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

(Halfway saying the quiet part out loud.)

Not funny
Find another way of making your joke unless you really enjoy making people feel terrible. In that case nothing I say will matter.

there are a lot of violent, domineering figures of speech we should really be more conscious about before tossing them off. i was thinking the other day about the corporate word "spearhead." like, imagine using that in a meeting with a native american attending. awful.

just use a direct word or phrase instead of opting for the war or sports metaphor every time imo

Thank you! I agree 100%

It’s the least people can do to try to remove violent imagery from casual conversation

A friend of mine used the term "crypto creatives" to describe two friends of hers and I will not let her hear the end of it.

― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Sunday, January 9, 2022 7:00 AM (three hours ago)

as in they are secretly creative? Or they seem creative but you can't quite figure out how? .... or, as in they specialize in making NFTs?

xp
yes was reminded of this when during the Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal cup game earlier the commentator said when the lower league Forest were on the verge of defeating Arsenal that this would be "another famous scalp for them".

wow that's truly awful. I'd like to think you'd be unlikely to hear that in N. America but idk

The only good thing about crypto enthusiasts is that the word cryptofascist was already at hand

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJkgJFiXoAAb0Q7?format=jpg&name=small

haha it me

When people say that someone's career (for example) "spanned three decades" if it lasted from, like, 1989 to 2000. OK, it spanned three decades - who cares? Just say it lasted twelve years. Or "over a decade". Spanning three decades could mean anything from 12 to 30 years and thus is a useless phrase.

That's journalese for 'please admire this person who agreed to let me interview them'.

Assume the decade-spanning person in question is Mr. Loaf?

"hopium"

30 years you'd span 4 decades

Well, it's true that 30 years can span four decades (e.g. 1965-1994) but what I meant was that the maximum amount of time that the phrase "spanning three decades" can describe is 30 years (e.g. 1970-1999).

And yes, this irritation was inspired by a CBC radio news report of Mr. Loaf's passing.

at the end of a meeting saying "thanks that's really helpful"

nothing particularly offensive about this it's just become a placeholder meaningless thing to say

"i appreciate you" is a total platitude at this point ... kinda wish we could all just go back to "thanks" as it has fewer syllables and takes less time to say

The latest, and possibly all-time worst, new word from the SF writing world - Squeecore. Hopefully its shelf-life will be mercifully brief.

I have recently heard people use "solve for" in non-math contexts, where the more appropriate word would be "solve" or "address" or even just simply "write."

Like, what we're doing is technical writing, not algebra. Someone points to a bit of content that hasn't been written yet and says "hey, Jane, do you think you can solve for this?"

Um, can I just write it instead?

Don't get me started on "solution" as a verb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw40yqSZP6g

Don't get me started on "solution" as a verb

things I wish I were even older when I realized they existed

xp - I can totally imagine all these technocratic biz coinages being used in the service of Hitlering

'anniversary' includes 'year'

stop saying things are a ten-year anniversary when they're a tenth anniversary

feel like this goes back to junior high when couples had 'two-month anniversaries'

"rest in power"

i’ve never heard “solution” as a verb. however i HAVE heard “solutionize”…… which is actually a more useful word than it think!! it means “frame the problem in such a way that you’ve already suggested the solution” and let me tell you computer programmers and digital product people HATE this

it = you

fp

fair

"Off-ramp," as in looking for one. Heard it applied to both the Ukraine (numerous times) and Kamala Harris the past couple of days--been around for a while, I know, but its moment may have arrived.

"Cocaine is a helluva drug"

Cocaine explains nothing, least of all artistic choices. This construction is lazy and preposterous.

<i>stop saying things are a ten-year anniversary when they're a tenth anniversary</i>

you want to come to me and my GF's sixth monthiversary party?

or to put it another way, your first demianniversary

"Cocaine is a helluva drug"

Cocaine explains nothing, least of all artistic choices. This construction is lazy and preposterous.

it's been a decade and a half but iirc the speaker is describing behavioural choices rather than considered artistic expressions

also the editing means that the text is describing the speaker's mindset, rather than endorsing his statement?

ready for the sarcastic use of "totally normal stuff here" to meet its maker

"He's won three Grand Slams"...no, he's won three of the competitions that constitute part of a single Grand Slam, I THINK YOU'LL FIND.

"We may be finished with/tired of the virus, but the virus isn't finished with/tired of us." Makes an important point, but kind of loses something the nine millionth time you've heard it.

"not a problem" seems to be a new favourite of call centre staff, used in place of "ok", "right", "good", "thanks" and "you're welcome".

We teach ours not to say that, lol.

Mostly because yes, everyone wants to say it reflexively

It always bugs me when waiters say "No worries" or "Not a problem" when I decline their efforts to upsell me something I don't want.

I say "my pleasure" even if the task is not, in fact, pleasurable.

Sometimes if I'm feeling extra I will say "glad to be of service."

Lol "my pleasure" is mine. It's helpful too because if someone was really annoying and thanks me for their help, I can go to these two words fast and hide my disdain.

I'm gonna start saying 'fair enough' at everyone

call center employees can't win, they aren't allowed to use slang and then get dinged by customers for sounding like they're reading off a script or being robotic.

we allow ours to be a bit more 'human', just as long as they don't spend 10 minutes talking about , like, Seinfeld or something.

the reason I was told not to use "no problem" is it seemed too informal and the word "problem" had a 'negative connotation', and then we were adding another negative word 'no' in front of it (yeah, dumb logic, but....it's what it is)

I once listened to a call where the rep tried to help the customer name her new baby and was giving the worst, most stupid suggestions.

f. hazel otm

the reason I was told not to use "no problem" is it seemed too informal and the word "problem" had a 'negative connotation', and then we were adding another negative word 'no' in front of it

Yeah, sounds about right... a bunch of suits who are into NLP suggesting the dumbest bullshit imaginable. Some poor customer just wants to know why their laptop screen has a bright red vertical line down one side and the managers are telling us not to use any negative words like "can't" or "broken" while refusing to replace the LCD panel.

When I was a QA manager at a call center (I listened in on techs to see if they were doing OK) one guy used to just call his online girlfriend and chat with her for hours and hours at a time. I was so impressed with his gall I just told him not to do it anymore instead of formally busting him.

"Between you and I"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG_Avdsdd-o