I’m done with these, which seem to be picked up by kids with limited vocabularies. They think every word they don’t understand is slang for some simple word.
narly obviously someone didn’t know what gnarly meant, and then assumed when someone talked about “a gnarly wood dashboard” it just meant “cool”.
tubular obviously someone didn’t know what tubular meant, and then assumed when someone said “it’s tubular steel” thought it just meant “strong”.
nimrod is the dumbest of the lot, because someone obviously didn’t realize calling someone a nimrod was not an insult with a made-up word, but a non-pejorative real word.
You’re my new best friend! I’ve always hated “touching base”, almost as much as being given a “heads up” PLUS that Blockbuster idea is the sort of thing one might normally respond to with ROFL - except I’ve recently started a campaign against that in the Pit - so instead I’ll say “I wish I had thought of that, that joke is so funny I’m going to be passing it off as my own quite soon.”
Along those same lines, I think I was about 20 years old before I found out that it the phrase was not, in fact, “for all intensive purposes” but actually “for all intents and purposes”.
Also, when I’d get up in the morning my father used to like to say something that I thought was “Up and Adam!”. I thought it was just a silly phrase he used until I finally realized [well into my college years] that what he was saying was “Up and at 'em!” Equally silly but at least it made a little more sense.
I like this thread! How about the consistent misuse of the word “myself” by just about everyone? That irritates the shit out of me.
Example: “If you have any questions, just ask myself or Julie.”
People are so afraid of saying “me” that they use “myself” just because it’s more whom-like or longer or something.
Also - this is a bit more rare - the substitution of “wha’ happen?” for “excuse me”. This “happened” all the time at college while working the security desk of the dorm.
Example: “Excuse me, sir, but do you have some ID?”
“Wha’ happen?”
“Nothing HAPPENED, I’m not going tell you a story or anything, I just need to see your student ID.”
This is my fourth post in a row on this thread. I guess I should let someone else chime in…
Thank God. I thought I was the only one. I’ve been too embarrassed to let anyone know. But now that I have proof of others I feel normal again. Maybe we could start a support group.
I don’t know for sure what column you saw, but I’ll bet it was inspired by Lake Superior State University’s Banished Word List (Their 2000 edition is here, while the all-time list is located here). They’ve been putting out an annual list for the past 25 years, and I almost always here a news item in connection with the release of the list. Of course, I’m from Michigan, so maybe it receives more coverage here.
My personal nomination for banishment is: “the 'rents”, as in, “Dude! I’ve gotta talk to the 'rents about, like, raising my allowance so I can buy a new vocabulary.” Makes me literally cringe every time I hear it.
I agree with you there. When people try to sound learned by using big words they don’t know, it irks me.
Also, it takes a big man to quote Samuel Johnson. Really! However, for you to quote him in reference to truncating the English language is funny, since he left out so many words in his “Dictionary.” Hee-hee.
The conference centered around the topic…
How can you center around something?
tuna fish
Yes, tuna is a fish. Thank you for sharing your knowledge of sea creatures.
That is like, totally random.
This one is so bad that whenever I use the word random, no matter how appropriate the context, I cringe.
I’m around colelge students all day, and I pick up a lot of bad habits. If I hear myself say “goes” instead of “said” one more time, I’m going to stop speaking.
