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

Four Words: Use Other Words Please
"Use other words please."
Commonly used phrases that inexplicably bug you
Most irritating cliche/phrase/expression
"Taking Things to a Whole `Nother Level!"
words that annoy
Words that should earn the author a slap
PROVERBIAL and other tip offs to poor writing

-- caitlin (wpsal...) (webmail), December 23rd, 2003. (caitlin)

Oh yes, yes yes. I second that one. And the people who say it, say it over and over.

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?"

I guess I get it if people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what art is? Language is gonna do what it’s gonna do, but “art” and “artist” are huge, inclusive terms that can be applied to any of the above.

In elementary school it’s called art class. It’s a bummer that some people don’t feel they can live up to “artist.” Folk art! Installation art! Performance art! Found art! Readymades! Art is awesome and anybody can be an artist. Make something and call it art. Congratulations, you’re an artist!

I guess “creative” is technically more inclusive because it also includes writers and theater and other creative endeavors that are an art but not Art. It still irritates me and maybe I’m just old and language is passing me by.

My industry (social/economic research related to cities) looooves the word 'creatives' because it's a useful shorthand for any workers involved in cultural production - 'fine' artists but also writers and actors and set designers and web designers and musicians and others outside of fine art.

Easier (and maybe more understandable) than having to use 'cultural producers' or 'cultural production workers' I guess? And there's an element of industry loving a buzzword.

at least it's much better than "content creator"

I see it differently in different contexts. I used to hate it. I probably posted about hating it on this thread a few years back. … I see younger artists (mostly BIPOC) use that term to describe themselves and/or promote events, organizations, etc. Based on my unscientific surveys of such, here are some examples of how I came to accept Creatives.

1. Artists who didn’t go to art school and/or feel alienated from “the art world” and what it represents (e.g. white supremacy, capitalism, colonialism)

2. Artists whose practices are socially engaged where the art-making doesn’t fit into a conventional genre. The art produced isn’t the only goal.

3. Artists who want to be more inclusive/ appeal to broader audiences who find “content” more accessible

4. From an organizing standpoint, using more inclusive language can broaden one’s reach and engage more people who create … reducing gatekeeping

5. Artists who don’t feel like they deserve to call themselves artists because they don’t make enough money at what they define as art.

i understand all this, and don’t care. it’s a gross term, the people who use it in earnest suck, and the people who use it as an economic or marketing term also suck. the term is fucking gross.

“oh i don’t feel part of the nefarious big art world! let me adopt this term that is firmly rooted in neoliberal ideologies of proslductive capitalism” like get a brain

artist: i am trying to express an important truth i perceive in the world

creative: i am trying to capture your attention by appealing to typical traits of human behavior

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

The New Yorker
‪@newyorker_com‬

J. D. Vance’s second memoir, “Communion,” tells the story of his decision to become Catholic, but it’s strangely distasteful of the faith he has joined.

happily since changed to 'disdainful'

This is a good video

this guy is fine but i find it annoying that he mentions his phd in every video

It's a perennial, but adult baby-talk trying to sound cool and hip with the kids: "smol", "chonky" etc. Involuntarily clenches my teeth and fists.

And "hungy" for "hungry"

https://media.tenor.com/mtOiOQnbLkkAAAAC/the-simpsons-homer.gif

ugh I actually have some laundry capsules from a brand called smol

sounds like a danish lager

"Weaponize." I'm watching some guy on TV talk about Hairspray, and how its relative wholesomeness was a contrast to John Waters' earlier films, where he was "weaponizing his prurience and dirtiness." I get what he's trying to say, but just because everybody else uses this stupid word, you don't need to jam it into your own relatively straightforward argument.

I hope I haven't weaponized my distaste for this word that annoys me.

The US Navy tried to weaponize dolphins, but they failed. The NRA claims that nearly every object or substance in your household could conceivably be weaponized, so it makes no sense to ban guns, although guns never do need to be weaponized, as they are already weapons full time. In contrast, sticks and stones are notoriously easy to weaponize, but spend almost all their lives in perpetual weapon-latency. The more I think about the potential of all manner of non-weaponry to become weaponized, the less I want to think about the whole concept.

I've been trying to weaponize my tennis racket, with mixed results thus far.

I prefer to Martinize things

Are you taking more than an hour? Bc martinizing only takes one hour if memory serves!