "I would like the opportunity to discuss your grade before kicking your shins."

People seem to use "twelvemonth" to refer to any consecutive twelve-month span -- what businesspeople call "year-over-year" or sometimes "YoY" -- instead of saying "year" which is easily taken to mean a January-to-December year.

all these online articles are saying "I feel like" is a millennial thing but aimless otm that it's been around a lot longer than that. I overuse "like" everywhere. I don't really care because I kind of like it.

January-to-December is a calendar year. Distinct from school years and fiscal years.

Any twelve-month period? I would find another way to express it than "twelvemonth."

Happily, "no worries" has largely seemed to dissipated. I hope it's because it's a dopey expression and not because people are generally worrying more

'I'll pencil you in.'

An old-timer I've known a long time at the university asked me about a decade ago when did people replace "I think" with "I feel"? If he wanted to hippy-punch, I wouldn't have stopped him.

Oftentimes when I read the prefix to a sentence "Sadly," it is not deployed to indicate any sadness at all, but as a signpost for the author's malicious glee at the following list of their target's shortcomings. "Sadly, his results have not improved" that's right your idiot boy is repeating grade six lol

I mentally substitute 'distressingly' or 'grievously' for 'sadly' whenever I come across it.

If I were a teacher I'd be real about it: "It is with delicious pleasure that I have, in Maths, given your Nigel a failing grade."

Happily, "no worries" has largely seemed to dissipated. I hope it's because it's a dopey expression and not because people are generally worrying more

― i could chug a keg of you (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, October 4, 2019 10:44 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not so sure—I still hear it everywhere and TWICE in the past month I've had a phone tech / customer service person from south asia conclude w/ "No Worries" and it took everything I had not to say, hey, I know you mean the best and you are busting your ass in a second language but *please* don't pick up that habit, A) I wasn't worried and B) it sounds like you think you did me a favor or something when in fact I've lost my entire afternoon to your company's shit service

ok this may belong in the IA thread for me

I find "no worries" is tossed around a lot more when it's an international group of people.

isn’t it an Australian thing

you people are so irritable

my pleasure

you're welcome

I'm happy to help

don't mention it

so many good options!

srsly lads

At least once a year I combine "my pleasure" and "no problem" into "my problem" or "no pleasure"

I hear a lot of people saying it (and inserting it when they don't typically use it) when speaking to other nationalities. It's like, a safe space of phrase.

'no pleasure' is very trumpian.