God yes.
And “on the ground”, unless you’re talking about the military, and maybe not even then.
See I like that expression. But only if you appreviate it. If you just write QFT then they don’t know if you are agreeing with them or telling them to quit fucking talking.
From Big Brother.
Stop telling evicted housemates they have been “on a journey”. No, they haven’t. They’ve been living in the same fucking house for weeks on end, or since time immemorial, whichever is the earliest. They never fucking go out. Ergo, no fucking journey.
Also, stop saying "And the next person to be evicted from the Big Brother House/fired from The Apprentice/ leave Strictly Come Dancing/ is
Jim"
I hate that.
I don’t hear “perfect storm” as much as I used to, but still much more than I would like.
Urban Dictionary.
I think “shovel-ready” is O.K. It’s not pretentious, and it’s descriptive. The longer version is “ready to pull off the shelf and advertise for bids”.
ETA: One which I am tired of seeing misused is “critcal mass”. It doesn’t mean what people evidently think it means.
I will allow shovel-ready for projects actually involving shovels.
My vote - anything using DNA in a metaphorical sense - “quality is in our DNA” “Americans’ DNA prepares them to face tough economic times” and any similar drivel. Unless you actually have genetic evidence of heritability, I don’t wanna hear it.
What would you replace them with? There needs to be some way to express those meanings.
And NinetyWt, what do people evidently think “critical mass” means, other than “a distinct quantity of material above which some qualitatively different phenomenon occurs”?
I like “got your back.” It’s warm and fuzzy but not too treacly.
I don’t mind “win-win” either.
I still like ‘the bottom-line is the bottom-line’ for its flavor of surrealism.
But I’m with you on the rest, particularly ‘At the end of the day …’
And glee, qualifying unique doesn’t even count; it’s like saying ‘for-tay’ when one means ‘strong suit’. Drives me batty, too.
Repeating for emphasis:
“Not so much”
“I just threw up a little bit in my mouth”
Adding:
“It is what it is”
All 3 of these make my skin crawl.
Some of the ones mentioned date back at least 20 years ago to my childhood. Who says “I got your back,” “I’d hit that,” or “back in the day” anymore?
A few somewhat unique individuals.
I decided to look this up, and, much to my chagrin, found that the alternate meaning has been in use long enough that now it is in the dictionary. I’ve always thought of it in terms of physics (meanings 1. and 2. below), but evidently it is okay to use it as it says here in 3. :
Darn language, changing all the time!
How is this changing language?
- The smallest mass of a fissionable material that will sustain a nuclear chain reaction at a constant level
- An amount or level needed for a specific result or new action to occur
#3 is “an amount,” ie the smallest amount, that is needed for a new action to occur and assumedly be sustained. The only thing missing from the def in 3 is the “constant level” part. Granted it’s talking about something other than an actual nuclear reaction, but at least it’s essentially using the same definition as a metaphor, rather than changing it to something entirely different or worse, to the opposite meaning (like peruse).
Changing as in evolving.
It’s a change from the original scientific use, that’s all.
It sounds like what SEAL daddies say to their kids, instead of “Got Your Nose!”
Where the hell did “Epic fail”/“fail!” come from in the first place? Gaming or a movie with XY appeal, I theorize.
Fail is the interesting one, it game from our good old friend, Engrish.
Blazing Star for the Neo Geo had the absolutely lovely phrase:
Which went around the internet (mostly 4chan, as usual) and eventually just got abbreviated to “fail!” After it was a single word it became increasingly easy to append random intensifiers, from “astronomical” to “epic” to it.
Epic presumably came from somewhere in pop culture, but I haven’t been able to find the exact inspiration, it presumably derived from movie trailers and video games (and probably comics) which tend to abuse the word such as “an epic tale…” and “epic item” and whatnot.
A couple really popular MMORPGs have “epic” weapons and armour (usually the best in the game, at least at the time they’re added) that are usually just abbreviated to “epics”.
Let’s add in:
Wow… just wow. (when expressing surprise or disbelief)
I hate that expression, too. It often feels like the writer thinks it has more punch than it actually has.
In the past month I have heard “I got your back” about a q dozen times on the radio and on TV and seen it once or twice in a newspaper. During the same period I have heard “Back in the day” almost as often on the radio. I admit I haven’t heard any real people use either expression, but I spend a lot more time reading the newspaper and listening to radio and tv than I do talking to people.