Words that officially annoy me.

Oh, I forgot - the most annoying word from the Blogosphere has got to be Blogebrity.

Worse: 24/7/365

So that means what, exactly? “twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for all three hundred and sixty-five weeks of the year”?

People should say 24/7/52 or 24/365 or much better, sew up their mouths and never speak to anyone again.

The entire “blog” word family. It makes me feel like I’m about to throw up when I say it or any version of it.

The overuse and abuse of the word “indicated” in print journalism.

Any of the ridiculous “business world” phrases.

“Barista”, especially when spoken with a fake accent. How did the simple act of pouring coffee behind a take-out counter turn into a pretentious career? My daughter worked at McDonald’s for awhile. She was never once referred to as a chef, sous or otherwise.

One of my favorite words: ‘Scrofulous’: Morally contaminated; morally corrupt. [From scrofula, a tuberculosis of the lymph glands, especially of the neck.] “My boss is a short-sighted scrofulous fool.”

“Bring” when it is used as “Will you bring me to the movies tonight?” It has always sounded bad to my ears. “Will you take me to the movies tonight?” works for me.

It would never have even occurred to me to take “money” as a verb in that sentence until you mentioned it. I would have interpreted that as being like “a smarter path to money” – where money is the objective you’re moving toward.

But then, given the heinous nature of corporate speech, I suspect you’re right and I’m just being too generous.

I enjoy watching my gramatically-particular (new) boss role his eyes every time our former fearless leader used this phrase…generally six or eight times in a twenty minute speech.

There are, of course, a whole host of nouns that have been “enverbized” or “actionated” or whatever today’s password to the corporate Newspeak is.

Mark me down for “orientated.” Why the extra “at”? (One former boss used the term “orientationated”, but only because he didn’t have anything better to do with his syllables.)

Generally, I find evasions over the meaning of the word “is” and arguments over the proper use of “bad/badly” to be simply amusing.

Stranger

“Solution” when used in a business/IT context.

I detest all that statement followed by a “not” business.

If phrases count (they’re made of words after all), there are several phrases from “Corporate Latin” that I just absolutely despise mainly due to their overuse by the prosaic Office Space like managers who latch onto any cliché like a starving bulldog onto a calf.

“Touch base”
“Run this up the flagpole”
“Full Plate”
“Make Sure We’re on the Same Page”

The first time, the first year or two even that these things were used, no great problem, but madonna on a tricycle the overuse just bugs the hell out of me. You could almost say the Lord’s Prayer in Corporate Latin with the clichés-

“Higher Level Supervisor, who has an Open Door, we show proper respect and cultural appreciation to you. We conduct ourselves professionally in a manner befitting standard business procedure and the flowcharts. Promote us according to our abilities and let us resolve our conflicts in a win-win situation. Amen.”

I mentioned some of these in another thread at some point, but I used to have a manager who was 200 lbs. of walking smarm and such a suck-up that he kept a picture of his boss’s ugly kid on his desk. He used to come by to “touch base” or “run this up the flagpole” twenty times a day. Later he was going through a nasty divorce and by reliable accounts a substance problem and was still as smarmy as ever but it took an effect on his clichétical phrases- he’d mess them up or mix them and not notice.

I started fantasizing about him and he’s become a character in a script I’ve never written or thought of a plot for. He starts out with a used-car-salesman-stereotype personality of

“Wanted to touch base on this and make sure we’re on the same page”

to

“Wanted to run this up the pole and see if it’s plate is full” (which is a mangled expression like the ones he actually used when going through his breakdown)

until finally it’s

“Let’s make sure we’re pissing on the same homeless guy”

or

“Let’s run our hands down her shirt and see when she says ‘Stop daddy!’”

or

“Let’s cut the bitch’s throat and see how it sprays”

or

“I’d love to help you but I just got too much cock in my ass right now”

or

“Let’s snort this shit and see how much is baking soda”.
I think this is officially a hijack now. Sorry. I’ll end it here.

Oh. My. God. Dude, I am soooo using this at work tomorrow. The imagery is just so . . . “moi”.

I have to admit, I tend to use most of those phrases. Sorry man . . .

Tripler
But I will never admit to “thinking outside the box”.

If it was, it was an entertaining one.

A picture of his boss’s kid on his desk? Bwhaa, that’s textbook. Textbook what, I don’t know… but clearly textbook something.

I’m going to throw in “officially” as in “Words that officially annoy me.” As if annoying you a bit extra somehow makes the word become “official.”

Misuse of “literally.” “When she jumped out at me, I literally died.” “Ack! A ghost!”

“Slacks.” Damn it, I hate that word.

“Pussy” and “cunt.” There needs to be a better word that I can use and still sound tough.

Another vote for “orientate.”

“Jonesin’.” As in, “I’m Jonesin’ for some Saltines.”

Any word that ends with “-izzle” that isn’t “sizzle.” Any word that ends with “-iznit.”

I’ve never been very fond of the word “tantrum.” I prefer “having fits.”

I’ve never really liked the word “fond.” Just because I feel like not liking it.

“Alot,” because it’s not a word. It used to bother me alittle, not it bothers me often. (Why hasn’t “alittle” become a word?)

“Ridiculous.” Simply because people keep spelling it with an “e” and I can’t even bring myself to type that monstrosity.

People who overuse the word just, especially ministers.

“Yeah, I just wanted to say… uh, if you could just put that thing there on the shelf and just leave it there and I’ll just get over here…”

In prayer: “Lord, we just want to ask that you’ll just be with us over the next few days and just reach down your hand…”

This may be a Southern thing. But on the subject of Southern things, the word right-

“Go to the stop sign past the yellow house on the corner and turn right there.”

Are you saying that I make a “right turn” there or that that’s “right where I turn left”? Odd for a colloquialism- even the users actually get trapped by this one sometimes. "I tried to deliver your washing machine but when I turned right I wound up in a dead end!/ “No! You should have made a left turn right there at the sign! My house is the third one right there on the left!”

Actually, it wasn’t annoying me that extra bit that made it official, it was the printing out of the post, and having it notorized that did it. :smiley:

No swizzle sticks for you then, eh?

And I would second the complaints about corporate speak, but I must sheepishly admit I am unable to do so without being a hypocrite. Sometimes the despised phrases even creep their way into my non-office speech, much to my chagrin.

Off 10!

Do you also say soff 10?