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

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?"

As used to describe a footballer running into a streak of good form

When used in phrases like "a raft of policies" or "a raft of new measures" - why?!?!??!!?

Or a colon.

COINKY-DINK, "guestimate," and any time someone ends an interrogative sentence with "at," as in "Where's my keys at?" or "Where's your head at?"

"hating on"

"Action" used as a verb. (Especially with regards to some annoying little thing I had already been doing.) "Can you please action this?" Actually, no I can't. Action is a noun. If you would like me to DO it, then just ask. Argh.

Especially when coming from the same irritating marketing bods who last week asked me to "manage the relationship" with one of our suppliers. Fuck. Right. Off.

A term of address directed at Turkish shopkeepers by 13 year old boys and directed by Turkish shopkeepers at everyone else. The most annoying ever.

DON'T MADAM ME, YOU LITTLE...!!! OK, according to Watching The English, this means that they have socio-status assessed me as middle class or higher. But it irritates me because it makes me feel old.

'Whilst'

that is how i perceive the terms in my own head— i recognize that it is only an opinion i have, and not necessarily anyone else’s feeling about the words

Maybe we should make a list of capitalist terms we should exclude from our vocabulary when discussing art…

this is reminding me of how in Jamaican media they often refer to anyone who performs or produces music as an "artiste"

Fucking yikes

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/magazine/goy-antisemitic-youth-slang.html

another banger from nitsuh!

interesting to see how that's getting pilloried on bluesky when you know a little bit about the author

how so?

I still hear lots of people talking about being "gypped" with zero awareness it's a slur, school-age kids saying "goyslop" with no real anti-semitic intent tracks

that doesn't make it any better!

xp I'm not sure if you mean how is it being pilloried or how is it interesting, but here is one post with a lot of replies: https://bsky.app/profile/joelhs.bsky.social/post/3mokwbo4kic2q

it's a NYT article, you're supposed to tear it to shreds online we just happen to know the author this time

xp Interesting in that nabisco is immediately subsumed into the NYT's lockstep agenda of mainstreaming ALL far-right ideas, including antisemitism.

I haven't been able to read the piece myself (archive not working for me right now), but I am sympathetic to Osita Nwanevu's critique that 2 interviews does not have much evidentiary weight. I don't know if that's addressed in the piece itself though

contrasting this column with the POV one ("A Whole Generation is using POV Wrong") is really. . . something

Interesting in that nabisco is immediately subsumed into the NYT's lockstep agenda of mainstreaming ALL far-right ideas, including antisemitism.

this is why I roll my eyes at the idea that the NYT has some kind of nefarious agenda that pervades all of its coverage. there are various tendencies and biases that I think are endemic to mainstream American journalism, and which thus get expressed instinctively by people who have internalized them. but it's also a staff of hundreds of individuals, and they're not all mindlessly repeating a set of AG Sulzberger's talking points.

stressing about the slang kids are using IS an endemic tendency of mainstream American journalism, and since it's usually not written by a linguist you can almost guarantee it'll be panicslop

and since it's usually not written by a linguist you can almost guarantee it'll be panicslop

And even sometimes when it is (cf. John McWhorter)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnI46gLSMnI

This is a good video on the subject (but don't watch his video about Israel/Palestine)

Can I still call myself the shabbos goy when doing dishes for my jewish mother-in-law?

"The Language Has Stabilized" is not a headline.

Journalism rule 272: The story needs to change.

"Situation Normal, Check Back Tomorrow" is also not a headline.

McWhorter (and Pinker) are examples of dudes who have written excellent books about linguistics and then... lost the plot in astonishing ways

Whereas Chomsky has held it together

a few months ago a friend of mine was talking about his least favorite Black public intellectuals— he is Black himself fwiw— and I asked about McWhorter, and he said “that Tom hasn’t ever been an intellectual” and we both cackled. (my friend is right)

McWhorter was a genuinely interesting, insightful & accessible linguistics writer, unlike Pinker who was always an egoist and a crank to some extent, and it's galling to see what a prick he is now.

Pinker was a popular teacher at a prestige university who started out with a few novel, minimally interesting ideas that excited his students to learn about linguistics which he then determinedly self-promoted into a reputation as a big thinker.

one of my tutors at university was in the same class as pinker and told me that he was like this even as an undergraduate

actually this was 2008 so I think she was the first person to tell me he was like this. she also advised against reading his books and said that Jackendoff was much better and covered the same ground

i am so smart i only like unpopular intellectuals— i call them Oxy-Morons

Jackenidoff

"addicting" in place of "addictive"

oh yes