If I hear “supposabley” one more time…
(from www.m-w.com)
I know that its generally accepted that “entree” means main course in the States and even in English Canada, but as a french speaker who waitressed for a few years in Quebec (not to mention having grown up there) the “entree” is the course at the START of the meal, or at least before the main course. I can’t figure out how this word became used as the main course, seeing as it means “entrance” or essentially, starter!
soup, salad, entree, main course, coffee and dessert. That’s what I used to serve. In Ontario it became soup, salad, appetizer, entree, coffee and dessert. It always bothers me.
dictionary.com has an additional definition closer to what I think it should mean (1.2)
It’s common around here for people to say “acrost” when they mean ‘across.’ I’m sure they know there’s no ‘t’ in the word, because I’ve never seen it misspelled that way, but lots of people pronounce it that way.
I’m not quite sure how the word “orientate” is supposed to be different from “orient”.
But the one that really gets my goat is “en route”. It is used frequently, but no one knows how to say it. There’s even a guy who goes over the top because he thinks it sounds French…he says “en rootay”.
Most people, however, seem to think that it means that they are “in the route”…and most people around here pronounce “route” with the ow sound (rowt). That’s not necessarily wrong by itself, but hearing someone say he is “in ROWT” is simply annoying. It just sounds wrong.
Myself
I have a boss who misuses “myself” constantly. As in, “I’d like you to send that file to Jim and myself.” Or, “Sheila and myself will be running the meeting.”
GAAAAA!!!
The worst part is, it’s starting to spread.
A big part of my job is re-writing mangled English, but one that particularly stands out is realize. We have one client who insists on using ‘realize’ in place of ‘do’ or ‘can do’ whenever discussing something even vaguely impressive. “This rechargeable battery realizes up to 4 hours of recording time!”
The next one was more irritating because it came from a native English speaker. He was giving us a briefing for a car advertisement, and in the description of the target consumer, he kept making a big deal about how uncomprimising this theoretical person was. “He’s absolutely uncompromising! He has to conform to society when he’s on the job, or with his wife and kids, but when he’s on his own, that’s when he cuts loose, see? Uncompromising!” Ok, so ‘uncompromising’ now means ‘finding a balance between opposing wants, needs or sides in order to satisfy everyone involved’. In other words, ‘compromise’.
Of course, this is the same guy who pronounced ‘grandiose’ as ‘gran-doyce’.
I have two:
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Those that use a hard ‘g’ (almost as a ‘k’) in words ending in the suffix ‘ing’. Grrrrr…the G is silent!!! It perverts simple phrases like, “Where are you going?”, to, "Where are you goink? Will you be walkink, drivink or flyink?
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We have a special word whoring in my office too. Our software has events that need a specific outcome to proceed to the next status or process in the workflow. So…when an outcome has been applied, everyone says that the job has been… outcomed. Come on, * outcomed?*
Oh, and one legitimate albeit overused word in my office; doable. I hate that term, but I use it myself sometimes. How about it team, is that timeframe doable? AACk.
Had an illiterate boss who went to too many seminars about being “proactive” etc.etc. Some person with whom he must have been impressed must have used “per se” cause he said it 3-4 times every time he had a heart to heart with the crew until they finally “down-sized” him out the door. I once looked up “per se” in old websters or funk and whoever and the definition didn’t make a whole lot of sense. This post reply is my first and last expression of the phrase.
Hearing George W. Bush say “misunderestimate”.
Not true, although I am in “agreeance” with your dislike of the word. From Merriam-Webster:
Main Entry: ir·re·gard·less
Pronunciation: "ir-i-'gärd-l&s
Function: adverb
Etymology: probably blend of irrespective and regardless
Date: circa 1912
nonstandard : REGARDLESS
usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.
My current hated word is “verbiage”. It seems to be an architect thing mostly, and it means text, as in “I’ll put some verbiage here to explain our project.”
The other is from a friend of mine who works in artificial intelligence. “Optimizationalized” That’s right, they made “optimize” into a noun: “optimization” and then into a verb again. Couldn’t go backwards. could ya?
Sorry, but those extremist descriptivists at M-W really need to be beaten over the head for this one. I realize that the English language is constantly in flux and that we need to be aware of shifting usage, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean accepting every ridiculous piece of usage that abounds in this fair nation.
I prefer to take the advice of Bryan Garner, writing in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage:
And i’m swatting.
Another one from the coporate world is “get in bed with”, as in “once we get in bed with this customer…”. It seems to always be a male that uses this term in our company, and I don’t think I’m the only female who doesn’t care for the mental image it leaves. Yuck.
Sorry, but those extremist descriptivists at M-W must really be beaten over the head for this one. I realize that the English language is constantly in flux and that we need to be aware of shifting usage, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean accepting every ridiculous piece of usage that abounds in this fair nation.
I prefer to take the advice of Bryan Garner, writing in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage:
Sorry for the double-post. I thought i checked properly whether the first one had gone through, but evidewntly not. 
Since when is the G in the suffix “ing” silent? I can see how you’d be annoyed to hear it as a K, but it’s not silent. It’s pronounced; otherwise you’d be saying “go-in, walk-in, fly-in,” etc.
And another thing!
Computers interface. People converse.
I can’t stand it when I hear, “I’ll go interface with the client and get back to you.”
No, you’ll go talk to the client, have a conversation, speak with, or about a dozen other actions. Your computer’s modem may interface with your client’s modem…
A while back I worked scoring student assessment tests. They were to read a few paragraphs and then write a summary. Many of the students would say “would of” instead of “would have.”
Example: “If I were him, I would of went to the bank instead.”
It drove me batty.
Not that it’s silent, but it’s not pronounced. The “ng” is a single phoneme, not a combination of “n” and “g.” I guess it would be described as a “velar nasal” or something like that. In any case, a hard “g” is definitely not pronounced, except with certain ministers. “As I was saying-guh, we should be praying-guh.”