Books I Loathed discussion
Words I Loathed
message 101:
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Steven
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:27PM)
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Sep 11, 2007 10:13AM
My biggest pet peeve redundancy is "added bonus."
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Oh, and my girlfriend got her hands on an uncorrected proof of the upcoming Walter Mosley book. There are some SERIOUS whoppers in that. Let's just say Walter is taking his metaphors too seriously. She's out of town and took the book with her, but I'll post them when she gets back. Hilarious stuff.
Forgive me if this has been covered, but I wanted to post a couple things here and didn't have the time to read the whole string. As a working journalist for 38 years, the one word I have refused to use as a verb, but which is now common parlance, is "impacted" -- it drives me crazy.On the confessions of mispronunciations issue -- and who hasn't been guilty of this -- my dad was another who said "misled" as "mizled" in his youth. Mine was saying "FLE-jem" for "Phlegm," which came when I was reading some essay by a Greek philosopher, probably Aristotle, going on about green phlegm and black phlegm, when I was a young teen.
And on the issue of authors overusing a word, it can happen to even the best. I just finished the excellent "Consequences" by Penelope Lively, and even this wordsmith was overusing the word "apposite" for relevant.
Moist.Panties.
mark: yes!!! i grit my teeth every time i hear anyone use "impacted" as a verb!!!! ugh!!! i have had a campaign against this usage ever since i heard a news-reader on CNN use it years ago. once it hits the news, it has become common parlance and i just want to scream when i hear otherwise educated people use it.
Well said, Jackie. It makes absolutely no sense to say "I could care less" when the writer/speaker actually means "I couldn't care less". And yet supposedly literate intelligent people say it all the time.
And how about "pink taco"?
Along with added bonus, how about "free gift"? And who can forget "sanitary sewer"?
I absolutely hate nouns used as verbs - "parented" was the first one that grated on my nerves. Now it's used regularly. I hate when books are "authored", movies are "lensed". No, no, no! Stop it now before I become totally crazed!!!!
About parented, I hate the use of "mentored." Frankly, I wouldn't want to be mentored -- it sounds like a physical activity that might hurt. Besides, it's trendy and nauseating.
People, I am at work. When I read things like "whisker biscuit" and "beef curtain" (BEEF CURTAIN?) I tend to bust out laughing, and since I work in a gigantic fluorescent-lit cube farm my boss wants to know what's so funny. I can't really say, "I just learned a disgustingly hilarious new term for vagina." Not only am I supposed to be working instead of nerding it up online (one for all the noun-verbers in the house), but using the word 'vagina' (or any reference to genitalia) in a wide-open work space is generally frowned on outside of, say, a medical facility. So, please, keep it boring, ok?Besides, on your 'male list' you left off:
tube steak
meat torpedo
Speaking of my boss (mentioned earlier. I'm not calling him a tube steak), he is an extremely intelligent person who persists in using 'supposably.' It makes me a little crazy.
'Irregardless' is old hat. Even some dictionaries consider it "non-standard usage" but list it just the same (even though the prefix 'ir-' makes the word mean the opposite of what the user is attempting to say). 'Nucular' is now the one I want to dope-slap out of existence, and that chucklehead of a president is making sure my arm is going to get real tired.
This just in: has anyone noticed that 'irregardless' is NOT setting off the spell checker? Oh, the humanity....
A comment to Seizure's latest comment: my boss's favorite is 'unequivocably.' Supposably that word has a b in it, but not when I spell it. Also, I heard that the Bushwhacker in Australia recently thanked them as Austrians. Way to go ijit. I didn't vote for him, the Supreme Court did, at least the first time, and to me that's what counts.
The male list also left out:tallywhacker.
How could that have happened?
Maybe you should buy yourself a dictionary, or at least look at one before you criticize others. Cuz irregardless is a word. A shitty word, but a word. http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...
I didn't say it wasn't a word...just that it drives me crazy. I'm buying people who use it a dictionary because I want them to learn better words than that one. Only through expanding their minds can we hope to give them a future! Or possibly if they are mentored....
Tube steak with Tang would have meant a bi astronaut, in diapers to boot!
quivering woman flesh.velvety sheath, (used with mansword, of course)
ick!
Mod
I detest the words 'moist', 'engorged' and 'panties'. String them along in a sentence and my skin crawls.
Sherri, Are you going to write it? Hey, I bet Carl Hiaasen would have fun with it! He is a hoot.To echo Sarah, I dislike the use of the word panties too. It's so Penthouse/Playboy 1970s. Commando is a much better word. Hah!
Panties. . .ugh! It's just not a phrase that a grown adult should use around other grown adults. It's one thing when you are approached by your friend's 2 year old daughter who just completed potty-training and she wants to show you her "big girl panties with Barbie on them". But, I'm not 2 years old so panties -- no! Although, I have to admit that I do shudder when people say "big girl panties", even if they are talking to their toddler daughters. Can't we just say underwear or something?There's a couple phrases that just drive me nuts: "Can you borrow me...?" and "I think you can learn me..." What?!? I can learn you something? Is that even possible? I know I can (possibly) teach you something but learn you? I also know I can loan you things but I don't know what I can borrow you. I've met a lot of people who say both those phrases and I don't know where it comes from.
I actually had a guy hit on me with one of those phrases. First he did the elevator eye thing, then licked his lips, then said "Hello my sista, you look like one'a them egde-acated sistas. I bet you kin learn me a thing or two." Okay, first of all, I ain't your sista, I don't even know you (I know AIN't ain't a word)! Second, it's educated, moron! Third, you need to go back to school and learn how to talk! Makes my blood boil!
For bad "romantic/erotic" writing, be sure to pull out your handy Romance Writer's Phrase Book! Broken out by subject.Makes for many fabulous party games.
To be fair, not everything in it is in the "turgid man-root" category, although everything is trite.
"Man-root." Heh. Don't get to type that one every day, nor would I want to. But in the words of Alexei Panshin, "Don't pick at the metaphor. It leaves a nasty scab."
One phrase that I hear used pretentiously (mostly pretentiously because I couldn't quite grasp it's meaning--I merely inferred it meant, "great comback") is "touche." Feel free to elaborate on this term if you know its origins (fencing?).I also I heard people use the phrase "sea change" to describe what seems to be a "watershed" or "paradigm" shift . . . where did this come from? Is it when people move to live near the ocean? I thought people were naturally drawn to water, in the first place. Sorry--landlocked populations!
'Full fathom five thy father lies;Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.'
Ariel's speech in The Tempest by William Shakespeare. So it's used (often wrongly) to describe a substantial change or alteration but in circumstances quite unlike the ones that turn a dead man into 'something rich and strange'.
Jackie, the term "paradigm shift" gets misused about as much as "sea change." Probably moreso in my community (software development). It was coined to describe the process of adherents to a new theory arguing with the "old guard" adherents until all of the old guard retired, gave up, or died.Of course, words and idioms change their meaning over time. I guess current usage always defines definition.
But my big bugaboo lately: "grinded." I can't believe how many times a week I see or hear that one. I've gives up on who/whom. I silently shudder at less/fewer confusion. I mourn the passing of the subjunctive "were" from common usage. But "grinded"?
Grinded?
It's not even shorter or easer to say than "ground"!
Jackie, "touche" is from French (past participle of "to touch," according to m-w, but I last took French in junior high). It is used to acknowledge a "touch" in fencing (scoring a point). Similarly, it is used in an argument or conflict to indicate that the opponent has scored a point of some sort.
So it's more of a "got me" than just a "good comeback." Of course, usage defines words, so the meaning is drifting somewhat, but even when I hear kids use it on the bus it seems to have the same connotation. Of course, my bus rides past a magnet school for gifted students. I may get a skewed perception of kids today. From what I can tell, they're pretty darn great.
Sherri -- It was really hard fighting the urge to throw my Cosmo in his face. I decided that he wasn't worth my drink, so I gulped it down, set the glass on the bar and walked away.I forgot about the big girl panties line. I love that one! I say it in my head every day at work when people walk into my office and start whining. I fight the urge everyday to tell them to put on their big girl panties. LOL. Although when men come into my office and start to whine, the phrase that goes through my head is "Pull your balls out of your a** and be a man for crying out loud!" I work in the legal field, I think those phrases every day, all day.
So, anyone want to collaborate on a novel using every one of the loathsome words and phrases we have been discussing? That would be fun! Lots of giggles I think just creating a novel full of loathsome words and phrases that just drive all of us up the wall! LOL.
Hi, I'm Eloise, and I'm a word geek ...(Hi, Eloise!)
The one that's been getting up my nose lately and driving me nuts is the use of the word 'impact' as a noun. Impact is traditionally a VERB, and while I'm all for the verbing of nouns as a method of making language say what we need, the PEOPLE I hear using 'impact' as a noun are invariably using it in an obfuscatory, management-speak way that's so overwrought and passive-voice that they should just get over themselves and rephrase.
I suggest starting by doing a search-and-replace, turning forms of 'impact(noun)' into 'effect'. And 'impact(verb)' can usually be replaced by 'affect,' too, though that may be too many steps at once for MBA-speak addicts. :->
Note: when we're actually talking about physical objects smacking into each other, I'll allow either form of the word in question as fair game.
Eloise - following up on that, IMPACTFUL.
Eloise -- I too loath management-speak. I had it shoved down my throat so much at a job I once had that I am forever scarred. Dilbert is funny to me in a tragicomic way. I cannot watch The Office on TV, because it pisses me off too much; the dweeb in charge reminds me too much of my old management-speak bosses, who got all of their ideas from inane latest craze management books. My least favorites: focus groups, paradigms, issues, concerns, impact. Yeah, MBA-speak addicts do not speak my language. I cringe whenever I hear any of that verbiage creeping nauseatingly and self-righteously toward me with its inflated self esteem stinking up the room like overly expensive but horrible perfume. There, that feels a little better.
That may feel a little better, but I'd say you're feeling a little bitter.(With good reason....)
Probably the number one word I loathed all throughout college was "Tapestry." Or, more specifically, the phrase, "Rich Tapestry." Most of the generic essays in textbooks we were required to read in college included the phrase somewhere within their pages. My friend and I noticed it so many times that it became a running joke for us. When the opportunity arose for her to submit an essay to the English dept. for some contest or other, she made sure to include the word in her essay...and she won! Her award-winning essay is now published in one of the texts the University of Oregon now uses for their writing 122 classes. Thanks, tapestry! you really saved the day!
Hello, group.I truly despise the use of "tender" unless it means anything having to do with food or food preparation. For example: he was a tender person.
Or even worse: his caress was tender.
It hurts my eyes to see that.
Also, I actually had an ENGLISH TEACHER in high school who would say, after assigning us a reading:
"so what was the aboutness of this piece?"
Shudder. Even then (about fifteen years ago), I knew it was bad.
Wow, aboutness makes my lower back twinge. I just remembered another word I hate: "nebulous." It is often abused in situations where somebody wants to seem "intelligent," such as: "My feelings about this situation are nebulous." That hurts my whole back. Generally, I love words. Sometimes their usage offends me, though.
Natalie, your comment about Anne Rice's overuse of "preternatural" and how it lept off the page whenever you saw it reminded me of something. I've always enjoyed Allen Drury's writing (some of his books, though, are better than others) but I began to notice his reliance on the word "sardonic." At first, he used the word sparingly -- and, thus, it had more power when he used it. But I began to notice it popping up more frequently in his later books. At the end of his writing career, I must say that I saw the word more frequency in his books. I began referring to his books as the "sardonic series."
Me too. I've even started to dislike "impact" in verb form simply out of association. Both noun and verb also remind me of problems having to do with BOWELS, another loathsome word...
hmmm you could really start a whole thread on words people throw out when they're trying to sound intelligent... but is that really the fault of "nebulous"? there are so many ways lit and grammar people can easily become pretentious hipsters; seems to me it's all in the smirk.
just realized I've been relying far too much on ellipses.... another... thing... that... gets... really annoying when "utilized" too heavily...
Mark, you couldn't be more right! I abhor management-speak and session-sepak and project-speak. yet, i need to admit those who perpetrate such verbiage have a special gift for denominating notions which are hard to pin down, let alone lacking substance!!! Could I share your comment with my astdents, who, naive enough, get so enthused about corporate talk!
I heard the word 'tender' in a pejorative, mock sexist, description of 'gender studies' (replacing the syntagm by 'tender studies')As to 'aboutness' it's used in logical semantics ('aboutness of reference', I guess it's Quine's term)
Daniela,Good Reads may have glitched when you posted messsage 15...what did you mean by "astdents" above? Or is that just a term with which I am unfamiliar?
I think 'astdents' must mean 'assistant students' in Newspeak. (maybe 'assdents' would sound a tad pejorative?Natalie - Huxley's use of 'pneumatic' was to create exactly the effect (or 'impact' if you will...) that you felt. These girls' breasts did appear artificially 'pumped up' much as most female celebrities these days have had their 'tender' breasts inflated. Can I add any more loathsome words to this 'rich tapestry'?
(By the way, Tara's idea of writing a novel full of these despicable words would be most impactful.)
This is a great thread, so here I go adding to it. Today I remembered one of my most loathed phrases: "at the end of the day..." People say it as a way of summing up and I think they might believe that it makes them seem intelligent. I hope, really hope, that nobody has used it in a book, but I bet they have. I hate it!
This isn't a phrase I loathe, but I loathe the person who loathes it. My friend's old boss would freak out on her if she ever wrote the words "on Friday" or any other day. She would say "You can't sit on a day!" So it should just say "The fundraiser will be held Friday" rather than "The fundraiser will be held on Friday". While this distinction makes sense, I think she was just being overly critical. But then, the woman was a horrible beast of a human being.
I don't necessarily loathe this word, but I loathe it's overuse: et cetera. I think if et cetera is said more than 25 times in a 5 minute period, it's being overused. There should be a change up every so often, like "and so on", or starting the story with "for example" and then just giving one example or anecdotal story and ending it with a period or exclamation or question, but not with "et cetera". My eardrums actually begin to spasm when it's used too much.There's this attorney that comes into our court frequently who loves to throw around the phrase "bad faith". Now, that's not that bad of a phrase, unless it is used for everything! He uses it all the time, in all of his motions as well as in every single sentence he utters in the courtroom. He also likes to use paramour. He's the strangest attorney I have ever met and there is no character on TV or in literature that would come close to being like him. I'm sure, when describing the recent Colorado Rockies game, he probably told people "Mother Nature, in bad faith, broke her water jugs and spit rain all over the Colorado Rockies, which could have, in bad faith, severely inhibited their ability to score more than 4 runs." Seriously, that's exactly how he talks.
I loathe in all forms whenever someone says "I understand that" usually followed by "but..." after you've been trying to explain something to them. Do you?!? Do you understand that?!?! Do you really?!?! My former boss used to do it just to be a hateful know-it-all and I told my boyfriend who promptly started using it against me. Now whenever I hear someone say "I understand that" it sends shivers down my spine. What an awful, know-it-all, grating way to make someone else feel badly about themselves for trying to be helpful.
I find I get irritated when someone says "I need time to process that." What are you - a computer, or a factory that makes Cheez Whiz?
Hated bastardized words: "irregardless" and "guestimate."Call the grammar police: when people incorrectly use the word "less" when they should be using "fewer."
Hated euphemisms for genitalia: "yoni" for "vagina"; "proferred peach" for "backside" (used in a trashy Victorian novel describing anal sex.)
Embarrassing mispronunciation: I used to mentally pronounce the world "aisle" as "assle." Still can't properly pronounce the word "cupola." Fortunately, it doesn't come up in conversation very often!
I also hate the phrase "we're pregnant" when used by smug couples, unless they are a pair of lesbians who are, indeed, respectively pregnant.
For some weird reason, I object to the "c-word" unless it's used by someone who is British. Same goes for the word "twat." Not sure why...just sounds less misogynistic when it comes from a Brit. Does anybody else here feel that way, or is that my own weird snobbery at work?
I'm sorry you feel that way, Christen.Signed,
The Passive Aggressive Society
Just kidding! I also hate "I understand that" and other phrases used to preface some sarcastic or snotty remark. I find that these are usually heard in the workplace.
I loathe writers who over use the word intimation.It just doesnt come across as a real word when its used more than once or twice in a novel... I dont know why. And I always fight the urge to see it as intimidation, estimation, or intimate. Seems like a hybrid someone made up and refused to acknowledge that it really isnt a word.
And I also refuse to read trashy romance novels due to all the digusting "terms" they use as an excuse not to say Vagina and Penis and Sex.... The more creative they get with thier terms, the more nauseous I become!
Books I Loathed
Books mentioned in this topic
The Blonde Identity (other topics)Medusa's Sisters (other topics)
Who We Are Now (other topics)
Under the Influence (other topics)
North of Nowhere (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Stacey Ballis (other topics)Emily Giffin (other topics)
