Any particular word(s), phrase(s), etc. you particularly despise?

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AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around frustrations with certain phrases and buzzwords commonly used in professional and casual contexts. The phrase "good job" is criticized for being a euphemism for a high-paying job, while "you need to be flexible" is seen as a demand for personal sacrifice for a superior's benefit. Participants express annoyance with manager-speak such as "work smarter, not harder" and "crunch time," which often imply excessive work expectations. Misused phrases like "should of" instead of "should have" and incorrect pronunciations, such as "tempachure," also draw ire. The conversation highlights a broader disdain for jargon and linguistic errors that detract from clear communication, with many contributors sharing their personal pet peeves regarding language misuse. Overall, the thread reflects a collective frustration with the decline of language precision in both professional and everyday settings.
  • #101
1MileCrash said:
Not to digress but, why is that impossible? I thought time was not infinitely divisible (planck time)?

Because simultaneity depends on the frame of reference of the observer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity
 
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  • #102
Pythagorean said:
"if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"
Although a sentence I actually like in response,

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
 
  • #103
There is no "I" in team.
 
  • #104
"Team player" meaning a clueless patsy that will bust their guts for no personal gain.
 
  • #105
I worked for a clueless blow-hard that had to use the biggest words available each and every time. When he wanted to indicate causation, he never used "consequently". He always used "subsequently" instead. That was his go-to big-boy word, and he used it incorrectly 100% of the time. What a maroon.
 
  • #106
Know anybody that has to say "utilize" instead of "use" every time? You are dealing with a pompous poser.
 
  • #107
turbo-1 said:
Know anybody that has to say "utilize" instead of "use" every time? You are dealing with a pompous poser.

While I might sometimes say one in place of the other in drunken conversation, I don't think of them as meaning the same thing. To me, "utilize" is technological whereas "use" is more pedestrian. The dictionary might disagree with me, though.
 
  • #108
lisab said:
Oh, that reminds me of one that makes me crazy!
Well, I'm glad that we finally got to the bottom of that mystery. :rolleyes:
 
  • #109
Moving/going forward. Will grammar books soon be teaching us that verbs have past tense, present tense, and going forward tense?
 
  • #110
Calling a person an "individual." Seems to be used a lot by police and ex-military.
 
  • #111
turbo-1 said:
Know anybody that has to say "utilize" instead of "use" every time? You are dealing with a pompous poser.

What turbo said.

Add to that: anyone who refers to themselves as "myself" when they aren't talking about themselves being alone. "I am by myself" is fine. "Please respond to myself", and I want to smack you upside the head for saying that.
 
  • #112
turbo-1 said:
There is no "I" in team.

Although, as Hugh Laurie pointed out in "House: MD", there is a "me" if you shuffle the letters around a bit.

Okay, that was a stroke of brilliance on the part of the writer rather than Hugh, but I can't recall the name thereof.
 
  • #113
GeorginaS said:
"Please respond to myself", and I want to smack you upside the head for saying that.

I see your smack, and raise you a grenade down his pants.
 
  • #114
Jack21222 said:
It actually means quite the opposite...

my thinking was this. The person says something insulting about a certain class of people... then realizes members from that class of people is present. So they add "present company excluded" to cover themselves. But that's just really another insult to the perception of the said company.

Also... it was a joke...
 
  • #115
turbo-1 said:
Know anybody that has to say "utilize" instead of "use" every time? You are dealing with a pompous poser.

How about "usage"? A long time ago I did a stint in retail, and the manager once asked if I could tidy up a back room shelf with lots of little odds and ends on it. The words she used:
"Try to maximize the usage of the spaceage." And she was totally serious. I said "You mean optimize the use of space?" And I could see the wheels spinning for a while.
 
  • #116
Chi Meson said:
And I could see the wheels spinning for a while.

:smile:
I so love it when that happens, but always regret when it happens without an appreciative audience.
 
  • #117
Danger said:
:smile:
I so love it when that happens, but always regret when it happens without an appreciative audience.
Yes, sadly, no one else was around. :(
 
  • #118
GeorginaS said:
Add to that: anyone who refers to themselves as "myself" when they aren't talking about themselves being alone. "I am by myself" is fine. "Please respond to myself", and I want to smack you upside the head for saying that.

How about "I'm standing beside myself..."
 
  • #119
mugaliens said:
How about "I'm standing beside myself..."

I would immediately accuse him of being schizoid, but I'm somewhat uncouth in personal communications.
 
  • #120
lisab said:
Right, so then it's settled. Aluminum it is. In the interest of efficiency, of course :biggrin:.

What just happened here?

Ubuntu runs an auto-spell check on every text box I type in and Aluminum constantly has a red line under it.
Then again, so does the word Ubuntu. It can't even spell it's own name.
 
  • #121
jarednjames said:
What just happened here?

Verbal jiu jitsu :devil:.
 
  • #122
jarednjames said:
What just happened here? Then again, so does the word Ubuntu. It can't even spell it's own name.
:smile:

Danger said:
Unless they are exactly equal in their arrival times, which is physically impossible, we would follow the traffic regulations. The first one has the right-of-way, then the next in line. If there is doubt as to who is next, the one to the right of the first goes next.
If it is unclear as to who was there first, we would sit around for about 5 minutes, and then all drive into a cluster-**** in the middle at the same time. We're polite, but not always overly brilliant.

That's why we invented roundabouts. (Disclaimer: I don't know if we invented roundabouts.)
Unless they're mini-roundabouts, in which case trouble ensues.
Do you have roundabouts in Canada? I gather from The Simpsons they're not in the US.
 
  • #123
nobahar said:
:smile:



That's why we invented roundabouts. (Disclaimer: I don't know if we invented roundabouts.)
Unless they're mini-roundabouts, in which case trouble ensues.
Do you have roundabouts in Canada? I gather from The Simpsons they're not in the US.

While isolated specimens can be found, they so rare as to render the species ecologically extinct. Iow, they cannot comingle to mate and multiply. Probably a climate thing.
 
  • #124
How about "for all intensive purposes"?
 
  • #125
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Do people actually say that?

Correct = "for all intents and purposes" isn't it?
 
  • #126
jarednjames said:
Do people actually say that?

Correct = "for all intents and purposes" isn't it?

People say it, yes, and they insist I am wrong when I correct them. At best they'll concede that maybe the phrase has two equally-correct versions. :\
 
  • #127
Ben Niehoff said:
People say it, yes, and they insist I am wrong when I correct them. At best they'll concede that maybe the phrase has two equally-correct versions. :\
There are dictionaries and class courses for people like that.
 
  • #128
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Nice.

I saw "albeit" written as "all be it" once. By an otherwise intelligent person, even.
 
  • #129
Ben Niehoff said:
How about "for all intensive purposes"?
Oh, that's a good one!
 
  • #130
OK, one that's always bothered me:

"a myriad of" in place of simply "myriad"

Apparently though, the wrongness of the former is rapidly fading; it has been declared OK to use in myriad sources.
 
  • #131
Another one becoming quite prevalent is "per say".

However, I think the one thing the drives me the most nuts (aside from what's already been written) is people using "everyday" as an adverb (in place of "every day").
 
  • #132
As a food lover, I just cringe when ever I hear the term "au jus" misused, which is all of the time.

Au jus is the French term for "with juice", the juice being the natural juices from the meat, as in "roast beef au jus" (roast beef with juice). It is not "roast beef with au jus", which would be "roast beef with with juice".
 
  • #133
Got, i have got drives me nuts.
 
  • #134
Ben Niehoff said:
However, I think the one thing the drives me the most nuts (aside from what's already been written) is people using "everyday" as an adverb (in place of "every day").

That would be one of those everyday annoyances, wouldn't it?
 
  • #135
Frankly

Honestly
 
  • #136
Literally, when not used literally. :frown:
 
  • #137
Hurkyl said:
Literally, when not used literally. :frown:
There's an auto insurance commercial in heavy rotation in which a woman says that when she saw her quote "I literally fell out of my chair." Ack!
 
  • #138
Evo said:
As a food lover, I just cringe when ever I hear the term "au jus" misused, which is all of the time.

Au jus is the French term for "with juice", the juice being the natural juices from the meat, as in "roast beef au jus" (roast beef with juice). It is not "roast beef with au jus", which would be "roast beef with with juice".

Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.
 
  • #139
Ben Niehoff said:
Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.

I thought you only pronounced the final consonant if it is followed by a vowel? (Vowel must be in the same word)
 
  • #140
Back to the subject at hand, as per another thread:

When people use weight when they mean mass. (For example "It weighs 20kg")

I know it isn't such a massive issue in everyday life, what with Earths gravity being fairly consistent and the subject of conversations generally being about an object on Earth, but it really does bug me.
 
  • #142
Ben Niehoff said:
Add to that the fact that most people neglect to pronounce the S in "jus". Just because a word is French doesn't not mean you can just ignore any final consonants.
Oh zhew is correct in French. Perhaps it's ok to add the s sound at the end in English.
 
  • #143
re: food phrases how about "to die for?"
 
  • #144
People that can't type the word something, and even worse may not even know that the word something exists.

From a Homework question I just saw "I wanted to ask sth".
 
  • #145
I know a person who says "doggy dog" instead of "dog eat dog", and I though he was an unfortunate aberration until I read a political op-ed recently saying that the the political climate in DC was "doggy dog".
 
  • #146
When people say,
"We are doing really good" instead of "We are doing really well"

"No offense but..." When what you say is honestly going to irk them
 
  • #147
turbo-1 said:
I know a person who says "doggy dog" instead of "dog eat dog", and I though he was an unfortunate aberration until I read a political op-ed recently saying that the the political climate in DC was "doggy dog".
:smile:
 
  • #148
Another one that really sickened me was "disbursed". It was mis-used over and over by a very pompous woman that I worked with. She would say "I disbursed the reports" instead of "I distributed the reports" or something similar. Disbursed means that you have made a payment, especially out of a dedicated fund. Maybe she meant "dispersed" as in "spread them to the winds" which might have been a better commentary on her efforts at properly distributing them.
 
  • #149
Oh! People who think that the word is "walla", likely because they hear "voilà" constantly mispronounced.

Also. "People that" rather than "people who". Or "women that" or "doctors that". Blerg! Those are all humans, even when you're referring to them by titles. "Doctors who like to jog..."

That one seriously gets on my nerves.
 
  • #150
GeorginaS said:
Oh! People who think that the word is "walla", likely because they hear "voilà" constantly mispronounced.
Never heard that one...

Walla?

Is the human race regressing to oral learning? Don't people read anymore?
 

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