# Misused words that get on your nerves **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 23, 2002, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459 "2002-05-23T10:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Skalman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@Skalman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skalman)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/181 "2002-06-22T15:21:04Z")
Letters are symbols Nenya\_Elizabeth! ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Kahuna_Burger)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/182 "2002-06-22T15:26:02Z")
As for the misuse of your… A used car dealership in my area has been running an ad on tv that starts out with “Your smart!” in its first frames. Apparently proofreaders aren’t necessary when you advertise on television. Note that I said “a while,” they still haven’t pulled it after at least a few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![white-tigeress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f475e1/32.png) [@white-tigeress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/white-tigeress)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/183 "2002-06-22T16:21:19Z")
Loads of words but when people spell them wrong I find that even worse. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2002, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/184 "2002-06-22T18:14:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anomalocaris \* > **My pet peeve may seem a littly geeky, but here goes: “Bug” versus “insect.” Any critter of the class Insecta, Phylum Arthropoda is an insect. Bugs are only those insects in the Order Hemiptera.** Really? Is ‘bug’ an actual entomological term? I use bug or critter to cover all insects and arachnids… pretty much anything that has an exoskeleton and isn’t eaten in seafood restaurants. If there’s a better term for that grouping, please do tell. Viruses and bacteria are also bugs, according to some vocabularies. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/185 "2002-06-23T10:27:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nenya\_Elizabeth \* > \*\*Leet is where you substitute symbols or numbers for letters that look like them. Kind of like a code. Can be quite inventive, but a pain in the neck when used in front of people who just want to communicate, dammit, not slog through a text in medieval Chineese. Used frequently by the type of kid who thinks that if it’s funny once, it’s funny fifty times. > > Examples are //\ for M, |\< for K, ( for C, |) for D, 5 for S, etc. In “1337” itself, 1=l (small L), 3 = E, and 7 = T (a bad substition if you ask me). It seems that the goal in the more advanced versions of this is to eliminate ALL use of letters, and communicate solely with symbols and numbers. > > It’s kind of like a game I used to play (well, still do) with my calculator–see how many words I could make out of the numbers on the keypad. For example, type in 5316606 and turn the calculator upside-down to reveal “goggles”. > > And, yeah, this isn’t a REAL hijack, because Leet DOES get on people’s nerves, including mine. (I never knew it was short for ‘elite’ before, though, but that makes sense.) \*\* So the goal is to make your message both more difficult to compose and more difficult to read? I see that I have been entirely justified in ignoring any such messages I see in chat rooms. Initialisms make sense (brb for be right back, for example), as they shorten the composition process and don’t interfere with decoding. 1337 just seems dumb. In any case, this thread has been somewhat educational for me. I appreciate the info. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/186 "2002-06-23T12:53:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Sorry, Doctor. The cliche is “champing at the bit,” not “chomping.” Yes, I know you don’t understand what is meant by “champing” and therefore it must be wrong; apparently you don’t know the phrase. Don’t use it. Thats the first one here I had absolutely no idea of. I have never heard ‘champing at the bit’ in my life, but have heard chomping at the bit hundreds of times. I’m also guilty of Jewelry, although it comes out more like julry than anything else. My personal peeve is baby used as a proper noun. Baby looks cute. Baby is growing. It just annoys the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/187 "2002-06-23T12:57:42Z")
It has occured to me that champing might be pronounced like chomping which might lead to part of my not knowing, but I have never seen champing in print either, but have seen chomping. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/188 "2002-06-23T14:23:19Z")
The dictionary says that “chomp” is a variation of “champ” and that both can be intrasitive verbs that mean “to chew or bite on”. So why is “chomping at the bit” incorrect? Common sense tells us that both versions are correct. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/189 "2002-06-23T15:25:24Z")
Monies Technologies Upcoming ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/190 "2002-06-23T15:29:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jorel \* > I hate it when people say “alls I know…” or “for all intensive purposes” IIRC, that’s “for all intents and purposes.” ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/191 "2002-06-23T18:29:23Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > **Jorel** : > > I hate it when people say “alls I know…” or “for all intensive purposes” > > **Urban Ranger** : > IIRC, that’s “for all intents and purposes.” So saying ‘for all intensive purposes’ would be both misused and get on your nerves, would it not? ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459/192 "2002-06-23T20:23:17Z")
I tend to agree with more than a few of the already posted examples. Blatent abuse of apostrophes tends to grate on me more than most of the others, but… Anyway, the (petty, I know) one currently under my saddle is the transposition of upload and download. “So, I downloaded that file to her and…” No, you didn’t. You can’t download anything **to** someone, you upload it to the server, and they download it themselves. Also had someone once who insisted on ‘downloading’ files from a CD in her own CD-ROM drive, but I just didn’t have the strength of will to fight a losing battle on the difference between downloading and transferring/copying a file. Although, I suppose this is more of a ‘tech tales’ peeve than a language one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misused-words-that-get-on-your-nerves/110459.md?page=9)