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?"

Didn’t we cover this in the NYT Purple thread last week?

Ivy League graduate

you've already asked me to "give to the max" and now you're trying to tell me it's "giving tuesday"? sorry, no

― budo jeru, Tuesday, December 3, 2024 9:51 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

the following week i heard, "during this giving season, ..."

shameless

What about this bothers you? Half of all promotional emails I get around now are about shopping for gifts … that you give others. Charities, for many decades, have also increased solicitations of gifts from the public, because the public is already thinking about gifts and giving. Imo this complaint is like complaining about Christmas decorations in December…

A lot of people do their QCDs at the end of the year.

older folks

CocoRosie

Imo this complaint is like complaining about Christmas decorations in December…

― sarahell, Tuesday, December 10, 2024 9:50 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

what would be the problem with posting about not liking xmas decorations? right, absolutely nothing. never understood why so many people feel the need to step in and police other people's annoyances. it's really not that serious

you can just remove yourself from those lists and never donate again

sorry, maybe don’t make two revives in a row complaining about being asked to donate money, these things are not directly designed for you, it’s for a wide net to get as much $$$ as possible

i wasn't complaining about being asked for money, i was posting about a word, usage, or phrase that annoyed me

sorry, please only post here words, usage or phrases that annoy the shit out of you. not just that annoy you in a commonplace manner.

plz be annoyed with style and flair. kthxbye

It’s not an issue of style and flair, it’s the fact that this expression has been common for decades … as opposed to the vast majority of the things in this thread which are relatively novel in their existence or omnipresence

maybe you and brimstead could put together a flowchart

Gentleman, you can't quarrel over semantics here, this is the words, usages and phrases that annoy you thread

Gentlemen

"leaning into", "adjacent", "coded"

thank you

"leaning into", "adjacent", "coded"

when confronted with someone who has bad memories of xyz: "create new memories!"

STFU please

‘Making memories’ can do one, too.

ah that faux hippy-dippy 'posi vibes only' movement can go to hell

like no consideration to the fact that the bad memories don't magically just go away even if you do generate some new positive memories in the same environment and may be an obstacle to putting yourself in that environment again.

Unpopular opinion: [something completely obvious and uncontroversial]

As far as coded goes … is there a particular usage that bothers you? I am going to assume it’s not the emergency room one.
― sarahell, Thursday, December 12, 2024 3:54 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I assume it's the analytical/academic usage, like "queer-coded," "white-coded," etc.

Tired of every minor life tip being referred to as a "cheat code"

is it better or worse than lifehack?

Better, marginally

"Unpopular opinion: [something completely obvious and uncontroversial]"

My fave internet thing is still that whole "Make fun of me all you want but i actually LIKE Abba!"

even better if you mention that they are a "guilty pleasure" because then you can have 100 responses on social media from people saying that they also love Abba and that they don't believe in guilty pleasures if you like something you like it you know what i mean...

its still a really easy way to get a big response from people on social media. i don't know if people do it for that reason though.

i can abide cheat codes and lifehacks when they're actually unexpected and innovative. but too often it's like "lifehack: keep your perishable food in the refrigerator and it will actually last longer!"

I assume it's the analytical/academic usage, like "queer-coded," "white-coded," etc.

This has become more widespread in the last few years on social media and other non-academic contexts. A recent example that comes to mind is a tweet from Jeremy O. Harris calling the spate of celebrity lookalike contests "so Great Depression era coded."

In some ways, it doesn't seem that different from "It's giving..." It's become another way of saying something is evocative of something else.

Yes agree. Also this

A recent example that comes to mind is a tweet from Jeremy O. Harris calling the spate of celebrity lookalike contests "so Great Depression era coded."

...is hilarious. And true?

"Giving" used this new way is jarring for me but comprehensible.

I try to hear it as an abridged version of "giving a ___ vibe."

Cohort … I realized that I dislike it in the way that the moist-haters dislike “moist”

It's become another way of saying something is evocative of something else.

― jaymc, Monday, December 16, 2024 1:12 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Giving isn't really new at all. It's been used this way in black/latino LGBTQ ballroom culture and drag circles since the 80s it's just recently been adopted by everyone else. I have to imagine Drag Race played a part in that. I don't mind it but I do mind when it's used incorrectly.

I saw an Italian restaurant with a sign of pasta that said "It's giving pasta." Nope. It isn't giving pasta. It's actually just fucking pasta.

It’s fucking pasta?

lol

It's giving tree

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-yto0giq5nx/images/stencil/640w/products/3547/6963/4520giving-2__34597.1627886610.jpg

I only started hearing it about 3 years ago from queer club scene people … so (apologies to budo jeru), I named a fundraising campaign for an arts org I worked for “It’s Giving Giving” … I don’t think enough people got the reference…. Looking at other promotional campaigns/marketing emails from the time, the only other one I saw using that expression was the Betsey Johnson brand … now it is a lot more popular.

I think maybe it was centered in NYC … anyway ENBB otm

if you hear slang in American English, just assume it's taken from queer and/or Black communities, that's where like 90% of it comes from and that's been true for probably 100 years now

I've noticed 'flowers' a, er, bunch in the last year or so - particularly in football podcasts - as in 'we need to give Bukayo Saka flowers for his performance'. I quite liked it initially but I might have had enough of it now.

The better usage is ‘come get your flowers’ - meaning that praise is past due. Whether this applies to Sam’s, I couldn’t say.

In my experience I've seen this coming from (again) parts of the Black community and is a reference to funeral flower arrangements and the outpouring of appreciation and memorializing that comes after someone passes on; it's saying, do the appreciation while they're here to receive it and be appreciated instead of after it's too late.

I first heard it on Ian Wright's podcast, where he has predominantly other pundits of colour involved, and figured it had come from Black culture. I'm totally here for that, of course. It's just when it becomes ubiquitous that I start to get wound up by stuff like it - as in, he scored a goal, flowers, or, he tied his shoelaces, flowers!

Pointlessly grouchy obviously, but that's what the thread's for, so...

No yeah that's kind of silly. I'm not saying you shouldn't be annoyed by bad usage!

Oh, I know you weren't - that was a more general hedge for if I sounded like I was being dumb and grouchy!