Literally? 
I nominate: Empower. Good word before it was worn out after being used 8 gazillion times in feminist literature.
Oh, God, that reminds me of one of my most embarrassing public speaking memories. At a conference I was attending, 15 minutes before a presentation, I was told that the presenter wouldn’t be able to attend, and that I would have to substitute for him. No lecture notes, nothing. All I had were the results of some statistical analysis he did.
I have a vague memory of using the phrases “intuitively obvious” and “essentially” about 98 times apiece.
“Essentially” seems to be a filler, just like “uhhh.”
Hoo boy. I gotta list:
Old school - I don’t know why, I just don’t like this.
It’s (or I’m or They’re, etc.) all about [whatever quality] (sample: “It’s all about proportion this season!”) - I really hate this one and just want to ask for the pronoun antecedent every time I hear it
Data mining. Come on, it’s a bleeping SQL query.
Synergy, leverage, data-rich, reach out, change management, engagement model: feh.
“Banking just got better!”
I’ve banked with the same bricks and mortar bank for years, but it’s been bought out and re-named a half dozen times. It hasn’t caused too many problems, but this phrase has been used at least three times, and the depositors are always informed how much better things will be under the new name - the sky will be bluer, birds will sing more sweetly, etc.
“drama queen” especially when someone is referring to their female toddler. Its so not cute to me. Makes me think “brat”.
In addition to its wearisome misuse as a synonym for “figuratively”, we see the pointless insertion of “literally” in situations where no interpretation other than a literal one makes sense. As in:
“The meeting is literally next Wednesday, and I’m not ready yet!”
Well gee, thanks. There’s such a rich tradition of metaphor and comic exaggeration about next-Wednesday meetings, that if you hadn’t put that “literally” in there, I never would have thought that you really meant it!
We have a guy at work who says this, forty times a day, as a substitute for OK:
“Your conference will be in room 42-A”
“SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET!”
Some day soon, he’s going to die and it’s going to look like an accident.
Likewise with the next person who derides an idea that they don’t like as a “meme”.
“momentarilly” as in “someone will see you momentarilly” (although they might actually mean the correct meaning of the word in that someone will give you just a moment, they want you to believe they mean “in a moment”)
I worked for a company that suddenly decided to abandon the “top-down model for people management.” “Oh goody!” I thought. “A bottoms-up model! Now THAT’S people managment!” Nope. It went from “top-down” to “grassroots.” But people in fancy offices still told us what to do. I guess it had more to do with landscaping than management.
I strongly agree with “genius”. Looks like anybody that does anything correctly these days gets the “genius” treatment.
But, especially in sports, I vote for unbelievable.
Color commentator: “Anything can happen in a [insert sport here] game. But this is just unbelievable.” Well, if anything can happen, how can what we just saw be so unbelievable?
I know these aren’t exactly the types of words the OP was referring to but If I see “pwned” and “Oh noes” one more time I am going to scoop out my eyes with a melon baller.
Just
They say something is just a certain thing and then continue to add other things it is to them. It’s used in this manner by lots of people.
I worked in Costa Rica recently, for half a year. One of the things people would tell me was “ah, this is a país subdesarrollado! We don’t know how to do things as well as other countries!” (lit. underdeveloped country, what it actually implies is “a country that’s living in the dark ages, where the only thing anybody in power does is steal and the rest is poor dumb peasants”)
I won quite a few people to my side by giving them my own preceptions on it: “no, you’re a país en vías de desarrollo, like Spain was when I was little. I look at many things here and they remind me of things at home in the '70s. But we did finish developing and we’re a país desarrollado now. For many things, it will be your children who reap the benefits of your work, but you’re working and going in the right direction.” (developing country, developed country)
Those words have actual meaning but misuse washes it away.
Gravitas.
People don’t respond well to him, cause he just doesn’t have the right gravitas.
Yes!! I loathe that word! I loathe it so much I wanted to post it but couldn’t tone down my hatred enough to type it in all of its insipidness. Grrrrrrr.
Solution to mean … well, anything. It’s not a message board, but a user-contributed content solution. It’s not a microwave dinner, but a meal solution. It’s not a word processor, but a document management solution.
Logistics to identify common trucking companies, moving companies, courier services, and so on. I’m not having a moving company haul furniture to my new house, but rather a logistics management company.
Extreme - despite its late-1990s vibe, the word has incredible staying power among marketers. Still, when used to describe products like white white bread, it’s losing the punch and perceived 'tude it once had. Looks like it’s being picked up by other languages, though.
110%. I hate it with 110% intensity when people use it.
Are you unhappy with the term per se or with its application to describing SQL queries? Real data mining is a bit more complex and involved than querying a DB.
I finally saw Harold & Kumar go to White Castle last night. Perfect clarity on the subtle nuances of “Extreme!” anything.
(Loved the Extreme Mix Tape! that led with Fleetwood Mac.)
Let’s face it though, if Harold & Kumar didn’t put the last nail in the coffin of “Extreme,” it’s not going anywhere.
It’ll probably last as long as the unforgivable adjectival use of “gourmet” – and its function is nearly the same – lending an air of vulgar pretention to items that are self-consciously mediocre.
Ah, the epicurean delights of gourmet popcorn. :rolleyes:
Amazing and awsome.
People say them with feeling, A-maz-ing and Awe-some.
As though they have carefully chosen the exact word, not realizing that 5 years also say the word that way.
I fear the same thing is happening with “solution.” I just drove past a dentist’s office with a sign reading “Dental Solutions”. On the way home, I pass by “Countertop Solutions”. I think it’s going to be hard to beat this, though.
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