Abcesses.
Sorry, I hadn’t read the whole thread when I posted this; I see others have mentioned this word.
Now here’s another “pet peeve” of mine. I’ve heard people talk about the “COMP-troller” of an organization. At times I’ve heard “conTROLLer”. Are these the same thing?
Yes:
Congresses
Use of the word ‘aggravate’ when what is meant is ‘irritate’.
(Ducking for cover)…
Using the word “Exasperate” instead of “Exacerbate”
I once used “exacerbated” on a production report, causing my boss to yell at me to use words that he knew.
How candid of him.
He was as good a department manager as anyone could ask for. Far from lacking in wisdom and finesse, cranky but well-liked, just not an intellectual. I would guess that more than half of America could not use that word properly any more than they can “effect” the “affect”.
Thanks, both. Upthread, there was some agreement with the idea that ‘process-eez’ had become familiar in America because of the large numbers of UK and/or Commonwealth-educated people, and people from nations that used to be UK-influenced (Indian sub-continent, etc.), in science, medicine, and engineering disciplines, who work here in the USA. (Given that those people would have grown up with the “eez” ending instead of the “es” ending.) For those people, the ‘using it to sound Special’ criticism wouldn’t be reasonable or appropriate. For those born-here Americans who take it up…well, cases may vary. If the person who trains you uses “eez,” you might use it too, without any intention of being pretentious.
Kind of a ‘shades of grey’ situation.
But you’re okay with the extra R?
That makes me think of “freshie” in Thailand. Thais use that “word” for “freshman” and flat-out don’t believe it is not standard English. It makes my skin crawl whenever I encounter it.
Know why Americans removed the letter U from the British spelling of words like “humour” and “colour”? Because Fuck U, that’s why.
My son goes to university in the UK. First year students there are called “freshers”. Not sure how widespread it is in other English-speaking countries.
In Canada, the term we used back in the Dark Ages was “frosh”.
Here in Northern Piper’s town in the late-medieval, “frosh” was the slang term but, if I remember right, the official term was “freshie” of all things.
Yeah, we used “frosh” in some parts of the US. Mostly, I think, as an adjective.
From my decades in academia, almost every time “freshers” or “frosh” or “freshies” is used, it’s coupled with a lack of respect. It’s like a diminutive, like “Oh, isn’t little Bobby cute.” It isn’t until he’s proven himself that he gets to be Robert… though sometimes he’s still Bobby at home (where they still neotanize him).
Upper classmen (oh, look, “upper”, the opposite sort of nickname) do not take incoming freshies seriously.
“all of the sudden”
“momentarily” to mean “soon” or “in the near future”. Nope.