One time my uncle told me about a verbal habit he abhorred, something he had only noticed after he moved to Virginia (Richmond) from NYC. He said that when he asked a question of someone, he would frequently receive a negative response that sounded deceptively positive: e.g. “Do you serve hamburgers here?” “Suuuurrrrrre don’t!” He thought someone could just say “no” without saying “sure” for 5 seconds first to get his hopes up. Of course, now I do that all the time.
My personal cringe-maker, however, is misuse of the pronoun “I” in certain situations. “David ate lunch with Yvonne and I.” NOPE. If David would eat lunch with ME, he can sure eat lunch with Yvonne and ME. This mistake is becoming quite prevalent, in academics as well as popular usage, and it’s definitely one of those things where people say it to sounds smart, and just end up sounding really dumb. Tyler Durden even made this mistake in Fight Club.
Many people disagree with me, but i cringe every time I see or hear someone refer to their husband as hubby. To me, it feels less like a term of reference or endeerment and more like an awful pet name. It reminds me of The Onion’s Jean Teasdale and it just makes me cringe. Gah.
I’ll add my vote for paradigm. Whenever I hear it, I think that the user is trying to sound like a pretentious yuppie. Also any form of a verbified noun, like actioning or dialoging.
But pop is the only word to use for carbonated drinks. Soda is just something mom used when baking.
If you want to get your pet peeve word or phrase banned, you need to talk to the Unicorn Hunters at Lake Superior State University. Every year they publish a “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness”.
I will, however, speak up in support of some of the sillier “lazy” words. (urban slang, ebonics, whatever.) As long as the speaker knows they are lazy and not real English, they can be used for effect.
For instance, when my mother is hasseling me to go to the store while I’m trying to find my keys, etc, when I finally finish I might say “Okay! We be goin!” complete with a goofy face to add a bit of laughter and sillyness.
I see nothing wrong with that.
I picked up English from reading classics, and slang from my high school. My sisters, in our lovely inner city system, need to get more of the real stuff to offset what they use at school. (This became horribly clear when Becca said “disbehaving” and Anna couldn’t figure out what the actual word was. Becca didn’t know. I think I cried.)
When used in ignorance, its painful, when used as a counterpoint, it can be effective. Like using “and” or “but” as the first word in a sentence to make a more strident point.
Slash. It’s bad enough when used in formal writing, but I have a co-worker who must pronounce it: “Windows 95 slash 98.” And much as I, like TN*hippie, yearn for a good third-person singular gender unknown pronoun, “he/she” or “s/he” makes my teeth grind. (No offense, TN, I’m 100% with you on “Y’All.”)
Example:
Dingbat waitress approaches table and asks “Are yous guys ready to order?” ggrrrrrrr
Another vote for irregardless here. My (just recent) ex beau used that all the time! I finally told him one night that irregardless was not a word. He made an effort for a few weeks but slipped back into this nasty habit.
And one more business related term: Take it off-line. (as in, a meeting is taking place with 5 or more people, at least 2 of those people start discussing a topic not directly relating to the purpose of the meeting, they are then asked to Take it off-line.)
I’ve been gone a while, its nice to be back on Board…
Example:
Dingbat waitress approaches table and asks “Are yous guys ready to order?” ggrrrrrrr
Another vote for irregardless here. My (just recent) ex beau used that all the time! I finally told him one night that irregardless was not a word. He made an effort for a few weeks but slipped back into this nasty habit.
And one more business related term: Take it off-line. (as in, a meeting is taking place with 5 or more people, at least 2 of those people start discussing a topic not directly relating to the purpose of the meeting, they are then asked to Take it off-line.)
I’ve been gone a while, it’s nice to be back on Board…
ag·gra·vate (gr-vt)
tr.v. ag·gra·vat·ed, ag·gra·vat·ing, ag·gra·vates
To make worse or more troublesome.
To rouse to exasperation or anger; provoke. See Synonyms at annoy.
[Latin aggravre, aggravt- : ad-, ad- + gravre, to burden (from gravis, heavy. See gwer-1 in Indo-European Roots).]
aggra·vating·ly adv.
aggra·vative adj.
aggra·vator n.
Usage Note: Aggravate comes from the Latin verb aggravre, which meant “to make heavier,” that is, “to add to the weight of.” It also had the extended senses “to annoy” and “to oppress.” Some people claim that aggravate can only mean “to make worse,” and not “to irritate,” on the basis of the word’s etymology. But in doing so, they ignore not only an English sense in use since the 17th century, but also one of the original Latin ones. Sixty-eight percent of the Usage Panel approves of its use in It’s the endless wait for luggage that aggravates me the most about air travel.
Unless you’re speaking of the lexicographers from the 1600s, this is one definition that seems pretty valid.
Something that bothers me to no end is improper use of apostrophes. Such as, “sock’s” instead of “socks”. Not only have I come across it in informal writing, but I’ve seen businesses with it either in their name or slogan, as well. I know it’s anal of me, but I question the competence of a business owner who cannot grasp the concept of what apostrophes are used for and when!
There’s a similar one which not so much annoys, as amazes me. I’ll walk into a fruit shop, and see signs saying, “Tommatoes”, “Spinnich”, “Appels”, and “Oringes”. I understand that the shopkeepers have English as a second language, and I don’t expect them to master it as soon as they arrive in our country (I’m hopelessly monolingual, so I admire any effort to learn a new language), but to not know the basic words used in your trade? There’s only a couple of dozen words to be learned. Just basic vocabulary. No complex grammar or anything. Weird, but strangely cool.
There’s no end to the misuse of words and phrases that make me want to kill somebody. (Of course, I’m a copy editor and it’s my job to be anal about words.) But as a Texan, I feel compelled to support the use of “y’all.” Other languages have a plural form of “you,” why not English?
I have no problem with soda or pop. It’s when people call Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sam’s Choice Root Beer or anything else that is not some form of Coca-Cola by the name “Coke.” (Unless it’s cocaine.)
I briefly considered suicide the other day when I saw someone had actually written the phrase “for all intensive purposes.”
And if anybody uses “entitled” as in “the book is entitled ‘Bunnicula,’” they had better watch out, because my boss is likely to strangle them.
