# Words you hate and why **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709 "2005-12-15T09:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/81 "2005-12-17T02:27:25Z")
> [@Rhinocerous](#): > > But what about _my_ needs? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/82 "2005-12-17T02:31:30Z")
> [@Rhinocerous](#): > > But what about _my_ needs? I think I used to work for you. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/83 "2005-12-17T03:39:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Impatience with Marxist rhetoric I could understand, but what’s wrong with “bourgeoisie” as a **word?** I don’t know, it sounds stupid and pretentious. I just hate hearing it. I also hate hearing words (usually Hebrew ones, I guess?) when they are pronounced with a sound not dissimilar to that produced when you’re trying to cough up some phlegm. _kackkackackackkack_utzpah, for example. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/84 "2005-12-17T04:12:09Z")
> [@Pietro](#): > > I also recognize that there are reasonable people both black and white who think that speakers of BSE sound “uneducated” and “should” endeavor to use more “proper” grammar, syntax, etc. I happen to disagree. I say, talk how you want to talk. If the person you’re trying to talk to understands you, you done good. If he doesn’t, figure out a better way to communicate with that person. Jkybvv L’agntu. Oh, sorry. I need a better way to communicate. Perhaps a standardized usage that everyone might understand. If only there were a… wait a minute! Can’t think of any words I don’t like at the moment, but I’ve recently been made aware of a vocalized sound that actually makes me shiver and cringe. It is the nasally “eah” sound some people use in place of a soft A. PLEAH-zma. KEAH-nzuz. /shudder ---
**Author:** ![Dinaroozie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Dinaroozie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinaroozie)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/85 "2005-12-17T05:54:01Z")
I hate the word ‘munt’ (the verb, meaning ‘vomit’). It just sounds kind of gross, to my ear. It sounds so… chunky. I also hear it used a lot in the context of idiot college people boasting that they drank so much that they made themselves sick. Real classy. Actually, on reflection, I’m not sure that this word is in any kind of common use, but still. ~ Isaac ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/86 "2005-12-17T11:05:30Z")
> [@TonyF](#): > > It bugs the hell out of me when I see a corporate type talking about their “product”, especially when they’re talking about food. I second that. It evokes a very unappetizing image of what I imagine the factory to look like. Not good when it’s food. I prefer to keep my head in the sand about how processed food is made. Another “utilize” hater here, only because my universally hated 6th grade teacher would say, “We have a lot to do today. I want you to utilize your time efficiantly”, _every goddamn day._ I hate when people use a foreign word or phrase when an english one will do just as well. “Nom de Plume”: just say “pen name”. Out here in California, whenever a small earthquake hits, the news always calls it a “temblor” (spanish). What happened to “tremor”? It bugs me when people say “AHN-velope” for _envelope_, or “root” for _route_. I know it’s only because that’s not how _I_ say it, so fuck me. My two least favorite made up words: “Sexpert” (sounds like something I have to wash out of my sheets), and “Sale-A-Bration” \. And call it all the fancy names you want, but ebonics is just lazy english. It’s no different than if I adopt a Jeff Spicoli stoner accent and vocabulary and call it San Diego English. It’s bad enough that people talk like this, but seeing it in print makes me feel like my head is going to explode. “Flava” this! ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/87 "2005-12-17T11:09:53Z")
Thought of another one just as I hit reply. “Foodstuffs” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/88 "2005-12-17T13:08:47Z")
> [@TonyF](#): > > It bugs the hell out of me when I see a corporate type talking about their “product”, especially when they’re talking about food. I used to work at Taco Hell in college. The manager was training me, grabs the spatula and puts it in the beans, and says…“you have to constantly _stir your product_ so it doesn’t stick to the sides.” 20 years ago and I still remember that. ---
**Author:** ![mrrealtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@mrrealtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrrealtime)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/89 "2005-12-17T14:30:52Z")
rapier…as in rapier wit. pronounced one way “rap - eee - air” its pretentious, and another way…“rape ear” uh…nuff said. oh and 'nuff said…although “enuff” would be a lot more endearing than “enough”. Words that are spelled completely differently than they sound and or with silent letters, like phlegm, knight, knife. And knight, whats up with that? Mimics the word “night” but completely hijacks the meaning for itself…its a parasite word. We should fight to take back the night. panties is a cute word like “jammies”. Oddly enough “armies” isnt, unless you are referring to what goes inside your “sleevies”. And now…possibly the most unholy, un uttered word, most feared and hated word…dare I say it?..“c” - - “u” - - “n” - - well I’ll stop there. Plus I could be referring to a number of cun words. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/90 "2005-12-17T17:28:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Words that are spelled completely differently than they sound and or with silent letters, like phlegm, knight, knife. > > And knight, whats up with that? Mimics the word “night” but completely hijacks the meaning for itself…its a parasite word. We should fight to take back the night. Ah, but that is the wonderful trait of the language – it carries its history with it. Long, long ago, the now superfluous letters in “knight” were pronounced. It’s a Germanic word; think of the consonant cluster in the middle of “achtung!” Not too far away from Monty Python’s “silly English K-niggit.” Where the “ph” spelling of the “f” sound came from, I have no idea, but my WAG is it’s similar. Or French. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/91 "2005-12-17T21:28:10Z")
“Unbeknownst.” What’s wrong with “unknown”? It means the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Gilligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/92 "2005-12-17T21:47:52Z")
“maths” I don’t know why. I love _math_, but seeing the word as _maths_ just irks me. “Mathematics” or “math”, please. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/93 "2005-12-17T21:50:14Z")
I hate ‘conversate’ - why can’t you say talk? Is it even a real word or a bastardization of converse? Yesterday a lady at work asked who I’d been ‘conversating’ with since I moved here and I just looked at her w/ my head to the side until she explained herself; turns out she meant what men have I been dating. I would never have gotten that. I agree that if you’re comfortable w/ using BSE, use it; but realize that you may not be understood by people who don’t speak it. That doesn’t make them a racist, it just means you both communicate differently. There’s no laziness about learning any language. ---
**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:** [December 17, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/94 "2005-12-17T21:52:17Z")
> [@](#): > > “Unbeknownst.” What’s wrong with “unknown”? It means the same thing. “Unbeknownst” is the adverbial form of “unknown”: it describes a manner in which something relates to you. The “unbeknownst” in “Unbeknownst to us, the mad scientist had set a complex booby trap” seems, to me, syntactically parallel to the adverb “unfortunately” in “Unfortunately for us, the mad scientist had set a complex booby trap”. (The more times I type “unbeknownst”, the more gibberish-like it becomes. The damn word is starting to look majorly alien. :dubious: ) ---
**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:** [December 17, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/95 "2005-12-17T21:55:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Is it even a real word or a bastardization of converse? I think it’s a backformation, i.e. the original verb was ‘converse’, its nounal form is ‘conversation’, and people created ‘conversate’ by making an analogy to nouns like ‘integration’, which does produce ‘integrate’. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/96 "2005-12-17T22:00:41Z")
> [@Lama Pacos](#): > > “Unbeknownst” is the adverbial form of “unknown”: it describes a manner in which something relates to you. The “unbeknownst” in “Unbeknownst to us, the mad scientist had set a complex booby trap” seems, to me, syntactically parallel to the adverb “unfortunately” in “Unfortunately for us, the mad scientist had set a complex booby trap”. I know – but wouldn’t “Unknown to us, the mad scientist had set a complex booby trap,” be grammatically correct, and mean exactly the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![Tio\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Tio\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tio_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/97 "2005-12-17T22:24:26Z")
[QUOTE=Portia] I hate ‘conversate’ - why can’t you say talk? Is it even a real word or a bastardization of converse? QUOTE] Conversate is a perfectly cromulent word. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/98 "2005-12-17T22:37:58Z")
What I hate is when people, in writing, confuse ensure and insure. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/99 "2005-12-17T22:52:45Z")
Ah yes, I’ve forgotten the word I hate most of all: inflammable. Used figuratively it’s fine, but in technical contexts it’s not just stupid, but dangerous. All the time I see tanker trucks driving around with signs on the back reading “Inflammable”. I guarantee that one day, one of them will get in an accident, the cab will catch fire, and people will look at the sign on the tank and say “Well, that’s a relief.” And then BOOM! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709/100 "2005-12-17T23:16:28Z")
Any use of “impact” as a verb. “Impactful” is an atrocity all by itself. I also loathe the ubiquitous misuse of the phrase “PC” as a synonym for “liberal.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-hate-and-why/335709.md?page=6)