I am fascinated by words and language.
💬🗣
I wrote in this post about some of my favorite words that aren't in English.
I love different accents when spoken in English and sayings from collection nations.
But there are a few words that have been grating like nails on chalkboard.
Populism
Paradigm shift
Pussy
profiling
That's a lot of 'P' words!
Fake news - that is two but one rarely hears one without the other these days
surveillance
hack
trump-ing
dynamic
despite Brexit
fashion trend
luxurious
hip
Millenial Instagrammer
algorithm
live press conference
ban
hubris
'So' - when starting a new train of thought or in the beginning of a sentence. This is like starting a new conversation with - therefore.
I know it is an accepted form of vernacular presently but it still sounds like the beginning of a story that university girls will start with when they recount how they think their professor is hitting on them. Please don't use in professional setting.
Please feel free to vent!
💬🗣
I wrote in this post about some of my favorite words that aren't in English.
I love different accents when spoken in English and sayings from collection nations.
But there are a few words that have been grating like nails on chalkboard.
Populism
Paradigm shift
Pussy
profiling
That's a lot of 'P' words!
Fake news - that is two but one rarely hears one without the other these days
surveillance
hack
trump-ing
dynamic
despite Brexit
fashion trend
luxurious
hip
Millenial Instagrammer
algorithm
live press conference
ban
hubris
'So' - when starting a new train of thought or in the beginning of a sentence. This is like starting a new conversation with - therefore.
I know it is an accepted form of vernacular presently but it still sounds like the beginning of a story that university girls will start with when they recount how they think their professor is hitting on them. Please don't use in professional setting.
Please feel free to vent!
Hello CSW, You are right-on with all your choices! I have another overused P-word that I can't stand: passion. Its constant presence in fact makes me doubt the user's real enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is another recent buzzword that I am sick of.
I have also learned to become wary of words like hilarious, uproarious, laugh riot (excuse me, laff riot), black comedy, dark humor, or even just funny to describe books or movies. The more these words appear in the blurbs, the less often I smile, and I may even be put-off by the contents.
--Jim
Passion in a cv is a definite no no! Empathy being overused is converse to it actually existing don't you think Jim?
DeleteLove your opinions as always. I agree with all but hubris and so... Mostly because I use them liberally. I'm so burned out on US election-speak. I think it should forever banned.
ReplyDeleteSince Brexit referendum hubris is practically every other word here! Election speak is so bad it has upset pollsters hehe
DeleteLove your list 11/10!
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what is grating on my nerves these days: politicians (usually) who start every sentence with "Look" said very emphatically. So annoying and obnoxious, and it's even worse when they follow it with the name of the journalist who's interviewing them, it's like they are talking to a five year old.
Another annoying one: "Let's Be Clear". XO
Let's be clear and then obfuscate. It's universal!!! With due respect followed by - but you're an idiot. Face palm xx
DeleteLove this post! "Sun dried tomato of words!" - cool! (My dentist say "cool" so it must be OK.)
DeleteSo true! There's been a Question Time trend since the days of the Howard Government of deliberately avoiding answering questions in Parliament - unless of course it suits them. They go off on tangents and sidetracks or attack the Opposition - anything to avoid answering difficult questions. Both sides do it now. But I remember the work we used to do when Gareth Evans was Foreign Minister in seriously addressing all possible predicted questions. On any hot issues that related to the portfolio we used to prepare Question Time briefs for him to use (although he was across these anyway).
What annoys me more than the buzz words are English words incorrectly used, including by people who should know better, eg: pacific when people mean specific, to careen when they mean to career, to prevaricate when they mean to procrastinate, accept when they mean except. There are so many.
Also, must discipline myself because I have a bad tendency to use words like amazing and unbelievable which I notice Trump uses all the time to describe his own "great works".
Also hate the interpolation of "like" in interviews with starlets and models. Why do they nearly all do this?! They always sound so incoherent and silly.
PS What does va jayjay mean and when is it used? (I lead a sheltered life.)
Pammie xx
Pammie...get ready- grey's anatomy of all shows which was a hospital based drama made vajay Jay mainstream and is what fictional doctors say when they mean to say vagina! Xx
DeleteWow! Glad I didn't ever try to use it. Had no idea! I though it was from the French "va" meaning Go ... something or someone with the initials JJ. Could have been so embarrassing. So glad I asked. Don't think any real life friends would have known though. Except maybe one of the sons of a friend and her two DiLs who are all doctors. But maybe even they wouldn't know here in Oz. Thank goodness I haven't used it on-line.
DeleteIn addition to all the buzz words you've quoted there are the expressions like "take it to the next level" - I really loathe that one - and also those from corporate speak. Plus "words can't express". Of course they can if people try or at least take a sincere stab at a difficult message/emotion. Pammie
Teenspeak in particular
ReplyDeleteMy bad ( this irritates me no end)
Bae
Pumped
Cray
Yolo
and the grunt they sometimes do instead of using their words. I just always try to be polite & say, "I didn't get that"
Everyone else:
EQ (try not to roll my eyes when I hear this)
Unconscious bias
Like
Seemingly
Classic
Den xx
Eq is huge and of course followed by unconscious bias!!! It's the new 'classic' hehe xx
Deleteagree with all your words, and your readers. may i add "va jay jay" ........ come on!!!
ReplyDeleteas an american, can i apologize for our despicable president? so many of these words erupted due to him and his vile (i like that word!) behavior
debra
VJJ was the sun-dried tomato of words at one point and hard to get away from!
DeleteMy pet hate at the moment is 'statement' - a noun used as an adjective - as in 'statement rug', 'statement necklace', 'statement bag' - what does it mean? Expensive? Flashy? Loud? Large? And there's also 'iconic'. It's spreading like ebola. Grrrr!
ReplyDeleteforgot about iconic!!! flashy for me has been a while. but didn't miss it now that i hear it hehe. i wonder if statement rug is a term would not fully complete sentence rug apply?
DeleteActually and literally.
ReplyDeleteSo funny. Rachel Zoe is always misusing "literally". Not long ago she FB posted about something that surprised her: "I literally died". A number of people wrote back: "No, you didn't!!! Pammie
Deleterachel zoe - she has mutilated the language but then again she only speaks Californian and perhaps when she speaks English she is fluent one hopes?
DeleteGREAT.
ReplyDeleteI will NEVER USE THAT WORD AGAIN as THAT IDIOT uses it TOO MUCH..........YOU KNOW WHO I MEAN!
Ha! neither as a verb
DeleteCURATE! I hate that word used in any other context than a museum sense. Just because you pull some things together, you're not curating them. It's much more than that.
ReplyDeletehttps://pigtown-design.blogspot.com/2015/01/two-words-that-make-me-cringe.html
A new one I dislike is another P word - PIVOT. It now means answering a question with something that wasn't asked. Q: Kellyanne, is the sky blue? A: Blue will be the colour of Hilary Clinton's prison uniform.
It is so annoying for sure! Pivot is just hitchhiking from 'axis' and equally as meaningless!
DeleteHi again, I agree with most of these, and especially Meg's nomination of curate. I also forgot before to include my most hated word, impact used as a verb and meaning "to affect," as in "The weather impacted our vacation." There is no quicker way to make oneself sound like an idiot.
ReplyDelete--Jim
'effect' and 'affect' for native speakers does seem odd for me on a side note to complicate / but interesting bc over here i don't hear 'impacted' much in that way.
DeleteIt's used a lot here in Oz. On news broadcasts and also in work environments (particularly those connected with IT), eg X impacted our project. Impact was always solely a noun, or converted into verbal usage by the expression X HAD AN impact on Y. Now, lamentably, it's used as a verb.
DeleteAnother usage I detest - which might be peculiarly Australian - it's become common for the press and police to report something like: he FRONTED court - or just he FRONTED AT the police station, instead of the more normal educated usage he APPEARED at court or he CAME to the police station. It's normally used when describing an offender or suspect. Agree about curate too. Again, best wishes, Pammie
To front here means to either - front something in the original but also showing off and also for being a fake depending on US slang or UK slang
Delete'Pop of color' is particularly irksome, along with 'curate'. Oh, and lately, I'm sick of hearing 'alternative facts'.
ReplyDeleteI quite like Hubris, but that is possibly because to me it still has Classical connotations as it's used in Greek myths and fables.
ReplyDeleteI will add a couple - "Storied" this is populating American magazine articles like crazy. As in "The Storied house was in disrepair" or "The Storied family"
"eponymous" - just say "own name" for a fashion label. No need to fancy up that they were just being basic in naming their range after themselves.
"Curate" misused constantly. "Iconic"- yawn.
Essentially it's the hype in language. Plain English is a blessing.
People are using hubris a lot post brexit so it is getting more use than usual. Storied is something we just have to nod along with. As language is going the way of technology and changing all the time i do think classic english is best! x
DeleteDialogues about language are fascinating to an old former English teacher like me. Can't resist making another comment. This time on "eponymous". So overused in recent years, often by people who barely know its real meaning/usage. Many seem to think it's just another word for famous or well-known. Agree with Heidi it's really hype - or pretention. You rarely find educated people using it - but it does seem to appear often in glossies and weekly magazines when "writers" are describing a movie or an actor or a product. Maybe they think it elevates their writing style.
DeleteAlso agree about "storied" - it so often occurs in US housing design/style glossies - those the same writers call "shelter" magazines - another usage I abhor. Likewise for the expressions "cookie cutter" and "pops of colour". It's just very lazy and unimaginative to go for the cliché every time. And why "shelter" anyway? This usage in modern English normally has the connotation of some form of temporary refuge (for the homeless, refugees, battered wives etc) - or a shelter shed in a playground for children to retreat to in bad weather, or bus shelters etc - NOT luxury houses. Pammie
shelter does seem to conjure homelessness and not home design!
DeleteThe language is annoying but, I confess, I find the beliefs behind the language even more difficult to tolerate!
ReplyDeletetrue!
DeleteI'm on a/my journey.
ReplyDeleteAre you?
BarbG
Cue tears! :)
DeleteAt the end of the day; moving forward; awesome; really?; seriously? narrative; talking points; double down; walk it back; channeling.
ReplyDeleteMy dear Auntie J for the past 30 years has this irritating habit of discovering a cliche 6 months after it was pounded into submission by every airhead suburban twenty something. She eagerly peppers them into every conversation no less than 3x in the first 5 minutes. She has taken years off my life.
Too funny GSL - although when i speak with friends I am totally guilty of seriously - really. I also use channeling when I am being a total bitch.
DeleteOh bless Auntie J!
Iconic - esp when used for things that are the opposite of iconic.
ReplyDeletelove the list.
I like hubris. xxx
Hubris has been used loads since last June over here!!! xxx
Delete1) So - just like you said at the beginning of an explanation or sentence.
ReplyDelete2) Oh my god - especially when it's used in acronym - omg! Actually any and all modern acronyms. Just spell out the word, it isn't difficult!
3) Pop - as in a pop of color, or it really pops.
4) Disaster - As in, It's a disaster. The orange bully uses this incessantly and makes me want to drop kick him every time I hear him say it.
5) Look - Hey, don't tell me what to do. It's just as bad as saying, Listen before a sentence.
Ok, done. Thanks for letting me vent.