Even though it apparently is a medically accepted term, for some reason I find the word “preemie” for a premature baby highly offensive to my ears. A premature baby is one who may be subject to severe health problems for the rest of their lives, “preemie” makes it sound like “AAAW look at the cute little 3 ounce preemie-poo on the respirator, goochy goochy goo!”
I always though that was intentional, to make it less frightening for the mother.
I have always hated hoodie. It sounds like something no one over the age of 6 months should be wearing. It’s a damn sweatshirt. On the rare occasions a hooded sweatshirt needs to be differentiated from a non-hooded sweatshirt it shall be called by the name “hooded sweatshirt”
Try “Deviated Septum.”
I imagine as far as “cossies” are concerned, Iron Man is one of the least popular.
Seriously? People wear costumes to go swimming?
I’ll toss in its further-degraded cousin, ‘brah’. “Broh” makes sense; that’s how the word it’s derived from is pronounced. “Bruh” makes sense; that’s how it’s phonetically spelled. But if your word for a recipient of generic masculine comradeship is a piece of women’s underwear, then, well, you ought, at the very least, to be a far more interesting person than you are.
I must also object to ‘crap’ as abbreviation of ‘crappy’ and ‘invite’ as a substitute for ‘invitation’. I’m starting to think I’m the last person on Earth who actually owns a dictionary.
And although this battle was lost before I even knew it was happen, I will die objecting to ‘app’, especially regarding anything more complex than a stopwatch. No, Windows, my operating system does not ‘have a compatibility problem with this app’, because it is not an app. It is a program, coded fifteen years ago, when you weren’t allowed to be a computer programmer if you were afraid of multisyllabic words.
<bump>
What is your preferred term? Is “self photo” the right amount of abbreviation?
Not in the sense you’re thinking of. In this context “costume” simply means “(set of) clothes”, or “outfit”. I get the impression it’s a survival from the days, a century or more ago, when people generally wore a good deal more when swimming.
My first wife was Australian. We might have parted ways, but at at least she didn’t talk like that, bless her.
Pressie and crimbo both make me want to hurt non-American people. Especially if they add them together.
“Zerts are what I call desserts. Tray-trays are entrees. I call sandwiches sammies, sandoozles, or Adam Sandlers. Air conditioners are cool-blasterz, with a z. I don’t know where that came from. I call cakes big ol’ cookies. I call noodles long-ass rice. Fried chicken is fri-fri chicky-chick. Chicken parm is chicky chicky parm parm. Chicken cacciatore? Chicky catch. I call eggs pre-birds, or future birds. Root beer is super water. Tortillas are bean blankies. And I call forks … Food rakes.”
It’s an attributive noun. I only object to those when they apply to people, because they seem reductivist: the phrase “Democrat Politician” (or the rarer antisemitic phrases like “Jew Lawyer”) seem to essentialize the people as being just a Democrat or a Jew, whereas “Democratic Politician” seems to be a person who happens to be a Democrat.
That’s a linguistic copout if ever I’ve heard one. There’s nothing gained in not just using the adjective, save a spoken syllable that you’re spared; the only time it might be preferable is if you’ve taken a vow of silence that allows only a certain number of syllables per time period. It may be technically grammatically correct, and of course people have every right to talk that way if they choose, but it does make my grind my teeth.
For that matter, you know those chunks of keratin on the top and back of your head? Do you refer to them as ‘scalps’? No, of course not; you know the difference between an object and the place in which it grows, right? If you are capable of making that distinction, you have absolutely no reason to refer to pubic hair as ‘pubes’.
Wow, I am irritated by almost every one of these.
I can accept “selfie” because it isn’t really taking the place of a real word. “Self-portrait” sounds like you are painting or drawing it.
I hate “guac” for guacamole.
Gah! Is that what that stands for?
DH are Mr Boods’ actual initials. All this time I just thought he got around.
On topic: adults who use childish terms for genitalia or excretory functions. I’m not saying that you have to use precise biological or medical terminology al the time, but an adult calling a vagina a ‘woo woo’ makes me stabby (this from a woman who bred sheep, back when I had a little sheep farm, as well as from veterinarians who thought I wouldn’t understand the actual terms for defecate or urinate, etc).
Lots of similiar abbreviations in the UK as well, albeit with a variant on the names –
Jeremy becomes Jez or Jezza, Darren turns into Daz, &c.
www Sound that shit out. Same goes for http.
People never ask me for uniform resource locators for some reason.
I’d like to talk to you when you have a “mo.” (When I have a what??)
As already mentioned, “cray-cray” and “vacay.” I’ll throw in “vajayjay” as well though I must admit I hardly ever see or hear it. They all sound like Pig Latin to me.
Mentioned too: “preggers.” Just plain ugh.
So, like a bathing “suit”?
Why, yes — that would be another way of putting it.