# Irritating Words and Word Usage **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2000, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168 "2000-12-18T17:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/141 "2001-02-01T22:32:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jaram \* > \*\*“Having said that” ect ect. > Generally used by someone who doesn’t know what to say next. > \*\* This is it. This is the one that does it for me. Annoys me almost more than all the others combined. It’s **etc.** , _not_ ect. Short for etcetera. Ok. Now I will compose myself, so that I can attempt writing full sentences again. Something I’ve seen in chat rooms and other message boards that annoys me is using the spelling “yanno” as a way of saying “you know”. If they shortened it to the point where it disappeared entirely, we’d all be much better off. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Morrison’s Lament \* > \*\*My answer: _Isn’t a herring a freakin’ fish to begin with?!?! WHY HERRING AANNNDDD FISH!! WHY NOT JUST ONE OR THE OTHER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!??!?!?!_ > > \*\* Oh, I can top that. On the way to work each morning I pass a delivery truck, with company name and slogan on its side. The name? “Long Island Butter & Egg”. OK so far, but just below that is the slogan. It reads, in quotation marks of course: “We’re not just butter and eggs!” Then why in the world did you name your company that?!? ---
**Author:** ![Medievalist2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@Medievalist2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medievalist2)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2001, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/142 "2001-02-03T09:58:43Z")
I don’t like it when nouns are used as verbs. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/143 "2001-02-04T06:58:17Z")
The annoyances expressed in this thread have ranged from the reasonable to the absolutely absurd. There’s a big difference between something which is annoys you and something that is wrong. For instance, there **is** a t in often! Just because **you** ignore it, why should others? And is it really inconceivable to people that a word might have more than one meaning (per= ratio **and** per= in accordance with)? Hometownboy > [@](#): > > They wrought better than they knew, the succession of teachers who graced the halls of the Pine Grove Grade School and Mid-Valley Jr. High in the mid-1950’s and early 1960’s. Grammatically incorrect, but I suppose within poetic license. > [@](#): > > Though we students would probably have denied it at the time, their efforts at imprinting correct English in our foggy little heads was highly successful. Their efforts was successful? Obviously not. What’s with people who use the word “an” before “another”? “I’d like an another piece, please.” Or refer to stuff as being “containerized”? “Make sure the oil is properly containerized.” The use of the word “bologna” to refer to something ridiculous grates on my nerves. It’s “baloney”. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/144 "2001-02-04T14:33:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tourbot \* > \*\* The name? “Long Island Butter & Egg”. OK so far, but just below that is the slogan. It reads, in quotation marks of course: “We’re not just butter and eggs!” > > Then why in the world did you name your company that?!? \*\* It’s possible the company originally was just butter and eggs, then expanded in later years. Or maybe they’re just dipsticks, like you think! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/145 "2001-02-05T16:56:04Z")
why does the dollar rise or fall in relation to “other major foreign currencies”? Well, I guess “other major domestic currencies” would include “Disney Dollars”, and the like. Grocery store coupons, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Indiana\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/0ea827/32.png) [@Indiana\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indiana_Jones)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/146 "2001-02-05T18:25:18Z")
When someone spells weird as ‘wierd’. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/147 "2001-02-05T19:24:03Z")
That’s funny; I thought “wierd” was a misspelling of “wired.” As in Wired Magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2001, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/148 "2001-02-07T12:54:04Z")
One misusage I take issue with happens all the time: people say _vagina_ when they’re talking about the _vulva_. “Gertie, you oughn’t sit like that, folk will see your vagina!” Um . . . no, you couldn’t see Gertie’s vagina unless you were doing a gynecological examination. The woman’s private part that is externally visible is the vulva. The vagina is the passage leading inward. Yet I have seen this error even in books by reputable authors from respectable publishing houses. Maybe because it’s been left out of all those English language usage guides that wordwatchers turn to for advice. If I were writing a wordwatcher guide, I would be sure to include the vagina/vulva distinction. Why don’t people like to say “vulva”? I think it’s a great word. I can say it all day. Vulva. Vulva. Vulva! But most of all I prefer the Hindu word, _ **yoni** _. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/149 "2001-02-08T02:15:50Z")
I don’t understand why so many people can’t figure out when to use “I” and when to use “me.” They seem to think that it sounds so much more sophisticated to say “They gave an award to David and I” rather than “…to David and me.” Even worse are the people who say “… to David and myself.” AAAAAARRRRGGGGH! Another mis-usage that grates on my nerves is to hear y’all misapplied. Y’all is a contraction for “you all”, giving a clear differentiation between the singular you and the plural you. It’s not uncommon to hear lines such as “Why don’t y’all come over here and give me a kiss?” voiced by an actress with a poor affectation of a Southern accent in bad TV movies. (Or is that dialect? I vote for accent…) It turns what should be a romantic moment for two seem more like an invitation for an orgy. One more, which frequently shows up in personals ads: “Looking for a discrete partner…” It’s DISCREET, you morons! (Unless you really ARE searching for a partner composed of distinct and unconnected elements, rather than someone who isn’t going to rat on you to your spouse or your employer about your infidelity) ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168/150 "2001-02-08T09:05:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by YWalker \* > \*\*I don’t understand why so many people can’t figure out when to use “I” and when to use “me.” They seem to think that it sounds so much more sophisticated to say “They gave an award to David and I” rather than “…to David and me.” \*\* I think this one is over-correction for the extremely common “John and me went to a movie.” As kids, I imagine that many of us got nailed for this, and emphatically told that it should instead be “John and I…” Well, you’d like to think that we could handle _deciding_ whether “me” or “I” is proper, but I suspect that it was accidentally pounded into some brains that “John and me” is simply wrong, in any situation. Well, it ain’t. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irritating-words-and-word-usage/46168.md?page=7)