words that annoy

I think I'm guilty of nearly all three of J.D's.

I want to murder people who use the word "timely" as an adverb ("submit the application timely"), even though I know it's grammatically correct. it seems to be a favorite usage of bureaucratic assholes who will punish you for untimeliness, so maybe it's tainted by association. on the other hand, the clunky phrase "in a timely manner" (in which "timely" is an adjective) doesn't enrage me much at all.

I thought maybe I hated all words that had an -ly ending in both their adjectival and adverbial forms, but words like "weekly" and "daily" and "early" don't seem to bother me, so "timely" must be uniquely evil.

i hate that use of "timely" too! the same people i've heard use "timely" like that also said "verbage" (to mean "legal language").

former english majors with depressive disorders should not go into dilbert/office space type careers.

haw

on further thought, it seems like people use the adverb "timely" for brevity's sake to avoid the wordy construction "in a timely manner". but for some reason it doesn't occur to these people that they can use similarly brief (and far less irritating) alternatives like "on time" and "early" and "promptly". I guess assholes who edit themselves for brevity and plain speech are still assholes.

verbage/verbiage is absolutely vile, I agree.

(but "verbose" is alright)

One thing that has been getting on my nerves lately is "journey" as used by reality show contestants "it's been an amazing journey and I just don't want it to end" and otherwise intelligent documentary presenters talking to camera at the end of the film: "I've been a journey and have discovered..."

I'v e been *on* a journey, I mean.

'anyways'

stateside

magisterial.

^ I'm guessing that poor word has been badly overworked lately on BBC.

very possibly, but it's more the frequent use in book reviews and then blurbs that causes me to go IA in bookshops or other bookish places. wild eyes. handwaving. raised voice. concerned confused looks from companions. angry asseverations it's to do with a lubberly fear of masterly/masterful pedantry.

i see now from whence you arrived and you have my full sympathy.

thanks, A. not sure it is actually used out of the masterly/masterful fear, but I can't understand why ever else you'd use it. how can magisterial possibly be an appealing quality in a book, unless maybe its a historical/genre survey or other secondary text? (don't have a problem with these types of books, but they're the only groups I can imagine the word magisterial being a recommendation.)

but generally it just annoys me.

blurb writers seems to think 'magisterial' is a useful word to convey the idea that they were favorably impressed, while also showing off their vocabulary. when it turns out the book is not magisterial in any sense, you come to understand that their vocabulary is rather smaller than they thought it was.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/literally-everyone-is-lying.html

"Literally," I'm okay--I use it every now and again. "Actually" I use too often. My Achilles Heel is "just." I use "just" (when writing) like a teenager uses "like."

noise. noise annoys.

grok
parse
truthsquadding
wonk
spa
soups
mouthfeel

mouthfeel

iconic

activate

pecadillo

totes
simpatico (in Gringo usage)

Heard these both tonight in the course of a conversation and wanted to get up and leave.

females

moisturize

One of my sisters hates the word "tender" because her 3rd grade teacher privately admitted to her that she had a mole in "one of her more tender areas" after seeing a mole on my sister.

what about some love for the old legal tender?

That one, so soon after telling my sister's story, made me cringe as well.

"lil'" as an abbreviation for little. I have no problem with this as a rapper prefix, but in the vernacular it annoys the shit out of me.

"Bodied"

"prior to"

"undeniably"

More like a phrase than a word. I can't stand documentaries/pieces of a journalism that start with voiceovers or ledes along the lines of

"I'm on a journey to discover..."

or "This is a story about..."

I blame Adam Curtis.

"I want to say..."

... when asked a question where you are unsure or thinking of the answer, an Americanism I sincerely hope never takes off in the UK

Oh, I do that a lot. My accent changes when I do it too, I start inflecting all wrong. I really must train myself out of this. I have no idea where I've picked it up from.

Scary

Actually, I've just realised I picked it up off a pal of mine, I can actually hear his voice in my head saying it right now as I'm thinking about this and it would appear that I mimic the way he does it.

never occurred to me that that is or might be an Americanism tbh

I do it quite often tb even more h

i'm all for imprecision in speech, the world seems pretty imprecise

"REPPING" for shit

i will always rep for shit, it's how i get rid of unnecessary waste products in my digestive tract

don't know that i've ever heard anybody say "I want to say..." Are you guys sure this isn't from South Africa or New Zealand or something?

don't know that i've ever heard anybody say "I want to say..." Are you guys sure this isn't from South Africa or New Zealand or something?

here's an example of when this phrase might be uttered:

"Ever since Bono was gunned down in a West Hollywood brothel, I've been feeling an unusual sense of well-being."
"Wait-- Bono's dead? When did this happen?"
"Hm... I wanna say, like, 2 weeks ago...?"

oh, ok! in terms of estimation! that makes total sense. I was reading it like "I have something that I really want to say."

I wanna say that he died two weeks ago, but I lack the precise information or specific expertise required to guarantee that number.

"oh is that what you mean? what a convenient way to say something. you americans sure are innovative. swooon..."

"proctored"