words that annoy

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The American word "math" annoys me beyond all reason - as does the English word "cheers" as a replacement for "thanks", even though I catch myself saying it quite often. "Bless" said in a certain way is another one guaranteed to piss me off.

― freedom dupont, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 09:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"petal"

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

All those Internet abbreviations - LOL, IMHO etc

In fact all Internet clichés - references to beverages all over the keyboard in particular

The word snarky

― P.J.Harvey-Nicks (jimjones), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Snarky is a perfectly decent word.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 09:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, but overused

― P.J.Harvey-Nicks (jimjones), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Utilise. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH, it makes me want to throw things. The word is USE.

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Mandatory. Although, the 'tory' bit has an appropriate association.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 10:44 (twenty-one years ago)

In America they use the word 'winningest' to describe a team (in motor racing, for example) that may not necessarily be leading the league but has the most wins. As a word, it just sounds awkward and I cringe every time I hear it said.

― Alfie (Alfie), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 10:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate the abbreviation TTFN! That said, saying it the right way is still for dickheads!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

janus

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"guesstimate"

― fletrejet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 11:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i hate the phrase '24/7'

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Me too!

"Go figure"
"Barf"

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

bling

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

what does ttfn stand for?

― robin (robin), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

ta ta for now

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"latest and greatest"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:37 (twenty-one years ago)

My grandmother has been known to write letters to newspapers complaining about the (mis)use of the word 'basically'. And although I do (mis)use it myself, I have still inherited her hatred.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

optics, I hate the business bastardization of that one.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

My grandmother has been known to write letters to newspapers complaining about the (mis)use of the word 'basically'. And although I do (mis)use it myself, I have still inherited her hatred.

Similarly 'literally'.

If you can't write English properly then you're literally fucked.

― Alfie (Alfie), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

rite on!! oooh that feels gud

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah, 'literally'. QVC Presenter Syndrome.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i hate it when people want to describe a person who has come around to an opposite way of thinking, but instead of saying "he/she has done a 180", they say "he/she has done a 360". good grief!

also, people tend to say "i could care less" when they mean "i couldn't care less"

and i detest the word "irregardless". no one uses it correctly, and it sounds very awkward.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i hate the word "pants" when used to describe something crap.

i hate the way we in the uk now say "nine eleven" when for us it's obviously eleven nine.

"lovely jubbly" makes me want to kill.

― Officer Pupp, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

My pet hate is "already" used completely wrongly and arbitrarily at the end of sentences.

"Like, hey, enough with the kitten pictures already..." IT MAKES NO SENSE!

I blame Friends.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"leverage" when used by corporate types (e.g., "we will leverage our bullshit bullshit experience to become a leading competitor in the bullshit bullshit market).

"paradigm" is also starting to get on my nerves. It's another overused favorite of the MBAs.

there are other many other examples of corporatespeak that irk me but I am trying not to think about them.

― quincie, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"leverage you synergies"?
and
"paradigm shift"
Don't forget 'to think outside the box' while "holding good optics" on the client centeric tasks at hand.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i swear within the NHS management have started referring to frontline staff as "you guys at the careface"...

― Officer Pupp, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"i like everything, from [thing] to [distressingly similar thing]"

― Annouschka Magnatech (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah! like "i like all kinds of music- from Sting to Phil Collins"

― Officer Pupp, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

problematic

juxtapose

POSTMODERN

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Thinking about it, most words in English are annoying (maybe all other languages too). Words loaded with three different meanings, dopey slang, irritating labels designed to put people in boxes they maybe don't want. Etc.

Let's start again from scratch.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"Carbs." If the Adkins diet doesn't go away soon somebody whose regional accent gives a particularly horrible turn to that RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR is gonna get PUNCHED.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Ann is OTM on that one. I have coworkers who talk about nothing but their carb intake and then criticize others for their carb intakes. The thing is, hello, it's not helping this particular group of people's asses get any smaller, so why bother?

― Ally (mlescaut), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

when you think about it, all diet talk is kind of annoying. I think it's cuz you get the lay populace playing around with scientific terms -- always a disaster, and they turn words they can't pronounce intoo cutesy nicknames. Bleah.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I may not be able to spell it but I haven't met anyone who can't pronouce it.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

touch base

also, you use a hammer to pound nails, but
you utilize a crescent wrench to cave in the head of an officemate who doesn't care about the difference between the two words.

http://www.kastar.com/product_pages/images/Kastar_Crescent-Wrench.jpg

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

"...go ahead and..."

― Annouschka Magnatech (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

proactive, i have seen it used more often than "active". it seems unnecessary, like irregardless.

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate "newfangled"
and "hifalutin" and "moist"
and my own damn name

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"Healthful" really irritates me.

― kirsten (kirsten), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Thinking about this (wow, this is actually thought-provoking), I particularly hate sci-geeks who take words out of space books/shows and use them in everyday language. I used to know someone who used the word 'felgercarb' (or whatever) all the damned time, which really pissed me off. I'm not enough of a geek to know where it's from, but I bet someone can tell me...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"copacetic" makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I suppose it's because it reminds me of stoners thinking they're wise when they use it. It's like their one dictionary word or something.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

'creative' as a noun referring to a person. and this shirt in particular as if people in the art dept. would actually embrace some shitty term dreamt by marketing/management/whoever to describe them and then be bad-stereotype-elitist about it. grrrr.

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

YES! I had a roommate once who drank an entire 6-pack in the shower every morning; by evening he'd have used the word "copacetic" at LEAST four five times.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

fashionista
anything "-ster" (hipster, trendster)
stalker (as an exaggeration)
"serious" when used to mean "large in magnitude"
class

― felicity (felicity), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Think __________ (meets ______)!"

― felicity (felicity), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Think __________ [meets ______ (on acid)]!"

I think I will try to popularize the term "protes" for proteins.

― fletrejet, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

If you count "riddum" as a word it belongs here.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Just watch out for my fa free diet!

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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i'm all for imprecision in speech, the world seems pretty imprecise

― Broken Clock Britain (Noodle Vague), Friday, 11 January 2013 13:13 (twelve years ago)

"REPPING" for shit

― Poliopolice, Thursday, 17 January 2013 22:31 (twelve years ago)

i will always rep for shit, it's how i get rid of unnecessary waste products in my digestive tract

― non-elitist melted poo (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 17 January 2013 22:33 (twelve years ago)

don't know that i've ever heard anybody say "I want to say..." Are you guys sure this isn't from South Africa or New Zealand or something?

― whose black line is it anyway? (how's life), Thursday, 17 January 2013 22:49 (twelve years ago)

don't know that i've ever heard anybody say "I want to say..." Are you guys sure this isn't from South Africa or New Zealand or something?

here's an example of when this phrase might be uttered:

"Ever since Bono was gunned down in a West Hollywood brothel, I've been feeling an unusual sense of well-being."
"Wait-- Bono's dead? When did this happen?"
"Hm... I wanna say, like, 2 weeks ago...?"

― Poliopolice, Thursday, 17 January 2013 23:08 (twelve years ago)

oh, ok! in terms of estimation! that makes total sense. I was reading it like "I have something that I really want to say."

― whose black line is it anyway? (how's life), Thursday, 17 January 2013 23:13 (twelve years ago)

I wanna say that he died two weeks ago, but I lack the precise information or specific expertise required to guarantee that number.

― whose black line is it anyway? (how's life), Thursday, 17 January 2013 23:15 (twelve years ago)

"oh is that what you mean? what a convenient way to say something. you americans sure are innovative. swooon..."

― whose black line is it anyway? (how's life), Thursday, 17 January 2013 23:17 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

"proctored"

― þjóðaratkvæðagreiðsla (clouds), Sunday, 24 February 2013 15:43 (twelve years ago)

"skinny" and "naked" when applied to food

― þjóðaratkvæðagreiðsla (clouds), Friday, 1 March 2013 13:43 (twelve years ago)

http://www.readthesmiths.com/articles/Images/Entertainment/Banned/nakedlunch.jpg

― .... the rest look like Dudley Sutton (Tom D.), Friday, 1 March 2013 13:46 (twelve years ago)

that's fine but i'm never going to actually ask for a "naked burrito" or a "skinny sandwich" by name even if that is what i'm ordering

― þjóðaratkvæðagreiðsla (clouds), Friday, 1 March 2013 13:50 (twelve years ago)

automagically. ick.

― Let's talk more my bunny! (doo dah), Saturday, 2 March 2013 15:15 (twelve years ago)

automagically is a perfectly presentable word, if it is being used by Billy in Family Circle.

― Aimless, Saturday, 2 March 2013 18:45 (twelve years ago)

"obviously" peppered liberally into sentences where nothing described is at all obvious.
A weird twist on this: I encountered a guy who has changed it up to "ironically" - he kept saying "ironically" about twice per sentence and there was no irony whatsoever! I mean maybe THAT'S ironical idk

― kinder, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 18:47 (twelve years ago)

I find myself using obviously a lot as a crutch and I hate it, obviously

― dog latin, Wednesday, 6 March 2013 18:50 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

motobecane

― how's life, Wednesday, 24 April 2013 15:03 (twelve years ago)

i like it; it makes me think of french people in the 80s

― love's secret borad (clouds), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 15:22 (twelve years ago)

bangarang

what are you even skillex person

― gosh, talulah! (jumpskins), Monday, 29 April 2013 01:15 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

so tired of "piece" -- the assessment piece, the evaluation piece, the blablabla piece the piece the piece the piece

piece of what?!

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 16:59 (twelve years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4FF6MpcsRw

― the white queen and her caustic judgments (difficult listening hour), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 17:00 (twelve years ago)

that's a v impt piece

― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Tuesday, 14 May 2013 17:01 (twelve years ago)

two weeks pass...

redditors

― the Quim of Bendigo (Autumn Almanac), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 13:42 (eleven years ago)

look people, we don't need to BOIL THE OCEAN, we just need a DEEP DIVE into ACTIONABILITY and OPERATIONALIZATION of our STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 14:19 (eleven years ago)

seven months pass...

tisane

― how's life, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 16:59 (eleven years ago)

it's time to leave France and return to an Anglophone country

― Aimless, Tuesday, 28 January 2014 17:23 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

gifted
thrifted

both as a verb an as an adj in the past participle

― funch dressing (La Lechera), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 14:26 (eleven years ago)

How is 'thrifted' used as an adjective?

― jmm, Wednesday, 7 May 2014 15:43 (eleven years ago)

i used to be thnow white but i thrifted

dammit, so close

― nostalgie de couilles (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 15:47 (eleven years ago)

long day

― nostalgie de couilles (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 15:47 (eleven years ago)

example: "ugh this thrifted jumpsuit really grabs at my crotch; the one i got at urban outfitters fits better"

― funch dressing (La Lechera), Wednesday, 7 May 2014 15:56 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

colorway

― how's life, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 16:38 (ten years ago)

how can u be annoyed by words u made up

― clouds, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 16:40 (ten years ago)

lol

― how's life, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 17:49 (ten years ago)

I wish.

― how's life, Wednesday, 3 September 2014 17:49 (ten years ago)

three months pass...

the overuse of the following has been irritating the fuck out of me lately

"phenomenal"
"huge"
"brutal"

― sexxx attic (will), Friday, 19 December 2014 18:46 (ten years ago)

my job involves a lot of big law fuckwits

― sexxx attic (will), Friday, 19 December 2014 18:46 (ten years ago)

"sammich"

― N337 (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 24 December 2014 19:25 (ten years ago)

penalized

― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Wednesday, 24 December 2014 20:00 (ten years ago)

four months pass...

doesn't the word "earthquake" seem a little cartoonish or dramatic

― rip van wanko, Friday, 15 May 2015 16:10 (ten years ago)

most earthquakes are a bit cartoonish, in that all you feel is a bit of a shiver. the big ones are, of course, not so cartoonish

― Aimless, Friday, 15 May 2015 17:15 (ten years ago)

earthquakes are not cartoonish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpUJ6yCURzM

― Florianne Fracke (La Lechera), Friday, 15 May 2015 17:57 (ten years ago)

quintessential is not a bad word at all, essentially, but in practise it seems to mostly be poorly used

― the mark s of juxberry rules (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 19 May 2015 16:50 (ten years ago)

shd be reserved for alchemists

― eremitic brid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 19 May 2015 16:51 (ten years ago)

two months pass...

The word "brave" used to describe anything involving publishing a blog post, listicle, Instagram photo, etc assuming you don't live in a repressive regime.

― five six and (man alive), Friday, 7 August 2015 14:52 (nine years ago)

two years pass...

'perfectly', as used in clickbaity articles that 'perfectly sum-up the world today'

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Tuesday, 5 September 2017 08:33 (seven years ago)

Guys at the office who still think it's okay to call female colleagues "adorable"

Just the word "adorable"

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 14:21 (seven years ago)

it feels completely disgusting to be called adorable so thanks for the support!
i mean that.

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 15:34 (seven years ago)

two years pass...

people using "begs the question" incorrectly. When someone uses it correctly it really makes me want to weep for joy.

I've been thinking about this. I'm genuinely curious how many instances there are of someone using this expression 'correctly' outside the context of philosophy academia - unless it is just for the sake of 'correcting' the 'incorrect' usage. When I Google "beg the question", the first five pages of results consist entirely of either definitions or people discussing what the correct usage should be. It is only on the sixth page that I come across someone using the expression to describe a fallacious argument - and this is in a scholarly article in Informal Logic. Are there many actual instances of e.g. an opposition MP saying "the Honourable Minister begs the question when he argues for increased military intervention on the grounds that the Middle East has been growing more unstable since our involvement began"? For comparison, I can find several examples of "strawman". In any situation I can think of where one might use "beg the question" 'properly', it seems like it might be clearer and simpler to just say "you are assuming x without proving it".

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Friday, 6 September 2019 17:45 (five years ago)

it seems like it might be clearer and simpler

I'd say it not just "might be", but it would be.

― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 6 September 2019 18:21 (five years ago)

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