Well, I think it has a different meaning-- using “unknown to us” means either the mad scientist or the booby trap is unknown to us, wheread using “unbeknownst to us” means the whole situation described in the second clause is unknown to us. I think. I don’t know if anybody actually thinks this way when they’re constructing a sentence, though. I know I don’t. I’d just use “unbeknownst” because it sounds right to me.
That’s a good catch, Lama Pacos. The word disambiguates, and is therefore useful. Or should I say utilizeful…? 
Utilizational. 
[QUOTE=Rhinocerous]
I do not recall granting you permission to have needs.
That would, like, rule out entire languages.
I hate the word “lingerie.” No one pronounces it correctly, and if I pronounce it correctly everyone thinks I mispronounce it. The way it’s pronounced now doesn’t make sense in either English or French. How in the world did that weird pronunciation come about?
The “hegemony” bomb should never be dropped into casual conversation, it should be reserved for print only.
Nah, don’t even type it.
What’s the correct pronunciation?
I’ve always pronounced it “lahn-zuhr-ray”.
[QUOTE=EvilAsh]
Yes, this type of mastery of vocabulary really embiggens the speaker.
So what about the army uniforms, punk regalia, and Mormon outfits of the world?
People have pretty much covered all of the usual “THIS MEANS NOTHING” and “THIS IS WRONG” words… so here’s one that is both meaningful and proper, but should never be used: “bimonthly.” Why? Because nobody can remember whether the damn thing means “twice monthly” or “every two months.” Please, for the love of Og, use those two phrases instead: their meaning is instantly clear.
[QUOTE=Leaffan]
I have a personal thing about Wednesday, and February. Being from the UK originally, I pronounce Wednesday with 3 syllables. It’s WED-NS-DAY, not WENS-DAY. And February isn’t pronounced like January. It has an R in the middle.
QUOTE]
Someone from the U.K. is criticizing pronunciation? That’s the pot calling the kettle black. Tell it to my brother, Anthony, not An-ton-e, whose last name is not Cholmendeley or, as you would say it, Chum-lee. Lucky thing he’s not a lieutenant or a leff-ten-ent and that he doesn’t live in Gloucestershire (Gloss-ter-sher). Of course, if you really disagree with me we could fight about it. Let’s just make sure we use the Marquess of Queensberry (Mar-kwiss of Queens-bry) rules. 
The point I am trying to make is that each country has its own pronunciations that are endemic. It doesn’t make one country right and the other wrong. It’s just part of each country’s heritage and adds to its charms.
So you go on saying Wed-ns-day & Fe-bru-ary and I’ll keep saying Wens-day & Feb-u-ary (both of which are perfectly proper pronunciations – check the dictionary).
And the word I most hate has already been mentioned. It’s paradigm. It’s a pretentious piece of s**t, that suddenly exploded all over this culture like projectile vomit. As if you couldn’t use the words “pattern” “example” or “model” (from my Webster’s New World Dictionary). No, corporate types and others who fancied themselves as intellectuals had to use “paradigm” as if to sound smarter than the rest of us.
Will I get hung if I throw in a whole phrase?
“At the end of the day…”
Because, at the end of the day, I really hate the phrase “at the end of the day”.
To approximate the French, in English it would be “lan-zher-ee.” In French it would be a bit more nasal. The first syllable should sound more like “Dan” than “Don.” The N is nasal in French, but I don’t expect English speakers to manage that. The final syllable should be an EE sound, not an AY sound. What bugs me is how everyone tends to say “Lon-ger-ay” which makes no sense in either English or French. I don’t even use the word anymore, I just say “underwear.”
Turducken. I’m sure that it tastes great, but I’m not all that keen on the idea of eating something that starts with the word “turd.” If they’d called it something like “chiduckey” it might sound a little more appetizing!
Yeah, cuz you totally can’t understand that low-class heathen babble. It’s like they’re from another planet. Right?
:rolleyes:
I hate “PC” as a synonym for liberal, as Diogenes the Cynic mentioned, except nobody uses it in any other sense these days, at least not positive ones. Most of the time when somebody complains about the “PC police” or whatever a little guy in my head pops up and crosses out what they wrote and inserts ‘Waah, I wanna call people n*res and kkes!’ instead. It’s totally unfair and probably inaccurate half the time, but the little dude with the marker is relentless. It’s damn near Two Thousand and Six, give it a rest. Nobody is going to come to your house and make you be nice to a gay man. (Oh, crap, there goes the little guy again). I know people using it may not actually be racists, homophobes, and so on, but they are marching under the same flag with this crap now. Your public word choices are not exempt from scrutiny, or so ennobled by your right to speak that you can pretend you make them in a vacuum. So just knock it off, pick a new horse to beat, and stop sneering about the “PC police”, it’s so 1996.
I hate the word ‘drizzle’. It makes me irrationally angry. Also ‘drenched’.
I shudder when I encounter the phrase “wash it down with”, in reference to a beverage and food.
Hmm, perhaps I’m a bit hydrophobic…
Forgot “minging” and “minger”. Again, a bit of a UK/Ireland thing.
I love ‘moist’! Moist and delicious…mmmmm!
I nominate ‘snowperson’. For the love of God, is the presupposition that a figure made of snow is male a serious hindrance?
Trivial. For a computer scientist/mathematician/phycisist etc. everything is trivial. The word is overused. Easy, simple and a thousand other words get the same meaning across, yet trivial is the word that is used most often.
Not sure if this one is here, but “irregardless”. Gah. It’s regardless, folks. I suppose you could say irregardful, but who would?
And it’s safe, safer and safest–NOT safe, more safe and most safe.
I heard “most safe” in the grocery store this morning. :rolleyes:
Carry on.