Negress
Strife
W
Since when is W a word?
Since it came to be pronounced “Dubya” in most parts of the U.S.?
These are not words, but slogans, that get my goat.
The _____ of tomorrow… today!
Tomorrow’s _____… today!
The _____ of the future… today!
A kazillion products have used this slogan already. It’s time to kill it. It’s the slogan of yesterday… today!
However you pronounce it, it’s still a letter.
What, like “a”, “I”, and “O”?
I can’t believe I have to explain this, but…
a: an article, and a letter.
I: a pronoun, and a letter.
O: a preposition, and a letter.
W: a letter.
Now that is a word. You can hate the word “Dubya” all you like.
For a long time, I thought “leveraging our synergies” was just a funny joke, nobody would every actually SAY that, right? Alas, after the company I work part time for was bought by a different company a few months ago, some big shot sent out an email stating that, among other things, we were “leveraging our synergies.” I nearly fell off my chair laughing.
My boss at my other job is very fond of “wordsmithing” things. Drives me up the friggin’ wall. And all this talk of “verbiage.” One time, she said, “let’s wordsmith this verbiage” and I nearly thrust my pen into her trachea.
And for a regular, non-businessspeak words that make me want to vomit, “chagrin.” Also, the name Enid. It’s totally illogical and completely bizarre, but anytime someone says “chagrin” or I hear the name Enid, I twitch.
I can’t believe I have to explain this, but…
Language evolves. W, when used as a character in a word or part of an acronym or a stand-alone initial (punctuated by a period), is a letter.
These days, in the US, W has come to refer in certain contexts to a specific referent (our idiot President). It bears no punctuation. It’s not used as a character. It’s a word.
For now.
U R wrong.
That’s brilliant. Actually, Ma Belle (have I picked up on the wordplay?), I’m a bit peeved as ‘leverage’ is one of my hated words and I’m disappointed not to get in with it first.
Hong Kong loves this word. I now slip it in to award write-ups (what a load of bollocks these burgeoning awards are, by the by), just to give myself a laugh. Here’s the most recent effort:
I was quite proud of this.
I see your ‘leverage’ (v.t.) and raise you a ‘socially responsible corporate citizen’.
I had a friend who was former US Military intelligence (I know, oxymoron), and he taught me the true meaning of this word by pointing out that if a company or platoon was decimated at the front, it was usually considered to be “acceptable losses.”
Interestingly (well, to me, but…) I found this note at dictionary.com:
Sod the “Panel”! Decimate=annihilate is fine by me. And, hopefully, to the more enlightened among you lot, too.
“Dubya” has been used by the monarchs of England for generations, as in, “I dubya Sir Elton John.” 
“I need to massage the document before it goes to print.”
What the hell does that mean?
“I need to make sure there’s no way this document can get me fired before it goes to print.”
Why not just say “edit”?
“Sexy” when applied to things other than people you find sexually appealing. “Killer app” too.
“MegaMicroTronics unveiled a sexy new killer app today at the ElectroGizmoExpo.” Bleah.
i hate it when people say 'scuse me instead of excuse me!! it is one extra goddamn syllable people!!!
man that felt good, my therapist says i should vent more and break less 
At great expense I employ full-time search and destroy squads, tirelessly hunting every usuage of “the reality is …”
The choir in my church thanked God that an aspiring music pastor didn’t get hired & he was obsessing about taking us to “the next level”.
Of course, I added that it was only so we could meet the MotherShip!