I was looking at this page (http://lssu.edu/banished/current.php?2005) and was inspired to start our own list of phrases or words with think should be banished from the language.
My only problems is I suddenly can't think of anything. So check out the link and see if you can think of something and in the mean time I' ll see if I can't get my gray matter rebooted.
'puter.
It is computer. Is it so hard to say 3 more letters, or write com instead of ' ?
"proactive" - I hate, hate, hate, HATE this word.
"stupider" - Yes, this is a real word. Why don't people just say - "more stupid"?
I have to disagree with a couple on the original list. An Improvised Explosive Device conveys (to a bomb tech) a LOT more info than just the word 'bomb.' Maybe it's fair to say the word (phrase) does not need to be on the news every night, but to EOD types, it's very useful. Ignorance of a highly specialized field led to this suggestion.
Also, Flip Flop is an electronic circuit that is the heart of every CPU and memory component in existence. To banish this phrase is ridiculous.
Maybe, what they mean is "don't over use words" and "don't use them out of context."
Now, for my entry:
Sexual Predator. This is presently one of the most over- and misused words on the news. A sexual predator, as the term came was used in the Behavioral Sciences Unit at Quantico, was a person who hunted others NOT to have sex with them, but to fullfil a sexual desire. Many serial killers, in their behavior at the time of (or leading up to) the actual killing of their victim, are satisfying some (subconscious) sexual need. Many do not actually rape or have 'overt' sexual contact with thier victims. Or so the psychological theories go. Anyway, the term has be co-opted by the popular press to mean just about any male who commits a sex crime.
Blog is a hated word in my lexicon right now. Because it's everywhere. b***hES!
Society - I come from a college town where the first word a Freshman learns to overuse is society. Society does this, society does that, it's society's fault, we're a part of such and such society. To quote pops mcfly, "Yeaaaaauuurrrgggghhh." Of course, after that comes...
corporations - Without society, we wouldn't have corporations, because everyone knows how freaking wrong it is to have corporations. It's corporations fault we have this, it's their fault we have that. Corporations are evil. Again "Yeaaaaauuurrrgggghhh."
I think I went through a small phase of that, but I have grown up. These kids just throw the words around like they are going to explain themselves. A well developed idea can easily be summed up in that one simple word, because Freshmen just don't have the brain capacity to put their thoughts into completed sentences. Again, I was guilty, but I've since grown up. But oh, it hurts. How it hurts to hear the word abused.
Politically Correct is a phrase that tends to get me worked up. It does not seem to be as bad as it was a few years ago, but still makes me want to ridge hand some people in the neck.
Impact.
"Orientated." As in, I spent my day getting orientated in my new job.
I hate "free gifts."
I hate "irregardless."
I hate "I could care less."
And....
... drumroll...
Nucular.
If you say nucular, you should have "f***ing moron" tattooed in red on your forehead. And yes I do mean W.
Zapranoth Wrote:
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>
> Nucular.
>
> If you say nucular, you should have "f***ing
> moron" tattooed in red on your forehead. And yes
> I do mean W.
You need to read this (http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~nunberg/nucular.html) and this (http://www.slate.com/id/2071155/). Seems linguists, and several former presidents, as well as the Merriam-Webster dictionary folks might take exception to your criticism.
"on the table"
I hate that phrase. Seen often on crime dramas, like the line "the death penalty is on the table."
I don't care if people defend the usage of nucular, or say it's okay. The thread is about opinion. In my opinion, nucular totally, totally irritates the p**s out of me. It's like that knee-jerk reaction Brits used to have to certain accents. I can't help it. It totally irritates me and it should be banished from parlance.
And whoever wrote that Fresh Air piece is entirely too charitable to Bush, saying he's calculatedly trying to sound stupid by saying "nucular." Some HANDLER of his is responsible for that, if it is so. Bush *is* stupid, irregardless. No President representing my country to foreign powers should have such a tenuous grasp of the language as does Dubya.
Ah, I could care less.
Zapranoth wrote:
>>I hate "irregardless."
Zapranoth wrote:
>>Bush *is* stupid, irregardless.
I am going to assume that you did this on purpose to make a point; if that's the case, I actually think it is kinda funny.
;)
Look, I was only commenting about the Red M for Moron, which I personally thought was a bit harsh for something that in your opinion bothers YOU. Saying Eisenhower or Clinton or Bush, or a whole bunch of other people should have MORON tatoo'd on their foreheads goes a little farther than "it's just my opinion, and I don't like it."
Well, at least that's my opinion. Take it or leave it. :)
Corporate Jargon always annoys me, as does typical Hollywood-type phrases like 'This scene is not nourishing me.'
Oh and I'm not meaning to start a crazy definition war, but overuse of the word 'Terrorist' is something which irritates the crap out of me, simply because defining terrorism is bloody hard since there is such a broad amount of groups/countries/organisations which could possibly be defined by it, and as such using it as a pejorative term is sometimes misleading.
It particularly irked me when Saddam accused the court which is trying him of being Terrorist. Just throwing around the word without thought [though I'm sure Saddam put thought into it] is just annoying. Just like how every anti-government person or any bad guy 'back in the day' would be just labelled a Commie.
But that's kind of a contentious, emotional argument, so please forgive me for bringing it up. But 'Terrorist/Terrorism' is one of my most hated terms, especially when misused/overused.
And anyone who argues with me is a damn Communist...
:-P
I hate the word "politcally correct" as well. (This is ignoring the concept of the word for a moment) Nowadays whenever someone is offended by someone, or they are criticized in any way, they bring up "politcal correctness gone wild". "Political correctness gone wild" is becoming the new "politically incorrect". Nowadays many people who complain about politcal correctness have the same mentality as those who came up with PC in the first place.
"People say 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'! It's political correctness gone wild!"
"My parents are offended when I chew with my mouth open- it's politcal correctness gone wild!"
"This person said that some people who complain about politcal correctness are as easily offended as the PC. I immediatly assumed that by 'some', she meant 'all', and that she likes political correctness. PC woman gone wild!"
***
"Multitasking". I've hated this word since I first heard it. "Here, ma, I'll open this web page in a new window for you." "Ah, my little multitasker!" Hate hate hate.
"Concede". I never minded this until my roomate would always say it. "I concede that some vegetarians don't eat meat for health reasons, but I still think..." Try "I agree", "I grant you" or something once in a while
"Self-rightous" and "pretentiousness"- Personal reasons- the negative connotations of this words kind of ruined my self-esteem for a while. I 'm just starting to get back to not caring if people think I'm pretentious. And, although I hate the word, I still find myself using it, so yeah...
"Anti-social"- due to misuse. Anti-social people are people with no conscience. Not liking to hang out with people is "avoidant". Stop calling me anit-social.
I know have more...
Maybe we should ban 90% of the words polititians use and we'd live happily ever after. I hate when they (or the media that supports them) use words like "radical" or "liberal" to define all those who are not conservative and "neocon" for what essentially are conservatives.
I've got one:
"non-issue" as in, "That doesn't matter anymore. It's a non-issue."
Blech!
Another one that people here use all the time that I never cared for is "digress".
"But I digress."
Sounds too much like "digest" as in, "I hope I don't get sick before my food digests."
I was going to stay away from this topic, but what the heck; it got chilly down here, so I can take some flaming.
One of my hated words right now is "homophobic." If you are a qualified psychologist (if there truly is such a thing), you can diagnose someone as a homophobe. Violence or hatred toward homosexuals qualifies for "stupid," or "moronic" or "morally reprehensible," but it doesn't automatically mean the person is a homophobe. When I teach research projects in my English classes, students think that if they throw this word into their essay that it is an unassailable point. It's not; it is a weak crutch for a non-thinking mind. I know this isn't the only word like this; it's just one that is used so often with an attitude of "surely you couldn't be stupid enough to disagree with this" that I have grown to loathe the word and the attitudes behind it.
"Liberal" and "conservative" don't mean what they used to, and they are way overused with the wrong meanings/connotations. Ditch the words; examine the ideas held by the person with the viewpoint being expressed. If you disagree with that viewpoint, fine; argue your point of view. Don't simply throw out names and let that serve as your "argument." Six-year-olds can get into a name-calling fight. Adults should be able to do better.
Derf Wrote:
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> If you disagree with that
> viewpoint, fine; argue your point of view. Don't
> simply throw out names and let that serve as your
> "argument." Six-year-olds can get into a
> name-calling fight. Adults should be able to do
> better.
That’s all well and good, but it is easier to behave like that on a chat board, or IM, or any other detached form of communication. In person I think it is harder to behave like that. I personally have a hard time with that on a face to face situation. People in general p**s me off to begin with, and 9 out of 10 people I might meet, I wouldn't p**s on there guts if they were on fire, so avoiding a fight is hard when you go into a black out, and mash a brick into some jerks face. In theory what you say is great, but in reality not very likely. Maybe in a few more generations of the Prozac fueled sewer the world is becoming, the baser human/animal urge to lash out will be more likely. This is just my opinion.
Thad need a hug.
Someone give him a hug.
LOL.. yeah, I guess I kind of am in a bad mood. Guess I am " antisocial."
Sorry, I will be nice. :)
He really doesn't like snow, does he, Ash?
I have always hated the word empowered, empowerment. What the hell is supposed to mean? You got off your ass and did something?
I also hate the word Homeland as in Homeland Security. What idiot came up with that? When I first heard it it reminded me of South Africa. Homelands were what they called the s**thole villages they made the blacks live in. For me the phrase has a sort of Nazi sound to it.
trek_geezer Wrote:
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> I have always hated the word empowered,
> empowerment. What the hell is supposed to mean?
> You got off your ass and did something?
>
> I also hate the word Homeland as in Homeland
> Security. What idiot came up with that? When I
> first heard it it reminded me of South Africa.
> Homelands were what they called the s**thole
> villages they made the blacks live in. For me the
> phrase has a sort of Nazi sound to it.
>
I'm inclined to believe it was one of the idiots that currently uses paranoia and military/ defense contractors to make the bulk of their money now that the oil is being drained out of the Iraqi fields... Do any names come to mind? R...R...Rums....Rumsfeld? No? Maybe it started with a C...
You guys are selling this whole idea short. The English language features far too many redundancies and vaguaries. Take for instance the whole idea of indicating approval. This can be said in many ways, for instance "I liked it", "Fantastic!" or "It was transcendent." All of these statements try and say the same thing. It's too complicated and it confuses people.
Here, for clarity's sake, we can sum up all these statements as "good". See? Nice and simple.
Now, let's say we want to say that something is the opposite of "good". We can just add an "un", which reverses the meaning. All things can be said to be either "good" or "ungood".
Now, I know what you are thinking. "What if I want to say that something is really good?" Well, then we can use modifiers to indicate this. But we don't need all of these verbose adverbs. "Really, really good" or "amazingly good" fall under the aegis of being too complicated. If we want to say something is more than just "good" we can indicate this by adding a "plus". Or if we want to say that it is even more than that, we can say it is "double plus". Hence, we can have statements such as "it is double plus ungood" to say that something is really bad.
English language plus good. Remove ungood language, English double plus good.
Mofo Rising Wrote:
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> English language plus good. Remove ungood
> language, English double plus good.
Hhahaha...
Wow, this really takes me back to my Year 12 English Language class, in which we would examine certain phrases which kind of don't make sense when you think about them, like when you ask someone a question and they answer: 'yeah, no.'
Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but talking about pointless language makes me think of this comic strip:
(http://plif.andkon.com/archive/wc072.gif)
Okay, Mofo that made my head hurt. (http://www.websmileys.com/sm/violent/sterb072.gif)
Mofo Rising Wrote:
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> You guys are selling this whole idea short. The
> English language features far too many
> redundancies and vaguaries. Take for instance the
> whole idea of indicating approval. This can be
> said in many ways, for instance "I liked it",
> "Fantastic!" or "It was transcendent." All of
> these statements try and say the same thing. It's
> too complicated and it confuses people.
>
> Here, for clarity's sake, we can sum up all these
> statements as "good". See? Nice and simple.
>
> Now, let's say we want to say that something is
> the opposite of "good". We can just add an "un",
> which reverses the meaning. All things can be
> said to be either "good" or "ungood".
>
> Now, I know what you are thinking. "What if I
> want to say that something is really good?" Well,
> then we can use modifiers to indicate this. But
> we don't need all of these verbose adverbs.
> "Really, really good" or "amazingly good" fall
> under the aegis of being too complicated. If we
> want to say something is more than just "good" we
> can indicate this by adding a "plus". Or if we
> want to say that it is even more than that, we can
> say it is "double plus". Hence, we can have
> statements such as "it is double plus ungood" to
> say that something is really bad.
>
> English language plus good. Remove ungood
> language, English double plus good.
Very Orwellian, Big Brother.
can we just ban white people from saying "bling bling"?
There's nothing worse then when i'm flipping through channels and the home shopping channel has some martha stewart wannabe desperate housewife marvelling over the sapphire ring and how "all you ladies need to buy this little bit of bling"
Susan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> can we just ban white people from saying "bling
> bling"?
>
> There's nothing worse then when i'm flipping
> through channels and the home shopping channel has
> some martha stewart wannabe desperate housewife
> marvelling over the sapphire ring and how "all you
> ladies need to buy this little bit of bling"
Now that is funny, how could you get sick of that?
It's so much fun to mock and ridicule how silly people are! Sure it's annoying, but when some 45 year old mother of three outlining on TV how you must buy this 'gorgeous piece of bling' or making some other lame joke, I'm sorry, but I find it absolutely fantastic. Sure I don't give a rats about their product, but if someone can keep a straight face whilst saying that phrase is either a mindless puppet or has the mental strength of the lovechild of Einstien and Hercules.
Here are words from my line of work I hate: "Value added" = an excuse to get you to buy advertising at a higher price.
"Non-traditional revenue" = Stuff we used to give away but now charge people for.
"Family friendly" = music that some overprotective mother likes: Josh Groban and that "Butterfly Kisses" song.
"Too Gheto" = this is a lame excuse as to why station in this area won't play rap or hip hop. You never hear them say "We can't play Toby Keith - he's too barnyard."
"Dungeons and Dragons crowd" or "Black T-Shirt crowd" = At first I thought the black t-shirt crowd were the waitresses at Chilli's, but I found out I belong to both groups. You see the Dungeons and Dragons crowd is a "nerdy guy who collects comics, plays role playing games and like sci-fi." Too keep these people from listening to a station you are supposed to abstain from playing Yes, Kansas, Rush, ELP, ELO, and Pink Floyd. The Black T-shirt crowd favors Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Bauhaus, Nine Inch Nails, Marlyn Manson. Also there has been an effort among some to (pardon the pun) weed out the "tie-dye crowd," who listens to Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead. Supposedly we want the...
"Beer Drinking-Pickup Crowd" = This is why many classic rock stations in my area suck. If you play for these people Lynard Skynard, Allman Brothers, Eagles, Stevie Ray Vaughn and throw in some Nascar updates, you'll get these people. Basically the same audience as country music only younger. They request a song and then threaten to "kick your ass" if you don't play it.
"Live the life" = It means dedication to the music or format but I think it is used by a lot of people as an excuse not to hire someone with experience or talent.
"Conversational tone" = No more Gary Owens, Don Steele or even Casy Kasem. They want announcers who sound like Pee Wee Herman now.
Ozzymandias Wrote:
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>
>
> "Dungeons and Dragons crowd" or "Black T-Shirt
> crowd" = At first I thought the black t-shirt
> crowd were the waitresses at Chilli's, but I found
> out I belong to both groups. You see the Dungeons
> and Dragons crowd is a "nerdy guy who collects
> comics, plays role playing games and like sci-fi."
> Too keep these people from listening to a station
> you are supposed to abstain from playing Yes,
> Kansas, Rush, ELP, ELO, and Pink Floyd. The Black
> T-shirt crowd favors Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster
> Cult, Bauhaus, Nine Inch Nails, Marlyn Manson.
> Also there has been an effort among some to
> (pardon the pun) weed out the "tie-dye crowd," who
> listens to Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, the
> Grateful Dead. Supposedly we want the...
>
> "Beer Drinking-Pickup Crowd" = This is why many
> classic rock stations in my area suck. If you play
> for these people Lynard Skynard, Allman Brothers,
> Eagles, Stevie Ray Vaughn and throw in some Nascar
> updates, you'll get these people. Basically the
> same audience as country music only younger. They
> request a song and then threaten to "kick your
> ass" if you don't play it.
Reading that really burns me, for some reason.
Another word I forgot: "tween". I used it today, and had to kick myself.
I really hate being asked "how's the fam?"
To borrow George Carlin's voice for a moment, what LA ****sucker thought THAT one up?
Oh no....
Here's another one I just learned:
"Lactivist"
READ ABOUT IT HERE (http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Health/story?id=1378087)
(those women annoy the hell out of me)
This is a tough one, because it's often not the word but the usage that annoys.
Networking - a perfectly good word if you're talking about computers, but in the hands of business types, it's bad, bad, bad. Basically any opportunity for business people to socialize. Same thing goes with "interface." Actually, any piece of technical jargon that has been misused by someone to sound cool.
Even when terms are used in their proper context, it can be annoying if the speaker thinks they're using some cool insider language. I've had to deal with somebody who liked to use words like "on-line" (and basically any computer-related terms) with extra emphasis and fingers making little quotes. "Many people these days are .....'ON LINE' ......and we should provide some sort of .....'EMAIL' ...... notification for them." This is just in the last couple of years. Didn't know squat about computers, but man, did she think she was the guru.
I hate "irregardless."
A friend of mine worked with a guy who thought it it was "illregardless" . Now THAT was annoying.
-Ed
Don't remember if anybody has posted this, but I hate it when people use words like "dethaw." OK, it's either "thaw" or "defrost." To dethaw something, if there were such a word, would be to freeze it. Actually, it might only apply to refreezing something you've thawed.
I heard an even more ridiculous term when a buddy of mine bought a foil stamping machine a few years back. The instructional video was clearly a homemade affair, and the guy kept telling the viewer to "unloosen" things - on the video he's shipping with his product! Nice. And it was one of those deals where he wants to keep selling the supplies to run the machine, so it's not as though he shouldn't care about looking like an idiot.
After about the second time, I looked at my friend and said, "Uh, wouldn't unloosening something be tightening it?" After that, we laughed every time he said it. And he said it a lot.
My dumb-ass brother-in-law says both irregardless AND unloosen. See what I'm up against?
Unloosen? If you're trying elicit sympathy man, it's working.