words that annoy

Err nothing was actually decided, I don't think, except that the English hate the French.

SOmeone like Stephen Fry would say "restauran" and it just stinks of pretentiousness: "It's a French word, don't you know?". Yes, I'm aware of this but we've been using this word for a very long time indeed and I think we're at a point where we can start pronouncing it as spelled.

Gordon Ramsay's seemingly unique pronunciation of the word "restaurant" is seriously one of the most irritating things on British television.

filet = fil-LAY

fillet = FILL-it

two different words, ain't they?

Not necessarily.

filet (ˈfɪlɪt, ˈfɪleɪ, French filɛ)

— n fillet fillet a variant spelling of fillet

Anyway, yes, in the U.S. it's fi-LAY mignon and McDonald's serves Fi-LAY O' Fish.

When I was a waiter, the English and Australian guests said "FILL-et" (or FILL-it, not sure which). (And b/c the filet mignon was listed on the menus as only "Filet," they sometimes asked "Filet of what?"

I'd say fi-LAY mignon, but fill-it o'fish.

for the same reason i don't go round asking mcdonalds staff for filay au poisson.

oh okay i was thinking of fillet as in:

2. a narrow band of ribbon or the like worn around the head, usually as an ornament; headband.

this usage is always pronounced 'FILL-et' afaik

Firefox doesn't thinks it should always be spelled "fillet."

But then again, Firefox alerts me that "women's" is a typo, too.

Yeah it hates "women's" and "children's".

what about 'it's a steep learning curve' to describe a task that is hard to pick up? Now, if time is on the Y axis and competence is on the X-axis, as is the convention, then a steep curve indicates a job that is picked up very quickly. It's a _shallow_ curve that indicates difficulty. Perhaps people have the mental picture of a steep curve being hard to climb.

friend of mine had this to say: steep learning curve - nothing to do with time, all about the amount you get better at something (x) compared to the amount of effort required (y).

yes.

dog latin when referring to the large down-filled bed covering do you say "DOO-vett"?

when you catch a fish do you fillet it? (fill it it)

she was only the fishmonger's daughter but she lay on the slab and said fillet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bJOIqVAD-s

fingers

I am struggling to make some sort of filet of fish commercial + casiotone for the painfully alone joke right now

Fish Filet for the Culturally Delayed

swag

derring-do

People don't say derring-do enough IMO.

actioned (this is the first time i have seen this "word")

context: your unsubscribe request has been received and will be actioned.

"stunned"

whenever something mildly unexpected happens in sport, politics &c the person or persons on the receiving end are always said to be "stunned".

similarly "floored"

'extravaganza'
'bonanza'

ugh

and er

'mentalist', as in a nutty, crazy person.

also when people use 'depressive' as an adjective. stfu. 'depressing' is obviously right.

'blogosphere'

come on really what the fuck

utilize

and any word with the same letter in more than about 4 times. i cant think of an example right now. but yeah.

I think I will try to popularize the term "protes" for proteins.

― fletrejet, Wednesday, September 24, 2003 12:36 PM (7 years ago)

So happy this never materialized.

ouster

idk what I was thinking choosing to intern at a middle school when, for 15 years straight, my least favorite word has been and still is
appropriate
Sometimes it's the right word to use but so many of the times it's not
and I have caught the disease
I just flung it out there in a way that wasn't appropriate
you guys really don't know the complex web of hatred I have for this word
even though sometimes it is the right word

lather. rinse. repeat.

today is a good day for me and crippling long-term hatred!

"amusing" -- almost always used in an arch, self-aware way. ugh.
"arguably" -- rarely actually needed in a sentence.
"old school" -- should never be applied to anything that is not old hip-hop.

transmittal

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.