# Phrases/terms that aggravate the hell out of you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 26, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894 "2020-10-26T02:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 43
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/842 "2021-02-08T14:44:56Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > Ridiculous. More to the point, when so many stress the first syllable with a punched long “e” sound. _REEE_ -diculous and not the short “I” sound. Yes, in other languages, the letter “I” can take a long “e” sound, but not the neutral middle-america broadcast media type english tones I hear those who mispronounce the word ridiculous. I don’t know where you are, and I don’t consume much spoken media, but I don’t recall ever having heard anyone, American or otherwise, pronounce “ridiculous” with a long E up front. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/843 "2021-02-08T15:02:54Z")
I’ve heard it quite often in casual, emphatic speech. “That is reee-DICK-ya-less.” ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/844 "2021-02-08T15:06:42Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I don’t know where you are, and I don’t consume much spoken media, but I don’t recall ever having heard anyone, American or otherwise, pronounce “ridiculous” with a long E up front. Tons of it. Television, movies, even much older movies. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/845 "2021-02-08T16:06:51Z")
Hence the humorous pronuication you sometimes here of “ree-DONK-u-less” (“dong” replaces “dick” and the “g” sound shifts into a ‘k’) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/846 "2021-02-08T16:20:45Z")
“besides the point” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/847 "2021-02-08T19:07:02Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Not sure if this fits here, but “challenges” is getting used a lot these days to mean problems. You see this a lot in Corporate America Human Resources - employees don’t have “faults”, they have “challenges”. We don’t have positives and negatives with processes, we have … (I’m trying to think of good corporate speak for positive; I really try to avoid euphemisms) and challenges. What we really have is bullshit, but… ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/848 "2021-02-08T19:20:12Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > good corporate speak for positive “Core competency.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/849 "2021-02-08T19:21:30Z")
D’oh. Pronunciation! not “pronuication” (sic) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/850 "2021-02-08T23:58:17Z")
Seen it typo’ed (and mis-pronounced) as “pronoUnciation”. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/851 "2021-02-09T03:40:00Z")
A couple that I heard way too many times today while doing my online training: (1) “Stakeholders” used to mean anything other than players in a poker game. (2) “Tools in your toolbox” to mean an app or link to a URL. Which reminds me of something else that’s not right. Calling a mere link to a URL an app. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/852 "2021-02-11T03:38:24Z")
Problematic. I’m fucking sick of it. It’s just one-word shorthand meant to shut down discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/853 "2021-02-11T16:52:46Z")
Actually I usually find that it initiates a discussion or is the result of a discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/854 "2021-02-11T17:19:24Z")
I mostly hear it, or read it, being used as an unchallengeable assertion. To me, just seems like verbal laziness. And sometimes (not all the time, probably not even most of the time) it’s used to disguise a lack of substance. “His actions were problematic.” Everyone is supposed to know what, exactly, the problem is, and the discussion stops there. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Yz6j8OEudZg/maxresdefault.jpg "Weekend Update: Lowell Fitzroy and Janet Noonan on Cancel Culture - SNL") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz6j8OEudZg) Obviously an SNL skit isn’t exactly serious commentary, but when a word is thrown around so much that it comes up in the first 30 seconds of a skit, and is so easily satirized, it’s overused. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/855 "2021-02-11T20:59:20Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > You see this a lot in Corporate America Human Resources Speaking of which - the phrase “human resources” aggravates me. We used to call that department “personnel,” which indicates that these are people. But that wasn’t fancy enough, so someone decided to change it to sound like they want to isolate and study us so it can be determined what nutrients we have that might be extracted for our their personal use. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/856 "2021-02-11T21:00:34Z")
I was ok until I heard my managers call _me_ a resource. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/857 "2021-02-11T21:11:40Z")
Where I work they have moved on from us being a mere resource and now we are controlled by the Human Capital Management System. I am not making this up. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/858 "2021-02-11T21:33:33Z")
Indeed, there was nothing wrong with “personnel”. My mum was a social worker employed under the BC Ministry of Human Resources - was never crazy about the appellation. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/859 "2021-02-11T21:57:05Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > I was ok until I heard my managers call _me_ a resource. Are you human? 😉 > [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Indeed, there was nothing wrong with “personnel”. My mum was a social worker employed under the BC Ministry of Human Resources - was never crazy about the appellation. Maybe the personnel weren’t very personable. OK, I’m going away now. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/860 "2021-02-11T21:59:14Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Are you human? On the internet, nobody knows you’re not human. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-terms-that-aggravate-the-hell-out-of-you/923894/861 "2021-02-11T23:34:24Z")
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