Maybe you are.
Just because the h in HOUR is silent doesn’t mean it is in HISTORIC.
Nuther vote for empower.
Recently, the “street” has been bugging me (i.e. the opinion of the average guy on the street)
Those who misuse whom, especially if they promote their relative pronoun abortion to the beginning of the sentence, ought to be boot flayed.
“I don’t know you from Adam/Eve”
If you’re from NYC, chances are pretty good you say 'uge, rather than huge, but I doubt you say 'istoric, even with an an in front.
“Synch up” for touch base.
My current major peeve is using “The Perfect Storm” for every bad hair day, cancelled yard sale and flat tire. Yaargh!
Be careful! You don’t want to offend the Perfect Master, who has spoken on this topic.
Personally, I can’t stand it when people say “in a word” unless they really are using just one word.
Also, to go along with BMalion, the phrase “not to mention” always bothers me. You are mentioning it!
Well, knock knock, I’m not so much irritated by the person using the phrase wrong - it’s more that I’m irritated by them using it at all. The only times I’ve ever heard the phrase “begging the question” used (“correctly” or “incorrectly”), it was in a very pretentious manner.
This reminded me of the Realtor-speak misuse of home. “Let me sell you a new home today!” No, you might sell me a house, but it won’t be a home until I (or other folks) move in.
And why do we have to capitalize Realtor, anyway? Because the Lawyers for the National Association of Real Estate Boards thought it was a good idea, I suppose.
What was interesting to me is that all these “drug deals gone bad” were offered as evidence as to why drugs are bad.
How can something go bad if it’s already bad?
Resolved, when used incorrectly. An example of the correct way to use it is: “Resolved: Elvis died from an OD of drugs”, not "Resolved: Abortion is WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!. Resolved should be used to describe something that is non-objective and fact-based.
Beau. Just leaves my mouth with a icky feeling.
Related to this is “When you are my age you will …”. I hate this argument because there is no defense against it. You can be 100% certain that when you reach that person’s age he or she will use it against you another time because they will always be older than you.
Actually, that would be because the National Association of Realtors invented the term (scroll down):
Invented terms tend to get very strong trademark protection, and NAR had been most agressive in defending “Realtor” from genericide.
You mean “objective,” not “non-objective.” And you’re wrong. Resolved in this instance comes from “be it resolved that,” which is the formula used to introduce the resolution to be debated in parliamentary debating. As in, “be it resolved that the deficit be cut,” or “be it resolved that pink elephants have nasty tempers”.
There have been entire threads devoted to this one, but I have to mention it here as well (sorry).
Using “gay” as a pejorative.
There.
I’ve said my piece.*
*Which is another one I can’t stand hearing.
I’ve witnessed whole 30 minute conversations consisting just of those phrases.
Second for Bling-Bling. Drives me to violence.
These two tend to appear in scholarly writing a lot, and kind of annoy me in a “too pretentious” kind of way: “e.g.” and “i.e.” Why not just say “for example” or “that is…”?
How about people who pronounce “et cetera” as “excedra”? It makes me take excedrin.
Also: pronouncing “voila” as “wah-la”. I’ll admit I haven’t taken French since elementary school (thanks, Louisiana!), but I thought there was a definite “v” sound in the word.
I haven’t noticed that pronunciation so much as I have noticed the freaks that write it as “ect.” – which just drives me totally apeshit.
:rolleyes:
Think someone who does that Woody Woodpecker laugh.
24/7.
While jumpng around, oblivious to the semi that’s going to crash into him.