“Basically” and “Per”… People are using the word “basically” as a “filler” word. It is a lazy speech habit and I’m gol’ durn tired of it. The minute I see the word “per” used in a memo or letter I automatically write off that person as a pretentious asshole.
Synergy is one that I hate with an unrelenting passion. Also, as someone else said, I hate, loathe, and despise all the words used to describe the bodily functions and MOST of the words used to describe body parts—especially the dreaded “C” word.
If my darling Marcie hears me use “panties” in any context at all, she beats me severely—she cannot abide that word.
Across, because I used to put an inadvertent t on the end of it.
Fervent, just because.
Hegemony, for its pomposity and Jingoistic, for its smugness.
I will, however, defend it as something scribbled on paperwork – as in “ok per twicks,” on something that someone verbally okayed that might (i.e., should) be questioned later. (In my job, everything gets initialled and the documentation on a job ends up being a stapled-together mess.)
I’ve always hated niche and clique pronounced WITHOUT the French accent. It makes them sound like some sort of disease-carrying bug.
Femininity.
I can’t pronounce it (fenemimaninimu… itity…?), can’t spell it because I can’t pronounce it, and dislike the connotations it carries.
lover
EW. Is it possible to use this word in any context without sounding smarmy (another word I don’t like, but it fits here) and gross?
“I don’t want to be your friend…I want to be your lover!” – spoken by some woman on “Days of Our Lives” 20 years ago and it’s been burned into my brain, never to be forgotten.
I also hate the Arabic word mufti (GAH!), which, thankfully, I don’t run into very often.
Nothing tops “Holla”.
What the hell is that?! I hate these slang terms.
“Holla back, yo, holla back”.
Firstly, it’s spelled “holler”.
Second, it means to “yell, or to shout”.
“Hey! Yell back at me! YELL!”
How irritating.
Ditto for me on “pop” and “panties”. I also can’t stand the sound of “grown-up” (it’s adult, dammit!) and “boobs” (especially when uttered by women, for some reason).
Penultimate, when wrongly used to mean the “utmost”, or “super-ultimate”. It actually means the next to last.
Another vote for rural.
I also hate the sound of gubernatorial - I think it’s the “goob” part that bothers me.
I don’t hate the word, but I just don’t get the pronunciation of the word nuclear. You know how everyone makes fun of Presidents Carter and Bush for their pronunication? You can say the (allegedly) ) different pronunciations to me in person, or type them out phoenetically, and my ear/mind just can’t hear the difference! I don’t even know if the one I hear is the correct or the incorrect version, because they both sound exactly the same to me.
My list of words and phrases that make me cringe…
Inchoate
Nefarious
Canker
Gonads
Jizz, Jism, or Chism for semen (where did this godawful term come from?)
I have nothing against French, but I usually don’t enjoy people using French words and phrases (usually out of context and mispronounced) to pepper up their English…as in “savoir faire”, “je ne sais quoi”, “au courant”, and “panache” or even “garage” with a French accent. Maybe once in a great while, but not over and over again.
Seeing as rural has been getting so much hate, I figured I’d pop back in to say I actually like that word. If you actually know how to pronounce it, it flows very nicely 
ruuurrrooll
ruuuurooll
its fun!
[bold]Wordsmith[/bold]. When my boss thinks something needs to be edited and reworded, she ALWAYS says, “let’s wordsmith this a bit.” I swear, next time she does it, I don’t think I’ll be able to control my rage.
[bold]Chagrin[/bold]. I don’t know why, I just hate the sound of it.
[bold]Nauseous[/bold], as in, “I feel nauseous.” No, you feel nauseated. I don’t care what the dictionary says, and no, it’s not funny to say it just to piss me off.