Well, there’s obviously the English pronunciation of ‘Peugeot’ -which just doesn’t work to the Irish ear: to wit ‘Pear Joe’ (and I know the Irish don’t pronounce the word properly either).
To ‘go ahead and’ do something is for want of a better word a Lumbergism. And therefore a shooting offence. cf. ‘Office Space’. Mmmkay?
A matrix is in essence a table by the way, but as Tom Sharpe said ‘talk about calling a spade an earth-inverting horticultural implement’.
Any votes for ‘delish!’? mwap, maybe your bro inflicted that on you too?
There’s also probably about a thousand business language atrocities, but that might be getting away from the gist of the thread. Damn, I’ver just reminded myself of ‘Synergy’. Shite.
One that is not as horrid as that word but is still on my bad word list is potty. Ugh…just typing that word…no, maybe it is just as bad as fathom after all.
This is most obvious when non-Americans sing. Some, Elton John comes to mind, pronounce certain words with an inappropriate prevocalic R in a naïve attempt at an American accent (because it’s cooler yeah?). We’re so used to American’s pronouncing the R where we’d just use a schwa and so old coots like Elton litter their songs with them even when they aren’t called for. As for the epethentic R in drawing, well it does sort of happen in natural speech for many people much as you might say hambag rather than handbag. It’s easier.
For me, I have no problem with people’s speech that might be termed lazy like the accommodation in handbag but I hate the misuse of words like literally and practically to mean the opposite of what was just said. And the wind literally blew me off my feet. I hear that and it makes me wish; if only it were true!
And middle manager talk. It was good to touch base withya! When I hear that crap from some bastard with his fricken laser pointer after his Powerpoint presentation, I have visions of inserting the fucking thing inside him
“Special boy.” Perfectly acceptable when addressing a child of the male persuasion e.g. “You’re our special boy,” but horrible, horrible, horrible when used to refer to a male significant other. Address him as such in private if you like, but don’t ever use it in public. Please.
WORKING-CLASS – as opposed to that class of people who don’t work?
NIKA – as used by pussy-ass white boys who wosh that they were from a ghetto, instaed of “niger”
GHETTO – when refering to something “cool”
Fellowship, as used by certain religious entities, not as a noun, but as a verb. I had the misfortune to have been in the presence of someone who was wont to ask for blessing “while we fellowship together.” You RETARD!!! That makes no sense whatsoever. Sadly, he’s not the only person I’ve heard using that word for that purpose.
Any noun used as a verb sucks righteously. Management types love doing this. They’re forever actioning things, and instead of overseeing them, they now oversight them - which is strangely funny.
I hate when a woman says she’s (or–worse–a couple says they’re) preggers. It’s not cute, it just sounds stupid.
Also, when professor-types speak of space in the sense that “we need to create a safe space for the development of challenged individuals yadda yadda.” Gimme a break!
Well, yeah. That’s why I had the “mis” in quotes; it may be a perfectly viable way of saying it, but it just grates on my ears and the little language-recognition part of my brain says ‘you’re doing it wrong!’ despite the knowledge that it has different pronunciations.
That “jagwire” really grates me. It seems as if about HALF of the NFL announcers say it that way.
That is simply not an acceptable pronunciation. Is is “preschool?” Is that how you teach kids to say it? Maybe that’s it. That’s the only reason I could think of for people to say it this way.
I don’t know. There’s an amusement park nearby that has a ride called Jaguar, and the majority of the time I hear jag-wire is from very small kids talking to their parents, who pronounce it differently. That’s why I called it “preschool,” but I’m willing to admit to brazen presumption if somebody can tell us where the hell people learn to say it like that.
Buffet - largely, due to people who insist on pronouncing it ‘bouf-ay’ (as in Phoebe).
Botty - as a cutsy derivative of ‘bottom’. No, no, no!! Bottom is perfectly acceptable, as is arse (or ass, for the USA contingent) but there is no need for the cutsey; and I don’t care if you do have a small child - I’m fairly sure they can cope with the word ‘bottom’.
Titties - so crass, and frankly unimaginative when there are so many excellent words for breasts (knockers, hooters, boobs, kajungas, breasty-dumplings, fun-bags etc.). Tits is okay as an isult, though (i.e. ‘you total tit’).
Pro-active - nuff said.
And to add to the Jaguar debate; in Blighty we pronounce it ‘jag-you-ar’ … ‘jag-wuarrrrr’ makes me clench intimate parts of my body, and not in a good way
Donnybrook and bellwether. These words used to annoy me no end, but that was only because I could never remember what they meant. Now I’ve got it straight and actually like them, especially bellwether due to its quaint pastoral connection.
