“At the end of the day…”
“In this day and age…”
“I think we both agree that…”
“My name is Ann Coulter/Rush Limbaugh/Michael Moore”
I despise the use of the word ‘arguably’. Especially when it is coupled with ‘one of’. I have collected examples, noting that for some reason NPR is terrible about this. “Mohammed Ali is arguably one of the greatest boxers who ever fought.” “The Palestine/Israel conflict is arguably one the most intractable conflicts negotiators face.” Really? Exactly who would argue these points?
It is the art of saying something without saying a damned thing.
I hate it when people start sentences with “Again”. As if they are trying to intimidate you by calling out what they think they are repeating.
when a person is asked a question such as ,“what is your occupation?” and they reply,“what I do do…”
transformative.
“outside the box”
“order of magnitude”
My wife and I collect wrongly-used words we’ve encountered:
“Give me one minute and I’ll be able to adhere to your needs.”
“…but I diverge.”
“The crime was abdominal.”
“You’re being anthropomorphic.” (I have no idea what the intended meaning was.)
“…has issues…”
“moral diversity”
“negative amortization”
“hypothetical future value accounting”
“combined experience”
“for the use of your good offices”
“the rich get richer while the poor get poorer”
“collective dielectic”
I explained this to the Terrible Teen as follows: “When the words ‘no offense, but’ leave your mouth, they indicate that you are aware that what you are about to say will be offensive. Therefore, don’t say it.”
“The fact of the matter is …” anyone who says this is a moron.
“I’m gonna be honest …” only comes out of the mouths of habitual liars.
Any business speak (e.g. “We’re going to seek new paradigms for our collective synergy”)
“No offense” and let’s not forget “Now promise you won’t get mad, but…”
“Jesus/God spoke to me and he told me…”
“I’m not racist/homophobic/whatever” because it’s inevitably going to be followed by “…but blacks are just lazy!” or something similar.
“Why can’t you just accept…” is usually followed by something stupid.
“In my humble opinion…” (depends on the person speaking though… why not just say “I think”?)
'I’d like a moment of your time…" (SALES!)
“Ladies and gentlemen…” (this has been done to death! Reeks of snobbery!)
'I shit you not…" (very clever… not)
Damn. Now I got nothing.
Ever see Coming to America? [;j] He kicked Joe Louis’s Ass[/;j] I seem to remember quite an argument about Mohammed Ali, and Joe Louis. My money’s on the Brown Bomber. Thus, Mohammed Ali is arguably the greatest fighter who ever lived.
Babe Ruth is arguably the greatest baseball player who ever lived.
See, the word ‘arguably’ allows for the possiblility of debate, that some people might not agree with assertion x.
I have noticed they dont use the word “arguably” on Fox News. Perhaps that is because they think everything they say is Holy Writ, brought down from the White House like the Commandments of old. Unlike NPR.
As for my own pet peeve: I despise words like “paradigm,” “network,” “dialogue (v.t.),” and anyone who makes up words like “irregardless” or “conversate.”
Apparently, “conversate” means to have a conversation with. These people need a good talking to.
" As a <insert party> leader I firmly believe…"
" As the saying goes ’ money is the root of all evil’… " (if you’re going to be cliche, at least be right!)
" We’re pregnant"
" [singular noun] are…" (If the speaker is US born and bred)
" You’ll never get a better deal…"
After reviewing my post, post posting, I realized that I ommited the all important “one of.” Fortunately, My argument still stands. There are people who believe that Mohammed Ali was a horrible fighter who just hid on the ropes and waited his opponent out. NO skill required other than stamina.
There are also people who believe that the Israel Palestine conflict is not intractable. They believe negotiators should pull out and let them fight it out. Not really intractabe, to them.
I’ve read a lot of posts where people wrote that a post was so funny they spit whatever they were drinking at the time on their computer. I thought this was just a way to stroke another a poster’s ego. Until now. Thanks, Duke. I just went through half a roll of Bounty in an effort to salvage my monitor and keyboard.
“Nucular”
“If you will” when not used as a request. What is that all about? If I will what? No I will not!
“Resolved,” as in all of those dumbass “Resolved:” threads.
When someone says ‘I’ll be with you momentarily’ and they mean ‘I will be with you in a moment’ rather than ‘I will be with you for a moment’ which is what it actually means.
Or the use of the word ‘already’ in a sentence such as ‘Stop annoying me already.’ It doesn’t make sense but I am getting used to this one.
Also I second whoever said people using ‘dialogue’ as a verb and made up words like ‘conversate’ or another one I saw: ‘adventuresome’ instead of ‘adventurous’ 