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'

hubby

hubby is sappy

Hubby probably the worst of them but all colloquial names for a spouse are bad: my better half, her indoors, the missus. Ball and chain maybe OK in a depressing way.

The other day in a chat with clients, a colleague used “learnings” … I was reminded of how annoying it is. This colleague also does a painful (to me) amount of uptalk. In most of the contexts where they are speaking and I am present, it reinforces the sense that this person does not know what they are talking about. Thus, I suspect this colleague is super insecure about their professional abilities and is using words like the hated “learnings” to compensate.

It’s like wearing a t-shirt that says “Ask me about the Dunning-Kruger effect”

soupy dunning-kruger was a tremendous social scientist and should be more widely known it’s a smart shirt

they should call it "cloud juice" instead

they should call it time sharing instead

compute compote

Which reminds me of -maxxing, as in looksmaxxing or tokenmaxxing. Not least because my mind reads it as "smacking", which makes me wonder why lipstick is suddenly so important. Look-smacking? What?

It's presumably derived from the min-maxing of role-playing games, but with an extra X. If I search google news for "maxxing" today I get looksmaxxing, protein-maxxing, lethality-maxxing, friction-maxxing, color-maxxing - "the Jennifer Lawrence-approved fashion trend of Spring 2026" - scent-maxxing, sleep-maxxing, wellness-maxxing, nonna-maxxing, and that's just on the first page of the results. Presumably the writers were handed a list of keywords and told to generate some crap that had maxxing in it.

I'm going to invent Michael Madsen-Maxxing, which is where you drink heavily. I'm going to invented it. I'm inventing it now. I have now invented Michael Madsen-Maxxing. We have all entered a new age, and I am your leader. In this one, narrow field.

I am having trouble with the current use of "fuck with" as a synonym for "like."

Just saw "that's your band? I fuck with you guys so hard." Not sexual in context, just meaning "I dig your vibes."

"Fuck with" already had the colloquial meaning of disturb or interfere.

Related, "fucks" as a synonym for "rocks." "This album fucks so hard."

I wouldn't say it is a synonym for "like," more like "positively engage with." I like that it suggests active participation, not mere passive enjoyment.

most verbs in English are overloaded, "fuck" famously so

i felt so undeservedly good about myself when my coworker exclaimed "THATS WHY I FUCK WITH BRIMSTEAD" after i started badmouthing white people

badmaxxing

i, for one, am giving fuckmaxxing

xp a few years back I would hear people say "I fucks with that" ... most cringe shit ever. However I have come to accept "I fuck with that" depending on context and speaker

the ‘offs

Roll tide. I don't watch college football, I have no idea what this term means, it doesn't make grammatical sense to me, every time I read it I get pissed off

Hmm. Isn't it grammaticaly the same as Rule Britannia? Imperative verb plus proper noun.

(My wish is that you will) rule, Britannia, (personification of my nation) over the waves.

(My wish is that you will) roll, Tide (metonym for my school's team and therefore my sports allegiance) over your opponents.

It even makes a bit more sense because the metaphor is sound. It is natural for a tide to roll.

Does it refer to the NCAA team the Crimson Tide?

Yes plus the laundry detergent they will need after playing.

I believe you are supposed to imagine a sea of crimson-jerseyed players rolling down the field like a great tide

you're really not gonna like the Ole Miss one

"Completionist" instead of "completist."

does this thread also cover punctuation?

the smart quotes in the American politics thread title.

smart quotes are good, but so fickle

it's more the way ilx doesn't know how to render them the first time it sees them so the bookmark replaces them with ?s

true

the second close quote is actually straight. but both apostrophes are also 'smart' so there's a lot going on there. roll on June.

extremely important for everyone to read the same Donald Trump quote several times a day for a month