# Words and phrases you're sick of. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 23, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709 "2006-07-23T16:00:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/21 "2006-07-23T18:38:25Z")
I’m getting tired of “ironically” being used to describe trivial coincidences: _Matt Affleck was considered for the role of Dusty Nosepicker in the movie **Orange Trucks Away!** , which instead went to Ben Damon. Years later, when producers of **My Girlfriend the Frog** were casting the lead character of Nosy Dustpicker, they ironically rejected Damon and hired Affleck._ Wikipedia contributors do this a _lot_. Everything is “ironic” instead of, y’know, just _two actors auditioning for the same roles, you stupid fuck!_ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/22 "2006-07-23T18:46:40Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] I have never heard the word “gifted” used to describe people with developmental disabilities (aka retarded). What I have heard overused for a long time is the term “exceptional”. When I was in college decades ago, there were courses such as “Psychology of the Exceptional Child”. Yes it meant retarded but couldn’t the term “exceptional child” also mean a genius? [/QUOTE] Daniel Keyes made this observation about “exceptional” in his short story _Flowers For Algernon_ (published as a short story in 1959, extended to a novel in 1966 when this particular passage was probably added). The narrator, musing about labels, comments that having gone from retarded to superintelligent means he’s been _exceptional_ all his life. I bet Keyes had been annoyed by that for some time. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/23 "2006-07-23T19:03:56Z")
[QUOTE=mangeorge] Did. But the phrase seems to be contageous. [/QUOTE] It was after reading my third Koontz’s book that I started playing “spot the ‘sodium vapor lamp’”. I don’t recall which one, but there was only one of his books that didn’t contain that phrase. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/24 "2006-07-23T19:18:08Z")
Fanfiction is quite guilty of this. For some reason everybody uses the same synonyms, especially when it comes to color. (Stop using the word “cerulean” when “sky blue” works just as well and it doesn’t make you sound like a pretentious git! :mad: ) There was one Neon Genesis Evangelion story which always described Rei’s eyes as “alazarin”. Annoyed me to no end. I guess they were trying to avoid the other overused term (crimson), but every time I saw the term pop up it pulled me right out of the story because I kept thinking of paint. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/25 "2006-07-23T19:52:46Z")
I am sick to death of “so,” as in: “OMG, she was like, **sooooo** talking to him the other day when I saw her at the mall…” “I am **so** not going to that reunion.” ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/26 "2006-07-23T20:04:15Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] I’m getting tired of “ironically” being used to describe trivial coincidences: _Matt Affleck was considered for the role of Dusty Nosepicker in the movie **Orange Trucks Away!** , which instead went to Ben Damon. Years later, when producers of **My Girlfriend the Frog** were casting the lead character of Nosy Dustpicker, they ironically rejected Damon and hired Affleck._ Wikipedia contributors do this a _lot_. Everything is “ironic” instead of, y’know, just _two actors auditioning for the same roles, you stupid fuck!_ [/QUOTE] I thought of “ironic” on the way home from breakfast. One of the worse in general use. _Alanis Morissette_ got it right with maybe half the uses in her song. Probably less often, but I’m too lazy to go count them. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/27 "2006-07-23T20:06:59Z")
[QUOTE=Indygrrl] I am sick to death of “so,” as in: “OMG, she was like, **sooooo** talking to him the other day when I saw her at the mall…” “I am **so** not going to that reunion.” [/QUOTE] Even worse for me is “so not”, as in “I’m so not interested in who she was talking to”. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/28 "2006-07-23T20:23:34Z")
“I’m going to hell for that.” Well, _I_ certainly don’t wish to detain you. Go! Go! ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/29 "2006-07-23T22:00:12Z")
I’m been reading _A Song of Ice And Fire_ (no potential spoilers in response to this post please) and while I’m loving the series, something I’m really sick of is “boiled leather”. Yeah, I get it, R.R. Everyone’s wearing boiled leather. At this point, somebody described as wearing boiled leather is for me like reading “she had long blond hair with a green barrette in it, and a face”. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/30 "2006-07-23T22:05:47Z")
Git 'er Done Now that’s funny. I don’t care who you are. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/31 "2006-07-23T22:08:43Z")
[QUOTE=dotchan] Fanfiction is quite guilty of this. For some reason everybody uses the same synonyms, especially when it comes to color. (Stop using the word “cerulean” when “sky blue” works just as well and it doesn’t make you sound like a pretentious git! :mad: )\ [/QUOTE] You’ve been reading “Brokeback Mountain” fanfic, with Jack and his cerulean eyes, haven’t you? 😃 Even worse than their synonyms for colours are their synonyms for body parts and sex acts. Here’s a tip; if you don’t write about them doin’ it every other paragraph, you don’t have to come up with quite as many synonyms. And now _I’m_ tired of typing the word “synonym.” I don’t know if you can validly complain about sports schticks like “three-peat” - using tired, hackneyed old clichés is, like, their bread-and-butter, nomesane? (Ooh, that’s a good one - “like!”) ---
**Author:** ![Salt\_Seller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Salt\_Seller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salt_Seller)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/32 "2006-07-23T22:21:08Z")
Two that are far too entrenched to even bother getting riled up about anymore (but which I still hate) are “24-7”, and “Taking it to the next level”. But what really makes me want to start setting fires is the mindless use of the word “surreal” to describe any unexpected or “neat” event. I hear this most often from movie stars who have just met or worked with an older movie star that they admire. “Working with Hoffman was just so surreal”. No it wasn’t. Unless, during your tenure with Dustin, he pulled seventeen, elk-shaped bars of soap from his mouth while singing Ukrainian butter-churning songs, riding bare-back on a flaming bicycle, and furiously masturbating with a stoat, it most decidedly was _not_ surreal. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/33 "2006-07-23T23:34:38Z")
Synergy Drive - It’s part of a car. Cosmolision - Take advantage of our Cosmolision repair service. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/34 "2006-07-24T00:23:18Z")
**Actually,** This really irritates me. I hear it all the time in conversation, with intelligent people who should know better. It’s used casually, as a preface to statement of opinion or fact, and maybe I overreact, but the word indicates that the speaker’s opinion is the true reality. It’s a pompous substitute for “In my opinion (admittedly stilted sounding)” or a simple “I think…” Bleah. ---
**Author:** ![Cockatiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cockatiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cockatiel)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/35 "2006-07-24T00:26:13Z")
> [@Carlyjay](#): > > I actually counted the number of times Dean Koontz used the word “luminous” (and variations thereof) in his book “The Taking”. I stopped counting somewhere around 37, and that was, I believe, a third of the way through the book. Did you by any chance count how many times he used the word “purplescent”? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/36 "2006-07-24T00:42:42Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] Even worse than their synonyms for colours are their synonyms for body parts and sex acts. Here’s a tip; if you don’t write about them doin’ it every other paragraph, you don’t have to come up with quite as many synonyms. And now _I’m_ tired of typing the word “synonym.” [/QUOTE] This is where someone points out that, ironically\*, “synonym” has no synonyms. \*And not by some trivial coincidence; it just doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![What\_s\_That\_Smell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3bc359/32.png) [@What\_s\_That\_Smell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_s_That_Smell)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/37 "2006-07-24T00:46:55Z")
**"Up close and personal"**. Seems every time there’s a description of some (usually televised) interview, it’s described as the interviewer getting **“up close and personal”** with the interviewee. Laziness! Use something different! ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/38 "2006-07-24T00:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=Cockatiel] Did you by any chance count how many times [Dean Koontz] used the word “purplescent”? [/QUOTE] Actually, it’s [purpurescent](http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0010653.html). But Koontz’s audience is likely to confuse that with _putrescent_. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/39 "2006-07-24T00:56:26Z")
On my watch, or more so, **not** on my watch I hate them both. Most of these people even have a watch to be on. What’s wrong with “now”? Or “while I’m in charge”? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709/40 "2006-07-24T01:00:06Z")
[QUOTE=trublmakr] Amazing. So overused, especially on reality shows. If I had a nickel for every “She’s amazing” or “He’s an amazing person”, I’d have a whole hell of a lot of nickels. [/QUOTE] You’d have an amazing amount of nickels, that’s for sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-and-phrases-youre-sick-of/365709.md?page=3)