Another good one for flight attendants is the misuse of “momentarily”.
FA: “We’ll be arriving at the terminal momentarily”
Me (in my mind): “NO! Let’s stay there long enough to get all these people and bags out of the plane! How about if we arrive at the terminal ‘in a moment’?”
Am I the only one who can’t see this thread title without the score from Les Mis starting up in my head?
What is the barrier preventing you from completing this task?
We don’t have problems, we have opportunities.
I’m going to task you with some deliverables.
They should take all these phrases and “throw them under the bus”
These aren’t recent vintage, but
*Mark my words… *
and
Let me get this straight…
more often than not come out of the mouths of blowhards, and I detest them (the phrases).
Even worse: “we’ll be leaving the ground momentarily” :eek:
“Fulsome” does not mean “full”. “'I’ll get back to you with a more fulsome response.” Please don’t do that, I have enough obviously insincere flattery in my life already.
“Revert back” is a) redundant and b) faintly insulting, suggesting that the speaker may devolve into the listener at some time in the future. If you mean you’ll call me or e-mail me when you have an answer, please say so.
IT (information technology) mid-level managers are fond of saying “You haven’t been permissioned for that function.” I assume they mean “permitted to use that part of the program.”
The general IT overuse of acronyms: “If the RSTR specs aren’t sent through DB first, the CIRT string gets corrupted.” I raise my hand and say “We’ve got a TMA problem here.”
“A what?”
“Too Many Acronyms.”
(Sometimes they get it. Usually not.)
“As per your instructions…” NO! It’s “per your instructions”–you chowder-head.
And my favorite: “comprised of”–which means “included of”. The United States comprises 50 states. The contiguous mainland portion comprises 48 states. But they’re not “comprised of” states. I don’t care how many times you hear it, it’s wrong.
In grammar circles, I am what is known as a prescriptivist. As we say “If you remain silent in the face of bad grammar, the errorists win.”
My boss, constantly: “Let’s take that offline.”
We are offline. It’s a conference room. No one is on the phone. No one is on a computer. You’re looking right at me. We’re not both wearing Google glasses. This isn’t Avatar/The Matrix/Inception/Source Code/Total Recall/Vanilla Sky/The Cell/Strange Days/eXistenZ.
AAAIEEEE one of my best friends from school has started doing this. Last year she explained to me how she doesn’t say ‘problems’ any more, she says ‘challenges’. As in ‘I had some challenges trying to book my flight on the airline website.’
No you didn’t. I’ve tried booking flights on that website before, and believe me, that wasn’t a challenge. That was a fucker of a problem.
Ha ha! Reminds me of commercials that tell you to “log onto our website at blahblahblah.com.”
No. No. I’m not logging on. I’m browsing, or visiting, or reading, or viewing, but unless I need a username and password I am not logging onto your fucking website.
I don’t know why this bothers me as much as it does. But don’t fucking tell me to “log on” to your website if I’m just going there. I’m not logging the fuck on! There’s no logging involved. I am not creating a log!
Don’t you people use dictionaries? Are you of the opinion that only the first definition is a real definition and the others are just there for kicks?
Fulsome - 2. Of large size or quantity; generous or abundant.
Comprise - 2. Make up; constitute.
Momentarily - 2. At any moment; very soon.
What’s my ‘phrase to kill off’? Not a phrase, so much as a tendency to drop sentences’ subjects. “Think it’s better. Recommend emailing him.” Don’t tell me what to do, man.
[QUOTE=Ms. Pumpkin]
“think outside the box”
Who thinks inside a box? 
[/QUOTE]
It reminds me of an old commercial that was probably for UPS or FedEx that started with a biz-speak guy saying we need to think outside the box, then the voice over says something like “You’re the shipping manager. Your job IS the box.”
Not sure what’s so bad about “metrics” - how else do you want to speak about a bunch of measurable things?
So be it
Above my pay grade
As a poster of this message, I feel I need to share out that any time anyone starts a sentence with “as a” this, that or other, there will be some bragging, pontificating, or chiding to come later in the sentence.
I therefore nominate “As a…”, and “share out” for eternal destruction.
God said it. I believe it. That settles it.
(Seen on bumper stickers.)
Here’s a locution, the speakers of which I think should be dissolved alive in boiling acid:
Public speakers (usually politicians or police chiefs at news conferences) who ask themselves a series of questions and then answer them. Sorry, I can’t think of good search terms to find some, but they are commonly reported in news articles.
Something like (hypothetical fabricated example here):“Do I think gay people should have equal rights with normal people? Of course I do. But we need to decide what rights even normal people have. Do I think marriage between a man and a woman is a right that normal people have? Of course that’s a right. And so, do I think that gay people should have that same right? Certainly. At the end of the day, gay people have as much right as straight people to participate in a one-man-one-woman marriage as anybody else! If only they choose to do so. But do they? NO! They choose, of their own volition, to demand same sex marriages! Do even straight people have that right? No, of course not!
”Completely aside from the idiocy of anything such people are saying, that rhetorical technique of holding a question-and-answer session with yourself seems quite the vogue these days, and I find it utterly idiotic.
(ETA: And while you’re at it, be careful who you’re calling “normal”, buster!)
My current pet peeve is the rampant use of “Having said that,…” and the similar “That said,…” Grrrr!
And its close cousin, “It’s not in my skillset.” Or, “Let’s ask Bob to work on this project. It’s in his skillset.”
I work with a woman who, when she misspeaks, will say, “Oh sorry, I was lying. It’s actually…blah, blah, blah…”
No, you weren’t lying, you were mistaken. Lying is intentional. I want to punch her when she says that.
You sure they’re not talking about renting cars? 
Nope… follow the link in Post #15 above.
the phrase “its time to move on”…it is usually said in such a manner where the speaker presumes to know and speak for the other person, and often it is said in the most highly sensitive situation, such as when a person lost a loved one, i.e. It is said as a directive and is very. dismissive to say the least
Victim of stupid phrase. “I cant believe my sister passed away so suddenly, she was young and …”
Neanderthal speaker “yea, well, i know you miss her but…its time to move on”
:rolleyes:
thank you for telling me how i should feel and what stage of grief i should be in.
i think the speaker should immediately be given a small placard upon muttering this line , an honorary award for idiot of the month award, or something