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

Is it a recent trend to blurb or review a book by calling it "wise"? Have people always done this? Really annoying, usually at the end of a list of compliments like "this was heartwarming, funny, down to earth and wise".

probably not that recent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Wisdom

"you deserve better"

You deserve better than 'you deserve better'.

"funds" instead of "money" (eg "please send funds for my upcoming book project")

Prefer dosh.

Lettuce

Filthy lucre

Lorne Greene

spondoolies

this was the response to a recent work request: "this will be efforted"

gross

here's one i've heard around the office a few times: "i just ran out of time"

oh you mean you never got around to it. gotcha

"this will be efforted"

Like "have a good one," calls to mind literal defecation

whoops here comes another efforting

/Directness is a virtue./
otm, viva plain language for most immediate communicative purposes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_language🕸

How come you have to strive if it’s easy to use?

tippy toes

More silly than annoying...The sports call-in was handicapping the Raptors-Magic series. One guy kept bringing up Orlando's "length"--must have said it three or four times. I'm only a casual basketball fan, but does this mean they have a deep bench (i.e., good players lined up down the bench)? Or does it mean they're a tall team? Depth and height are good words. They're quite enough.

I'm going to back away from any other possible meanings.

In the context of professional basketball, "length" refers to whether a player has longer arms than would be average for a person of their height. A common way to phrase this desirable abnormality would be to say, for example, that a 6' 10" player has the "wingspan" of someone 7' 2".

agreed but i personally hate referencing forwards/centers as 'bigs' even more

had a date this weekend and was asked "oh, so you like sportsball then?"

and put a foot out the door : /

I compiled these commandments for student writing, negotiable if they write sentences pleasurable in themselves and/or they prove their arguments.

Like "have a good one," calls to mind literal defecation

― mick signals, Wednesday, April 10, 2019 1:43 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I once worked with a guy who loathed this expression. I found this baffling because it seemed to me like such an inoffensive thing for a person to say. But now think I get it.

this doesn't really annoy me -- the noun is too weird a concept to normalise really -- but i just encountered "veritable cornucopia" in a manuscript i'm editing and it did make me myles-na-gCopaleen at it a bit

what nature does the cornucopia always share with la scission dans l'internationale (situationniste understood)

both are VERITABLE

What other generous quantity is veritable?
The plethora.

smorgasbord

feasts too

strunk and white advises that the editor substitute "motherfucking"

ha

as someone whose mood on any given day is almost entirely defecation-dependent "have a good one"'s applicability on this front is only one more argument in favor of its high seriousness

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5K2m8-XoAAYhX7.jpg

brb designing a metal teapot at the cum commune

the ultimate chaos didn't cum from the jizz flying everywhere in the trenches, it was having to gtfo nazi germany sharpish for most of 'em!

The New Yorker coining this phrase makes it ten times better.

"daddy?"

I compiled these commandments

Anyway, now that I've read then: well done.

KINDERGARTEN CUM COMMUNE

seriously

oh you mean you never got around to it. gotcha

tracer hand is a cop

What age are your students, Alfred? I'm going to use some of those with my Y11s (15/16 yr olds). Cheers.

Thank you! From eighteen to sixty-five.

Charles Boyer turning into Juliette Binoche.

My memoir title.

Lol

Using the Latin cum (pronounced "koom"), rather than the English "with", is an affectation, but not the worst affectation around. When spoken, it is easy to detect. When written it should be italicized to emphasize that it is Latin.

even italicization seems a bit affected when the meaning is apparent. am I wrong? isn't it commonplace now to just type out Latin phrases normally, or at least the more common ones?

but even when cum doesn't mean splooge, it really shouldn't follow the word kindergarten. especially not when the next word is a noun that can be modified by this pairing to make a really lulzy phrase like that

It could have been solved by putting dashes to indicate that it is a three-word phrase, like garage-cum-workshop.

Or heck, both dashes and italics. But that wouldn't have kept me (or you lot) from snickering.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorlton-cum-Hardy

... the Bee Gees spent a large part of their childhoods there.

... not to mention Chorlton & the Wheelies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo6C_CebBqc

the cum wheelies, call them by their name

also: in latin it certainly means "with", but in english (as for example in that new yorker tweet) it doesn't mean "with", it's something more like "a cross between" -- hence it *isn't* latin and is only being put in italics to indicate it doesn't mean jizz (which of course draws even more attention to this meaning it doesn't have but can't shake off)

(lol shake off)