[highlife]

Nothing's better during the holidays than to harp about what irks us.

We all know how kids, especially teens slip in "umm" or "like" into their conversations. However, adults (including myself) also fall into the trap of using unnecessary words.

The following over-used words are currently driving me up the wall. In the past, what drove me nuts was the use of "going forward", especially at work. Nowadays, the following are getting on my nerves:

1) Actually
2) Basically
3) Absolutely

A few friends and I made a drinking game out of this too. We were out one night at a friend's party and we said that everytime we heard one of these three words from ourselves or from another partygoer, we take a swig of beer. We were hammered pretty quickly.

If you have a similar beef, feel free to vent as well.

 

[personality crisis]

"Main Street"

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

joe

 

[smuncky]

"world class"

 

[Mustapha]

'going forward'. every jerk middle manager uses it.

 

[Hydrogen]

Actually, "going forward" appears to have basically impacted you negatively.



Sorry; just had to.

 

[khris]

Pay It Forward is a phrase used way too much.
Also the word Film.

 

[Whoaccio]

Maverick! good god maverick!

EDIT: Ohh! and 'elite', pronounced ehh-lee-te (as opposed to the typical North American way ahh-lee-te) just to sound French-ish and hence even more 'elite.' Common examples: 'Elite media loves Barack Obama' 'Sarah Palin is not elite' and 'the ballet is for the elite.' Commonly accompanied by 'real,' meaning the subject shops at Target and lives somewhere in Idaho, as the logical counterpoint to 'elite.' These two words, when used in conjunction, have a habit of turning otherwise unqualified people into qualified people (by virtue of being unqualified...) and vice versa. They just about ruined the 2008 election.

 

[jaborandi]

Pay It Forward is a phrase used way too much.
Also the word Film.

Film? As in cinema?

 

[Dan416]

Maverick! good god maverick!

EDIT: Ohh! and 'elite', pronounced ehh-lee-te (as opposed to the typical North American way ahh-lee-te) just to sound French-ish and hence even more 'elite.' Common examples: 'Elite media loves Barack Obama' 'Sarah Palin is not elite' and 'the ballet is for the elite.' Commonly accompanied by 'real,' meaning the subject shops at Target and lives somewhere in Idaho, as the logical counterpoint to 'elite.' These two words, when used in conjunction, have a habit of turning otherwise unqualified people into qualified people (by virtue of being unqualified...) and vice versa. They just about ruined the 2008 election.

So wait, you oppose pronouncing élite properly??? Do you also pronounce "niche" "nitch" instead of "neesh"?

 

[khris]

Film? As in cinema?

Film, instead of saying movie.

 

[jaborandi]

Film, instead of saying movie.

Movies are the mundane crap that comes out of Hollywood, while film is the really good stuff and cinema is the really really good stuff. There is nought wrong in being specific in one's tastes.

 

[Whoaccio]

So wait, you oppose pronouncing élite properly??? Do you also pronounce "niche" "nitch" instead of "neesh"?

'élite' is not an English word. It is a French loan word that is used to convey some kind of misplaced air of sophistication to a subject which most of the time has little. Having Lou Dobbs going around prattling about 'élite' this and 'élite' that purposefully to associate the subject with some kind of American obsession with a perceived French snootiness is stupid. We all know what 'elite' means, coincidentally the exact same thing as 'élite', there is no bloody point in using a french word to describe it.

Take these sentence:

CC used his car to travel to the store.

OR

CC used his voiture to travel to the magasin.

Both of these are perfectly complete sentences and generally correct. The problem is people like Jack Cafferty would imply you, CC, are an elitist because even the sentence describing you has hoity toity French in it. Really, you are too 'élite' for the proper, American, 'elite.' It would be like if in the 1930s Marvel tried to slander Superman by refering to him as 'Überman' or 'Sugoiman' and associating it with the Axis. If an author chooses to forgo a perfectly acceptable English version of a word and opt for a loan word, with whatever stupid connotations that language holds, it doesn't reflect on anyone but the author that choose that word. So, Barack Obama being 'élite' does not make him French, or realy any more elite than the word 'elite' already implies, it just implies that whoever choose that word is an idiot.

EDIT: Ohh, and this isn't a word. but it certainly is overused: 'Perfect Storm.' If I have to hear this one more time, I will loose faith in the English language. We don't need to attribute absolutely anything that has more than one cause -which incidentally includes just about every event- to a 'perfect storm' of factors. There are a lot of different ways to attribute multiple causality without popping 'perfect storm' like Advil. Considering the amount of research, in every subject, that attributes cause to a variety of forces you would think journalists would have a wealth of choices in terminology. Might not be safe for TV, but 'clusterf**k' (is this a kosher level of profanity?) would be a big step forward for some. Maybe a "convergence of factors" or a simultaneous 'break down of previously interdependent self supporting systems' if they wanted to sound like pompous jerks? Please, journalists, try harder.

 

[khris]

Movies are the mundane crap that comes out of Hollywood, while film is the really good stuff and cinema is the really really good stuff. There is nought wrong in being specific in one's tastes.

That's of your opinion, but a film is a movie, and a movie is a film.
I didn't say there is anything wrong, I just stated it's an overused word of 2008.

 

[Hydrogen]

Please, journalists, try harder.

All you'd end up with then is "pefect stormgate" or "clusterf*ckgate."