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?"

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?"

You’d say “that’s so clichéd” instead.

I mean, like, yeah? Am I missing something here?

Attested in American Heritage dictionary circa 1950 but frowned upon by a majority of the usage panel.

https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=clich%C3%A9#:~:text=As%20is%20the%20case%20with,single%2Dspaced%2C%20and%20fated.

Good link— I had no real understanding of the etymology of stereotype, which is discussed there, too.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed hates “learnings” as much as we do

People do use the word “cliche” like that and I agree it is annoying.

just saw someone refer to a mental breakdown as a "menty b". girl you just gave me a menty b thanks.

Cardi B vs Menty B

lol menty B has been a thing for....20 years? 15? Might have been Aussie originally, it sounds like something they'd say. I think I heard it via UK teen discourse.

"Menty B" pops up in Google Books from 2023 onwards, and earlier via OCR mistakes, including a German textbook from 1501.

It seems to be popular with the kind of books that have advertising copy in the actual book title - e.g. they're called Something Something Something: A Totally Heartwarming Romantic Comedy with Cake or Something: The Brand-New Utterly Uplifting Summer Read.

And not for example Heart of Darkness: An Hilarious Amazon Road Trip With Lashings of Horror or Infinite Jest: The Performative Read-On-The-Train TikTok Sensation etc.

So do they call your period a "Mensty P" in Australia?

menty b is definitely from meme culture, been around for a while

There's some kind of comedy skit (or maybe an "overheard in public" kind of thing?) that I've never forgotten in which two Australian women discuss getting a "hissie" (hysterectomy) "in the hossie" (hospital). I think the point is that nothing is too much for a Strine.

Along the lines of that, I heard 'cozzy livs' a lot last year for the cost of living crisis. It truly is death by whimsy and I fucking hate it.

whimmer deathsies

Oi mate, the deathsy-weathsies

I did enjoy statey foons as a risposte to platty jubes.

speaking of "whimsy" (if we must), i've seen that used as an adjective a few times recently

what the shit is this fuck

I've decided I don't like the word, "shingles"
it just conjures up snack food made from crunchy, dried up goat scabs.

Is "menty b" of the same vintage / derivation as calling a neurological episode (e.g., syncope, fainting, seizure) a "'sode"?

In the show Wonderfalls the main character hallucinates then insists she's alright - another character says "no you're not alright; you had a 'sode."

If I have only ever seen one episode of a tv show exactly once, I can often remember it with surprising clarity 20 years later. Lamest superpower evar.

No, I feel like 'sode and 'za and the like are distinctly American, maybe even Valley Girl (boy?)
Whereas Platty Jubes, Menty B etc are painfully English.

YMP, you might enjoy this game which aptly enough is called 'Sode (Episode actually) https://episode.wtf/
My other half has that with film music. If he hears it he'll usually know what the film was, even if he can't name it. To me, a lot of film music sounds like generic 'film music' - obviously there are the greats but he can pinpoint them all.

I can identify a Zimmer score from a mile away, fwiw.

you mean a scory z?

> Something Something Something: A Totally Heartwarming Romantic Comedy with Cake

when you buy such a book from Amazon as a kindle ebook, all of this ends up in the book title field

here's one from today's daily deals:

The Accidental Soldier: As recommended on Off Menu and The Rest is Entertainment - 'Very, very funny, genuinely brilliant', MARINA HYDE

Which, coincidentally, is the:
#1 Most Gifted in Middle Eastern Historical Biographies

Undies

"when you buy such a book from Amazon as a kindle ebook, all of this ends up in the book title field"

Well, that's the thing - the advertising text is literally part of the title. Or at the very least it's on the front cover of the book as a kind of subtitle. I was specifically thinking of Tilly Tennant's The Little Village Bakery: A feel good romantic comedy with plenty of cake. In the case of The Accidental Soldier the blurb about Off Menu and Marina Hyde is just Amazon fluff (the title is, technically, The Accidental Soldier: Dispatches from Quite Near the Front Line), but The Little Etc is literally called etc.

The same author has published 43 novels in the last four years, including A Cosy Candlelit Christmas: A wonderfully festive feel good romance, A Very Vintage Christmas: A heartwarming Christmas romance, Christmas for the Village Midwife: A feel-good, heartwarming and cosy Christmas romance, and Cathy's Christmas Kitchen: A heart-warming feel-good romantic comedy.

And yet, the stereotypical pre-AI 1990s sub-Terry Brooks fantasy novel was usually called The Something Chronicles: Something: Book One of the Something Saga, so who am I. It's only a matter of time, if it hasn't happened already, before Temu has bulk-listings for books that have literally every word in the title in order to get the maximum amount of hits.

The ultimate book will be called Aaaaargh!: An Accidentally Awesome Apotheosis of Allusive Antics etc ... Zygotic Ziggurats!

'Cracking' in all its forms.

Rachel Reeves says she is 'cracking on with the job'
A cracking good time
even 'cracking one out' i.e. masturbation

I guess this is derived from craic? Anyway I hate it.

Other way round actually craic is derived from crack.

'It's been a minute'

For double annoyance - 'It's been a hot minute'

Laxative Commercials referring to pooping as a "go".

"For a more comfortable go, try <xxx>"

I get why you have to use euphemisms on TV but it'd bother me less if they said FOR A MORE RELAXING DUMP

I know the 'minute' thing is regional but it took me a while to work out whether it was meant to mean a short amount of time or a long amount of time.

The comedian Kiell Smyth-Bynoe absolutely swears that he coined "platty jubes" as a kind of pisstake of this sort of Englishism. He says he tweeted it and other people just started using it. Who knows if that's true.

"Been a minute" is a thing that has spread, yes.

Likewise "take a beat." It was nowhere (except drama/acting) and then it was everywhere.

Kids offa my lawn etc.

The comedian Kiell Smyth-Bynoe absolutely swears that he coined "platty jubes" as a kind of pisstake of this sort of Englishism. He says he tweeted it and other people just started using it. Who knows if that's true.

I always assumed it was a parody of that so very willing to believe his story.

yes, same

i had never heard of this anglish paired abbreviation slang naming before. Now that I’ve read some examples— it really does make your cockney rhyme thing seem incredibly clever, brilliant, insightful, and funny.

“Not gonna lie”

Rhyming slang rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij5mw_eqKuc

Let's not have any argy-bargy about this lads

What are you doing with your time and talents

The comedian Kiell Smyth-Bynoe absolutely swears that he coined "platty jubes" as a kind of pisstake of this sort of Englishism. He says he tweeted it and other people just started using it. Who knows if that's true.

I've started calling Hackney Central Hacky Cents in a similar spirit.

i meant to describe rhyme slang as great, not merely “seem”ing so. fwiw and apologies.