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?"

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?

i hate it when a new restaurant is referred to as a "concept", like "so and so's new seafood centric concept." i hate only slightly less references to a cocktail "program."

― nomar, Wednesday, February 8, 2017 8:04 PM (nine years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I came here to post this but checked the thread first. So ... still super annoying 9 years later.

Heh.

I was reading a reasonably good book from a reputable publisher and someone didn't catch "hoard" when they meant "horde." I am annoyed. Not really the point of this thread but what it's like to be me.

I had a similar experience recently where I read “strike a cord” …

Similarly I've almost given up on correcting "free reign." All things that spellcheck won't catch, and AI copyediting is going to make it all worse.

WOAH instead of WHOA.

Someone in a FB freelancer group pitched an idea and used ‘would of’ in her intro. I could not help but post WOULD HAVE in the comments, and apparently that’s mean?

It’s def pedantic

When I see WOAH I think of Tintin's dog Snowy.

https://i.ibb.co/4w9hGRng/snowy-tintin.jpg

“Sneak peak” is the one that sets me off.

I’m glad everyone has really been able to hone in on their annoyances here

I mean we all have a deep-seeded gripe or two

I prefer my gripes seedless.

Thankyou. All one word.

I may be an outlier in that the mistakes / howlers / infelicitous usage of other people don't bother me.

People being bad at spelling and grammar is the source of my usefulness as an editor and writer. If everyone was good at it I'd be out of a job.

I’m more gracious about errors that are a matter of “formality” — as in suzy’s example— the professional context is what made “would of” a mistake, whereas in informal speech, it’s fine…

Not to be holier-than-thou … I just skimmed some work emails and I was reminded me of an annoying one: “naming”
Context: You’re naming something many nonprofit leaders have experienced but struggle to articulate
Basically using “naming” to mean saying or articulating. It does not refer to someone creating a new term for something or defining anything.

Every time I see/hear this, I think of the more entertaining prospect that the person is literally naming something, and I think up funny names like “Buffy Tuffmuffin” or “Jargonmeister the Third”

Thinking about it, the reason this bothers me so much is that it comes across as jargon/exclusionary but the people who use it seem unaware that they are being exclusionary and would probably apologize if someone suggested they were? Idk … idk where this usage comes from… maybe if I knew I would feel differently

I wouldn’t say it annoys the shit out of me, but I find everyone suddenly saying “the movie/album/book is ‘releasing’ September 29” instead of “will be released September 29” odd, largely because I think of “releasing” as something in the present tense (ex, “The punctured tire is releasing air”, “the flooding is releasing wastewater into the town’s water supply.”)

‘Covering’ the magazine rather than ‘on the cover’ or ‘cover star’.

real professionalism as I have experienced it is answering a couple hundred emails a day with terse, punctuation-free replies because your time is more valuable than worrying about superficial spelling and punctuation mistakes

and English has a distinct love of the present progressive you don't see in many other languages, we're used to it but it's notably strange coming from many languages where you just say "I work" instead of "I am working"

‘Covering’ the magazine rather than ‘on the cover’ or ‘cover star’.

I've also seen "covering" in the world of comics, to mean "drew the cover for."

I have a friend who can't seem to use contractions in texts, so everything is "I will see you there" or "I cannot make it" with this real formal stiffness

Is your friend Captain Holt?

even HAL said "I can't do that, Dave"

Today HAL would say "That's a super great idea, Dave, and I wish I could do that, but I'm deeply sorry that I can't comply with your request at this time."

Grover from Sesame Street pretty much never uses contractions.

As a result, whenever I see people who pointedly do not use them, I read their prose in Grover's voice.

One bad thing from Bluesky is the introduction of the word "glonzo" as a stand-in for any politically exploitable conspiracy theory.

I just assume the people who don’t use contractions are texting from smart phones and just using the auto suggestions … though I’m doing that right now and I’m getting suggestions for don’t and can’t so idk

I can’t stand that and which when referring to people. It should be who or whom.

Grover from Sesame Street pretty much never uses contractions.

As a result, whenever I see people who pointedly do not use them, I read their prose in Grover's voice.

Peggy Hill voice for me

That's less funny though

xp I read that and immediately said to myself "THERE IS A MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK" which absolutely terrified my kid when she was three.