BTW I think while “literally” is used ironically by a few, in most cases it is used incorrectly as a vague attempt to suggest intensity.
Me and my friends (ages 14-15-16-17-18) use the words FUCK and SHIT too fucking much. And one of my friends says “seriously” every few minutes , I guess she’s worried that we think she’s just talking shit all the fucking time. Then we’ll refer to someone as “this kid” when we dont know who the fuck someone is, even if that kid is a bit older than a kid AND it should really be “that kid”. Hmm what else, I don’t know if this counts, but LOL when talking online, maybe me and my shithead friends like to laugh alot but we use LOL like 50 fucking times in a 53 line conversation. God damn.
P.S. I apologize for cursing so fucking much. But it emphasizes the point.
I agree with this comment, ricecake. In fact, this use of -wise as a suffix is prevalent throughout the language nowadays, speakingwise.
“Refute” used to mean “rebut”, “dispute” or “deny”, all of which demonstrate that they have plenty of synonyms already.
Sorry, but you’re stuck with “inflammable” until we purge “inflame” from the language. Brit-side, “inflammable” is the usual usage, and we consider “flammable” an Americanism (though some Americanisms, of course, have honourable 17th-century roots, and just didn’t get corrupted West of the pond).
“Flounder” is okay, too. It’s not a synonym for “founder”. You can flounder when you’re trying desperately to stay afloat, literally or figuratively, but by the time you “founder” your “floundering” has proved ineffectual.
There’s a Scots word “plowter” as well, which looks broadly similar allowing for a little consonantal drift, and means “blunder about”.
Now another hate object. Foot pedal. [livid]What other kind of fucking pedal is there?[/livid].
There are plenty more…
No one i know can use the word Relish (other thn hot dog toppings) correctly, I dont use at all because I’m not sure where to use it and I dont wanna look like an @$$ , but how would yu use the wrd Relish?
My pet peeve - maybe it’s a thing that only happens if Germans try to spell English words, but I hate it, I hate it, I hate it:
“You’re a looser”.
Is anyone here bothered by the word essentially? It’s just a substitute for “basically”, which is just as annoying.
I went to a meeting yesterday and the guy directing the meeting used this word fifteen times in a 45-minute period! He didn’t even use it in the right context in most cases. “Essentially, this is what we can expect in the coming weeks.” Dropping the word essentially will not change the meaning of this sentence at all!
This guy also has a fetish with the word “impact” as a verb. I didn’t bother to count the number of times this word came up.
BOUGHTEN.
As in, “I’ve never boughten a style-guide before,” or, “This is the largest pink-and-chartreuse tuque I’ve ever boughten.”
It makes me want to scream.
I commit a grammatical offense like this on purpose. I write trivia games for online chatrooms, and questions need to be concise and correct. Concise, or players will not be able to read them, and furthermore will chide me for “not writing in English” 
Correct, because otherwise the question may be, well, bogus, but furthermore it will give fodder for my players to poke fun at me! (which is fun sometimes, but not on factuality issues.)
Now, when I compose multiple choice questions, I use comparative expressions rather than superlative, in order to balance these requirements out.
For instance, I would have these choices for a multiple choice question:
- Which is the larger planet: A)Mercury, B)Earth, C) Uranus?
- Which is the largest planet: A)Mercury, B)Earth, C) Uranus?
- Of the following, which is the largest planet: A)Mercury, B)Earth, C) Uranus?
I choose 1, because #2 is incorrect in that Jupiter is the largest planet, and #3 is too clunky (keeping in mind of course that most of my questions are longer than this, so the extra 3 words could push it over the edge in terms of readability.)
I stand by this construct. I am creating a change in language. “Of the following” is far too kludgy.
p.s. “i thought the ether was INflammable! what a country!”
This isn’t used by Real People much, but appears a lot in ad-speak: Free Gift
I do so love free gifts. They are ever so much nicer than gifts you pay for.
Oddly enough, those who offer a free gift invariably want you to send them money at some point.
DD
I’m going to eat that hotdog with relish
I didn’t relish the thought of eating the hotdog.
Cite.
As if when expessing an opinion someone needs to provide one. I see it all too often. It seems to be the only word in some people’s vernacular.
Also 90% of people I have heard use ‘cynical’ of ‘cynic’ used it incorrectly.
eenerms gets up an applauds…I hate it when people use this word!!!There is NO SUCH WORD!!:rolleyes:
Has anyone mentioned how the word “extreme” is horribly overused? I want it to stop! Wouldn`t buying “extreme” deodorant imply that you are so smelly you need to take extra measures to cover it up? (I.E. you are EXTREMELY stinky!) If anyone else has mentioned this extreme phenomenon, I’m sorry to bring it up again, I only read the first few posts and became disinterested due to the extreme bickering.
Six times smaller! Not one sixth as large! Decreased any more than 100%!!
<<<Press “Submit” button, recall other word.>>>
Affect/effect.
Too many words to say a short thing.
A Planet of the Apes fan site said something like, Charleton Heston…issued a statement in which he advised [that] his physicians have told him he shows symptoms which Something with Alzheimer’s disease. A simple statement is not enough! And I couldn’t even remember all the words from this one.
Mine:
[ul]
[li]parameter[/li][li]paradigm[/li][li]impact (as a verb: “It impacts the conclusions.”)[/li][/ul]
I’m tired of the proverbial smoking gun.
And now that I’ve written it, I’m tired of proverbial too. Especially since I didn’t use it right.
And 24/7 – man, that got old so fast.
And it’s all good. No it isn’t.