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'

Meatier.

"Meet cute" is an expression that somehow I had never noticed before until a couple of years ago and now I seem to see it all the time.

There is a thread for it from 2004.

there's a scene in The Holiday where Eli Wallach's veteran screenwriter character explains the term

Seems like that's probably where the surge in modern usage has come from

Meet fart

think it's been used in the world of screenplays for a long time. Prominent example I can think of is in the original 101 Dalmatians. But Wikipedia says it could date as early as 1941

Usage took off in the mid 80s

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=meet+cute&year_start=1900&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false

Probably around the time of Crossing Delancey

which I've never seen, as I understand it involves a couple who "meet cute"

Your usage of it there, with meet as a verb, is perhaps the only way it was used originally. Just found a passage in a 1961 book that reads:

"Perhaps they don't meet cute enough," Mae said.
You could not get away from the studio jargon. "Meeting cute" meant roughly that our hero did something like stepping on a banana peel, losing his balance and sliding on his behind up to the girl, though of course there endless variations.

unfortunately, the term "meet cute" immediately makes me recall the disgusting "meet squalid" story from Inherent Vice

An internet age (?) thing I see most days now:
- As the striking fable <Film X> releases in theaters, we talk to writer-director...
- <Album Y> releases on March 19th.

Can we go back to release being transitive? A director, studio, publisher or record label (or an organism, ocean or geological process) might be said to release something. Films, books and records are released. They do not spontaneously release themselves, nor indeed anything else. I'm not sure the language gains much from these hijinks.

Haha, at least I'm not the only pedant. "What I find strangest about this is that it seems to have happened very recently, in about the last year or so" suggests this blog from almost a decade ago.

I noticed that in the craft beer scene years ago. XX IPA is pouring...

Being passive has a bad rep.

I want to connect these to the Innocent Smoothies aesthetic / personification of things … see also the talking fridge in Silicon Valley

At least "releases" is better than "drops".

it isn't! at least when a cassette album drops these days it is the thing that is dropping. it is not releasing!

i mean I hate "drop" for the 'is now available'/ 'has been cancelled' occasional ambiguity but still

From magazine journalism: ‘covers’ for ‘is in this month’s cover’.

mogged
maxxing

I know I'm old but fuck this shit

Releasing is like covers for me. “Noah Wyle covers GQ.” In what, saline?

xp fibermaxxing?

‘Covers’ shouldn’t mean anything except for a) puts something over another thing or b) sings someone else’s song.

When we are talking about being around other people, ‘interact’ sounds like we’re out here moving people around like they’re Barbies or something.

It's fashion's answer to medalling.

I see there was discussion about "problematic" upthread. I think that one has died down a bit, but my main issue with it is: why not say "this is a problem" instead of "this is problematic"?

Problematic more or less got adopted as shorthand for "this thing is bad, you just gotta trust me" whereas when you talk about a problem, people expect you to elaborate.

In typical use 'problematic' most often suggests that the thing being described has a high potential for causing problems. It's a strange coinage but I see it as anticipatory or predictive whereas "it's a problem" is about trouble that is a certainty.

I think it's OK to describe a situation but when it's just "problematic views" or, worse, a person, it just becomes problematic for the reasons Neanderthal alludes to, ho ho.

a problem is a thing you fix, whereas something that is problematic should be addressed with passive aggressive concerns

I think it’s safe to say that using something like the BMI as a measurement of health is problematic. It’s also a problem but it’s part of a complex web of problems that are not a single problem.

Problematic more or less got adopted as shorthand for "this thing is bad, you just gotta trust me" whereas when you talk about a problem, people expect you to elaborate.

"Problematic" means "This thing is Bad, but pointing it out makes me Good."