bad words

what words are you sick and tired of?

the top of my hated list is:

authentic

(seems to mean "the way i think it should be", as in the "bible in english like jesus really talked" we used to joke about growing up.)

guestimate
dude
"Guest"
meta
"some" as in "some 20 people were killed when a bomb exploded"
gravitas

Hmmm...what about bad phrases. In interviews over the past week we've gotten a lot of "work hard, play hard"s and "thinking outside the box"es. Welcome to auto-no zone.

People at my job overuse the word "color" after you've filled them in on the details of a project. "Thank you for the additional color on that topic." It's kinda irritating.

Authentic, Spaciousness, Light, Light and Space, Sheng Fui, Community, Dollop, Reduction, ___ Compote, ___ Kids, the whole fucking library of Republican and Democratic Party buzzwords...... but, not Dyno-Mite. That will live in infamy.

smacks of - Two words, I know.
shibboleth - Never spoken, frequently written.
pooch - wtf? Just say "dog". The tabs love this one.

erikka wrote: People at my job overuse the word "color" after you've filled them in on the details of a project. "Thank you for the additional color on that topic."

Ew. That's a new one for me ... I'm so glad I work at home so I don't have to hear that kind of crap.

laura wrote: [quote=erikka]People at my job overuse the word "color" after you've filled them in on the details of a project. "Thank you for the additional color on that topic."

Ew. That's a new one for me ... I'm so glad I work at home so I don't have to hear that kind of crap.

Oh, I used to hear that one all the time. Once at my corporate job, somebody actually said to me "I'll have my people call your people to set up a meeting". I laughed outright and even though I had a staff of 20+ people I told them their "people" could call me directly to set it up. Loser!

I hate "special." I always feel like it is a cop-out of a word. Special is a lazy person's/Hallmark word. It is used in so many lame contexts I can't even begin to start to list them. But, it nags at me each time I hear it. I always want to know how someone/something is special and not just hear that word.

"I'm sorry" People overuse these two words way too much, especially if they display no change of behavior to back up the words. So, I suppose I hate these words when actions don't follow.

I really hate it when someone describes someone as being, say, "80 years young".

I kind of hate the word "sexy" because it's usually used to describe things that are far from being attractive or sexy.

"Sexy" and "80 years young" just sound like bad personal ad writing to me. Might as well throw in "I like walks along the beach, holding hands and staring into my soulmate's eyes" while you're at it.

Sometimes the "80 years young" thing is used in personal ads, but I find it worse when someone uses it about someone else - it's meant to be a compliment, but I find it so patronizing (in an aren't-old-people-cute kinda way) and having no respect or value for age. Bleah.

when i worked for americorps, we were supposed to "role model" good behavior.

and be sure that our service was "impactful".

(and we were working in education....)

laura wrote: Sometimes the "80 years young" thing is used in personal ads, but I find it worse when someone uses it about someone else - it's meant to be a compliment, but I find it so patronizing (in an aren't-old-people-cute kinda way) and having no respect or value for age. Bleah.

That's true. There are a lot of half-assed comments that people make in an attempt at a compliment, which they don't even realize are insulting.

I get really irritated when I get emails with internet lingo or whatever it's called. All sorts of abbreviations and acronymns. In fact, my students write essays that way too. Just spell it out, please. Ugh! That's another one that bugs me too. Ugh this and ugh that.

GiGi wrote: I get really irritated when I get emails with internet lingo or whatever it's called. All sorts of abbreviations and acronymns. In fact, my students write essays that way too.

Oh, that's disturbing.

GiGi wrote: I get really irritated when I get emails with internet lingo or whatever it's called. All sorts of abbreviations and acronymns. In fact, my students write essays that way too. Just spell it out, please. Ugh! That's another one that bugs me too. Ugh this and ugh that.

LOL @ that. Btw, have you Googled stats on how many peeps use shortcutz iwhen speaking or composing Eng?

I'm sick of the transitional phrase "that said" that I see people use a lot in TV interviews when describing a situation or stating an opinion, i.e. "Republicans haven't accomplished jack since controling the House and Senate. That said, I hope they maintain control". (Any English teachers out there know what the grammatical term for that sort of phrase is??? I'd love to know)

For the last 3 years I've been tired of the "i know! right?" that people say when they agree with an exclamation one has just made. ex: "that story is insane!" "i know! right?". People seem to use that one ALL the time.

I've always despised the adjectives "edgy" and "tight". Thank god "tight" seems to be dying down.

I'm also sick of hearing Gnarles Barkley "Crazy" everytime I go into Key Foods or Kings Pharmacy. ENOUGH WITH THAT FUCKIN SONG ALREADY!!!!

as long as we're on to phrases...

"i guess we'll have to agree to disagree"

you're not fooling anyone with that one; it means "i know you're right, but i'm too stubborn to admit it and too lazy to formulate a rational argument"

Another business term I am over "Net/net"

Idlewild wrote: [quote=GiGi]I get really irritated when I get emails with internet lingo or whatever it's called. All sorts of abbreviations and acronymns. In fact, my students write essays that way too. Just spell it out, please. Ugh! That's another one that bugs me too. Ugh this and ugh that.

LOL @ that. Btw, have you Googled stats on how many peeps use shortcutz iwhen speaking or composing Eng?

Yes, that's exactly what I mean Idlewind! I can't make sense of it or keep up with these kids! I have to look stuff up in the urban dictionary all the time. "Fo' shizzle, my nizzle, that's wack."

Oh...here's one along business non-speak lines: "It is what it is." That one finally - and mercifully - fell out of vogue in my field some years ago; unfortunately my brother-in-law latched onto it for awhile recently and would giggle after he said it. Ugh! Heh, sorry - couldn't resist.

GiGi wrote: [quote=Idlewild][quote=GiGi]I get really irritated when I get emails with internet lingo or whatever it's called. All sorts of abbreviations and acronymns. In fact, my students write essays that way too. Just spell it out, please. Ugh! That's another one that bugs me too. Ugh this and ugh that.

LOL @ that. Btw, have you Googled stats on how many peeps use shortcutz iwhen speaking or composing Eng?

Yes, that's exactly what I mean Idlewind! I can't make sense of it or keep up with these kids! I have to look stuff up in the urban dictionary all the time. "Fo' shizzle, my nizzle, that's wack."

Geez! For a second I thought my joke was going flat. Ty, I mean thank you for the save.

Good save, Idlewind

Why you, I outta..............................

Idlewild wrote: Why you, I outta..............................

You'd have to get in line

my favorite response to ppl wanting to know when something will get done, which I think they ALL hate:

"it's just machine time. it'll finish when it finishes."

flavors - this is currently being overused on a project I'm on at work. "All different flavors of the order path." "The order state has different flavors." "What flavor are we talking about?" Sooo stupid. A flavor is cherry, grape, vanilla, not "open," "closed," and "pre-validation."

Stupid shit like this overheard when I lived in Jersey:

tranny - for transmission
'tein - for protein

doublediamond wrote: flavors - this is currently being overused on a project I'm on at work. "All different flavors of the order path." "The order state has different flavors." "What flavor are we talking about?" Sooo stupid. A flavor is cherry, grape, vanilla, not "open," "closed," and "pre-validation."

Stupid shit like this overheard when I lived in Jersey:

tranny - for transmission
'tein - for protein

You forgot one:

One that I really dislike, and an east coast special, it seems - 'what happened?' as a replacement for, 'Pardon me - I didn't hear what you said. Could you please repeat that?'

GAH!!!

Subject: slanguage quiz

A British guy I know uses a word to describe a mean email: "nastygram". Try it with a British accent, like "nostygrom". I think it's cute.