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'

Sarahell cf. this Threads discussion about "neurospicy" being racist

https://www.threads.com/@blackspectrumscholar/post/DN37osYD4ER

deedee ramone worked the intersection of 53rd and 3rd

I saw “iconicness” used in the newspaper the other day and was both horrified and in awe that someone had found a way to make the use of “iconic” worse.

There was only one Diane Keaton imo

But there were 2 Michael Douglases, which is why one of them is Michael Keaton.

Like, how about they say [insert artist here] works at the intersection of 72nd and 10th and leave it at that.

― henry s, Friday, August 21, 2026 10:46 AM (one hour ago)

lol this is a genuinely funny idea that I am going to lobby one of my artist or academic friends to use

― rob, Friday, August 21, 2026 10:38 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

don't forget that the intersection 9f 72nd and 18th is on native land.

well, iconicity has a more specific meaning that probably wouldn't work in that context

Tom Waits working the intersection of Heart Attack & Vine.

He's also got a second office on 9th & Hennepin.

hate the way that the kids are using the numbers 1-9 these days just horrible post irony usage of numbers

6.5 is at the intersection of …

Also, a "goat" used to be someone who made a blunder that cost his/her team the game

And a blunder like that used to be called a boner, cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle%27s_Boner

was a time you could read a whole book of boners

https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/667/045/1438045667.0.l.jpg

lol was reading about Dr. Seuss’s book of boners earlier this week https://www.avclub.com/dr-seuss-gordon-roseleip-olympic-mascots

Still more boners!

Uh you still can

https://www.elcorteingles.es/libros/A54515023-tom-of-finland-the-complete-kake-comics-45th-ed-tapa-dura/

Indeed. I’ve got the Taschen Tom of Finland XXL which is big in more than one way.

Hardback, I presume

imo “iconic” still carries a charge of its etymology as a pictorial representation, and/or as a symbol for something larger and more general

it tends to be performers - singers, actors, etc. - who get called “iconic” - they are people whose jobs are to be looked at. and among that group it’s the most visually arresting who get called iconic the most - david bowie, grace jones. they are iconic - they stand out in the mind, they are one of one.

you’ve also got stuff like YMP’s fender stratocaster - also “iconic” but this time largely because it stands in for a whole era and milieu of rock and roll. it may as well be the emoji for “rock music”. in this sense it is quite close to the religious meaning of the word!

you could have the same conversation about another pop culture superword (©️ frank kogan) - “anthem” which is now used for everything from bon jovi power ballads to shake it off. what makes them “anthemic”? the same thing that makes them iconic presumably - they are rallying points for vast groups of people, they are songs you return to again and again to summon feelings greater than yourself, they stand in for something larger.

Iconoclasm (mentioned upthread) does not believe it's wrong to worship just wrong to worship the image instead of the entity behind the image.

Venerating a saint = good

Venerating a picture of a saint = bad

Worshipping the creator = good

Worshipping the creation = bad

By this argument Led Zeppelin is a band and your liking of the band, its songs and albums, etc. is all well and good, but framing a t-shirt or putting up an altar with a rare pressing of a record is where you go wrong. Worship Diane Keaton, don't worship a napkin autographed by Dianne Keaton.

This line of thought had been used by Abrahamic religions to set themselves apart from what they regard as the pagan / primitive / superstitious practice.

Why worship an oak grove or a stone carving, when you can worship the entity that created every oak leaf and every stone? It is replacing the phyiscal object with the metaphysical abstraction that elevates religion above mumbo-jumbo. If Camille Paglia were here she would be describing this rhetorical move as Apollonian.

Tldr icon means likeness, not paragon.

I'd say the opposite:
Replacing the physical object with a metaphysical abstraction seems like a step down....

eh only if the object has responsive supernatural powers ime

Slowsquatch, yes me too, but in that instance I was ventriloquizing the POV of an evangelist.

Or, put another way,

https://i.postimg.cc/KYHsxnq0/F0Viwh-Ga-IAAHx-YL.png

Ah ok, now I get it...
Cartoon ripped pagan dude otm...

At least in the US, "less than" has completely replaced words like "inferior" in the speech and writing of the earnest Youth. This is weird to me. It's both agrammarical and unnecessary. What made it stick?

― lakini's juice newton (theStalePrince), Thursday, August 20, 2026 10:46 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've seen "less than" cropping up in recent years and was wondering if its current use originated from this scene in Wet Hot American Summer or evolved on its own.

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

in the US, "less than" has completely replaced words like "inferior" in the speech and writing of the earnest Youth.

There was an older locution "lesser than" which was used in a similar way when directly comparing two alternatives. I haven't seen that one used in quite a while.

protect (blank) at all costs

simply hearing the words “less than“ triggers my “fewer/ lesser” comparison gene, and it’s so almost surely to judge egregious error that i have given up on hope for anything. anything at all.

that’s a rule i always had to double check when i was an editor. i wouldn’t mind it if they abolished that one, but i get it - we all have our little rules that we cling to

my boy was watching boba fett "things will go a lot smoother" they said more than once. more smoothly ffs have you ever heard of adverbs?