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

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'

"AARRGGHHH!!! I certainly hope it will be taking off longer than that - we're flying to London!"

"No can do"

'If I can just ask you to power off your machine'.

What's wrong with switch off?

The word "proverbial" when overused or when not referencing a proverb but an idiom or cliche. (Correct: "Let's not count our proverbial chickens just yet." Incorrect: "I'm having a proverbial bad hair day.")

Redundancy in general.

Word inflation (i.e. "efficacious" for "effective" or "efficient").

Add that to my list, please.

I hate that, too. I usually tend to say "colloquial" instead, if it fits.

my favorite use of the word "think" obv is Aretha

hm. well idk i like it. i don't enjoy everyone telling me to grow up as if there's some dividing line between childhood and adulthood where you just stop saying certain things because they sound embarrassing

It isn’t about embarrassment for me, it’s about being dismissed, belittled, deprived of agency, along the lines of how for centuries, women had to have men co-sign on bank accounts… Idk, I also don’t feel pressure to abandon a sense of play or humor just because I am an adult.

It could be a cis-fem thing and/or a cultural or even generational thing…idk.

I think I have managed to avoid or ignore whatever “girl math” is supposed to mean. I feel very fortunate for this, as the kid who was best in math in my grade in the entire school district, and as an accountant and financial consultant for businesses and nonprofits.

cis women who absorbed all of that and are independent and themselves in spite of it are always very inspiring to me. there are a lot of them and they're wonderful!

Xp map —-i feel that some language is positive in some cultures/contexts and negative in others… if this girlie / girl thing originated in queer culture, I totally see how it can be powerfully positive. It’s the leakage into straight culture that I object to lol.

For me it’s not terribly personal, as I choose not to use those terms in my own communication. Other people are free to do what makes them happy — using gendered language is their choice as well.
What makes me flinch:
* obviously the belittling nature of being infantilized
* the fact that infantilizing language referring to grown women is so thick in the air and water and overall cultural atmosphere that I have to explain why I think it’s not good
* that to the degree that we are packaging damaging stereotypes (women be shoppin, women be dieting, women are small and childlike) in new clothes.
It’s depressing I guess.

I guess this is doubling as “language that makes you feel like shit” thread for me

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/03/workers-who-love-synergizing-paradigms-might-be-bad-their-jobs

Totally totally. I would never dismiss the convictions of anyone who finds "girl" related language stuff belittling and infantilizing and all of that. Yes everything is that deep. No it's not "just a joke" and I will not "calm down."

And also at the same time "girl dinner" and "girl math" and related uses don't bother me but maybe bc I only experience them in a positive and supportive online universe of women affirming that their perspectives are valid and other women supporting/agreeing with them. Like girl dinner is low executive function eating when you want to take care of your body & enjoy delicious food but you do not assume responsibility for planning/cooking/cleaning up after a structured meal. Great! Sure it could be called something else. I experiencing the naming "girl dinner" as encompassing "You think girl things are dumb but our experiences are valid and I can be a girl if I want to, and I'm still not cooking dinner. Kick rocks."

This is not an argument for why anyone else should feel more positively about "girl" uhhhh terminology adoption? We can be different!

I guess I just find anything that frames 'girls are people who do X' as needlessly divisive, alienating and isolating. I've just never identified with any of it - the in-group message content may change, but it has been repeated in various forms throughout the decades I've been alive.

But I'm not in a big grump about it, and I can see why people find validation in it.

(I admit I'm not too sure what girl dinner is if it's healthy, delicious, and you don't have to plan/cook/clean - is it just a takeaway? Cold stuff out of the fridge that someone else put there? cos that sounds more like 'student dinner'...)

Or simply “dinner”

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/03/workers-who-love-synergizing-paradigms-might-be-bad-their-jobs

― trm (tombotomod), Monday, March 23, 2026 2:46 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

why is useless corporate speak so popular then? because many jobs are not actually useful.

the term "girl dinner" was apparently originally shared by Olivia Maher during a hot girl walk and then shared with the world via TikTok, hot girl walk being subsequently trademarked by its creator Mia Lind for her wellness business.

I was under the impression "girl dinner" meant eating a bunch of apps and snacks for dinner.

Basically? Things you don't have to prepare, that are good cold, or are easy. My former roommate used to have first dinner, second diner, third dinner...which was just eating unrelated things in sequence like 15 minutes apart.

Or like some cut up fruit, olives, cheese, garlic bread. Just normal foods. While you watch tv. It's just normal food except in contrast to the norm of women be making dinner, which is what it is not.

i plan to tell my ai agents to always use corporate speech so it has extra credibility