Annoying phrases, expressions and words

There should be a ban on overused phrases and ones that are really annoying; and ones that should have expired. I have a few candidates.
My Bad - Used instead of "I made a mistake". From the first day I heard this one it grated on my grammatical sense. It sounds so juvenile and illiterate. I've never used it.
Throw him/her/them under the bus - This one is just plan old and worn out. Retire it.

Down here in South Jersey there are two phrases I hear all time and I want to know if they are unique to this area or are they common in other areas. By common I mean used all the time.
Have a good one. Used when departing instead of "have a nice day" or simply "goodbye".
No Problem.Used as a response to "thank you". Both of them bug me.

Get the fuck outta here, MC.

Now as for overused phrases, let me think .

MC, I agree about "throwing under the bus". As far as "mistake" goes, God , how overused. "I'm sorry I murdered those people. I made a mistake." If I pick up the wrong keys, that's amistake. But applying it to just about any illegal or immoral action - get outta her!

"That being said . . ."

"He's good people."

"It is what it is."

"It's so surreal." ---- I really hate that one. Every time a pinhead celebrity wins an award they say, "Its all so surreal." I'd like to ask Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton to spell it .

One that made me want to scream everytime I heard it was
"He thinks he's all that plus a bag of chips"

Sometimes I'll say "Have a good one".

How about "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care less"?

Pizza Boy - Amen! I am SO sick of people saying "It was surreal" I could vomit!

It is what it is you know. Today at work I made a mistake in front of my boss and a co-worker who thinks he's all that plus a bag of chips.

But before my co-worker could throw me under the bus my boss interrupted and said "Lilo's good people". So I said "My bad" and proceeded to correct the error.

That being said, I don't like to make errors and since I usually don't it was all so surreal. So I apologized to my boss and he said "Just don't make a habit of it". He thanked me for swiftly fixing the error. Of course I said "No problem".

When I left I told everyone to have a good one. Cause you know, when all is said and done, at the end of the day, for all intents and purposes, the bottom line is we're a team.

"I could care less..."

You could also interpret it like

I could care less [but I don't]

"wait till next year" its so annoying...if i hear it i punch either a white sox fan or cardinal fan.

If you have teenagers, you quickly get sick of "WhatEVER!", also, the word "no" gets an extra syllable, as in "No-uh!".

In business, I learned to hate "synergistic" and as a parent "diorama" and "rubric".

God, I really, really don't like rubric. So many of my colleagues use it and it almost drives me crazy to hear it.

Those two have been around literally* forever! In fact, the latter is abbreviated np in online parlance. I don't have a problem with either of them, and use them myself.

*NOT literally forever, but that's one example of a phrase used all the time. Nothing's been around "literally forever" except perhaps the cosmos. lol

It also grinds my gears when people misuse irony instead of coincidence... Big difference!

And LOL, Lilo -- well, not really "laughing out loud", but "haha that was amusing" ROTFLMAO

It is but it isn't.

Long story short

Thinking outside the box

the misuse of "in lieu of"

"irregardless"

genius

whatever

back in the day

Oh yeah, I forgot that one.

Good job Lilo.

dt.....I do love that good ole "irregardless"

how about "shits and giggles"? I just don't get that one.

The Col. says that one.

ANother one that drives me crazy is when a wait-person comes up to you while you are taking a break from eating ans asks "Are you done?" First of all I might be finished, but I am not "done." Second they should be able to tell by where I put my utensils on the plate, and third if I am sinished or not they should not take away the plate untl everyone else at the table is finished.

Also when you talk on the phone to repair people or credit card people who are in India, they always say their names are something like "Troy" or "Skip." This is obviously untrue.
Are they trying to protect their identiies? Do they not want us to find out their surnames are either Patel or Singh?

I have a lady sitting near me at work who always cheerily answers the phone with either: 'YO!', or "Hey there..." (when she knows the caller, of course).

The fact that she's in her mid-50's might just contribute to how silly this sounds.

Apple

Yes, "irregardless". Uggh.

One particular word that irritates the hell out of me is the (over)use of the word "event":

Weather forecasters now refer to a thunderstorm as a "rain event."

A car dealership will now have a "sales event."

I swear, I once even heard death described as a "life cessation event"!



Just boggles the mind...

Signor V.

They've been told to do that by the companies for which they work. Some Americans are extremely upset with the whole idea of outsourcing and don't mind sharing these feelings over the phone, often in a hostile or vulgar way. In order to try to avoid this reaction, many firms work very hard to get their workers to try to assume a stereotypically "American" identity. This includes reduction of accent and assumption of non stereotypically Indian name. Obviously this doesn't work most of the time.

Especially with the accent.

Dare we touch the subject of politically correct "language"??

George Carlin did a wonderful routine on annoying words and expressions and how we've become used to using them to hide their real meanings. Here is a transcript of that routine. Take a minute to read it and see if you don't agree:

"I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms, or euphemistic language.

And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Cause Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent the kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it, and it gets worse with every generation.

For some reason, it just keeps getting worse. I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum. Can't take anymore input. The nervous system has either (click) snapped or is about to snap.

In the first world war, that condition was called Shell Shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables, Shell Shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was seventy years ago.

Then a whole generation went by and the second world war came along and very same combat condition was called Battle Fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to hurt as much. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell Shock! Battle Fatigue.

Then we had the war in Korea, 1950. Madison avenue was riding high by that time, and the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey, were up to eight syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase. It's totally sterile now. Operational exhaustion. Sounds like something that might happen to your car.

Then of course, came the war in Viet Nam, which has only been over for about sixteen or seventeen years, and thanks to the lies and deceits surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still eight syllables, but we've added a hyphen! And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I'll bet you if we'd of still been calling it Shell Shock, some of those Viet Nam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I'll betcha. I'll betcha."

LOL(laugh out laugh)

I hate that saying..

You know, I know there a some, but for some reason the only really annoying word/term that comes to mind right now is "Diva." Everybody is a "Diva".

I always thought (and really never bothered to check) that Diva referred to a female Opera Singer. Nowadays, any female singer it seems is a Diva. From Madonna to J-Lo, to Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand. Why even just yesterday, I was reading an article about Dancing With The Stars claiming that Kate (Jon & Kate Fame) was acting like a "diva." Any bratty little girl can be called a diva.

It's used loosely and can apply to just about anyone. The term has been so overused that it doesn't have any impact anymore as far as I'm concerned. Whatever the hell it's original definition was, I'm sure hardly applies any more.

TIS

"RIP". When someone dies and someone will say, "I didn't know that person, but RIP". If you didnt' know him/her how do you know they should Rest in Peace? Maybe they should burn in hell.

Well, we could start putting BIH to those we feel should.


TIS

I hate that fake sympathy crap, too. Why bother? You didn't know them, what do you care? It's like when a celebrity dies, and you see people building shrines and crying. WTF? It's not like a member of your family or your best friend died. Do you think Princess Di would have been crying if she found out YOU died??

If Jeter passed on God forbid would you feel that way?

I don't wish anyone dead, and if someone young and vital passes, of course it's sad. Perhaps the public figure gave us good memories that we might want to share. However, building shrines? CRYING? I don't think so.

i would still say RIP for jeter...if bonds dies i really dont care because i dont have respect for him. it just comes down if i respect the person...and it is respectful as well.

I agree.

That's a bumber...

What's a bumber? A bumbershoot??

If you really vomited every time that word was used, especially in a Dalhi exhibit, that would be surreal.

I'm reminded today of another phrase while watching the news. What the hell does "went missing" mean? They took off to go to missing???? Of course I know they refer to people who are missing. I never understood that phrase. It doesn't make sense. It bugs me for some reason.


TIS

What about "downsized."

Why can't people just admit they got fired?

"It's 5 o'clock somewhere."

Wait a minute, I like that one. Actually, I live for that one .

Glad you cited that TIS. It bugs me too. When did that replace "became missing yesterday" or "have been missing since"? Where did they go if they went?

That's a corporation's word for "We don't want to sound heartless, like we're putting hundreds of people out of work, so we're saying that we're 'downsizing'." The only word more insulting to people who have lost their jobs is "rightsized".

And they didn't get FIRED. Being fired means you were lost your job because you did something wrong. Being downsized means that you were the victim of a corporate merger or that the powers-that-be want to falsely portray profits by showing an improved bottom line.

It's still a silly phrase.

While working at a gas station a couple years ago, I would always say "Have a good one" to the customers after I was done helping them. To me it sounds so much cooler and better than Have a nice day. Phrases that annoy me are ones like "When I say jump you say how high" SC has a good point with Shell Shocked becoming post tramautic stress disorder. As time goes on it will only get worse.

"Happy as clams". How do we know clams are happy? They sure aren't when they're caught and boiled alive.

On that same note (and no offense to Beth) , what about when a person is "crabby". How did that come about? Do crabs have a bad disposition?

TIS

How about "a pig in a poke." I've never understood that one.

No, but Beth does .

Yea, I vaguely remember hearing that one Oli. What is a poke? A pen? How about two peas in a pod. That's been around forever. Oh, and what about "thick as thieves" or "fit to be tied."

TIS

I think the most annoying word I encounter in conversation is when people end their sentences with "so..." You don't see it in the written word, so why the hell do people say it when they're talking? I'll give you an example in case you don't know what I'm talking about (this is from an actual conversation with a friend. It isn't verbatim, but it is close enough to get to my point):

Me: "Wow! How does it feel to finally have your college degree."

Friend: "It feels great man! I've wanted to be a teacher ever since I was a little kid, so..."


So...so what? Is that the end of your thought, or do you have more to add? If there is more to say, JUST FREAKIN' SAY IT!

Okay so it doesn't seem like such a huge deal, but it is something that has bothered me for a long time now. My sister does it all the time, and most people I engage in converstaion with do it. I don't think most people realize that they end their with "so..."

I am sure most of you have no idea what I'm talking about!

I hate it when people use "y'know?" to open and close every sentence. Michelle Obama did that on TV the other day in an interview on her issue, child obesity. Made her sound like a gum-snapper.

Another annoying one is, "It is what it is," which is a euphemism for "I can't be bothered to explain that."

yea i hate that too, so...

That seems to be a trait of recent First Ladies. Laura Bush did it a little, but Hillary Clinton is the all time champ on using "y'know" in nearly every sentence, every interview, every day, over the last 18 years she's been in the national spotlight.

Most annoying phrase is when someone is relaying a recent conversation:

He was like, 'What are you eating that for?'

And I was like, 'Whaddya think, cause I like it!'

And he was like, 'Well, you just had that yesterday aren't you tired of it?'

And I was like, 'I love this stuff, I could eat it every day!'

And he was like, 'WhatEVER, dude, you are wierd.'

And I was like, 'Yeah, dude, so are YOU. Want some?'

And he was like, 'Yeah, cool. Thanks.'

I completely agree, Apple, but it can even get worse when people talking like that use the present tense to describe the past.

"So yesterday I'm like all bummed out and she goes, 'why are you bummed out?' and I'm like because its raining and she goes 'yeah but its going to clear up soon.'"

It's a form of the Past Imperfect tense.

I think this would bother me, too. I just saw something similar to this on Dirty Jobs today: Mike Rowe was working with this guy who, while they were talking, started a sentence and trailed off without finishing it; this bugged Mike, so he started finishing the guy's sentences for him. I found it funny, but also true for me. It's not that it makes me mad, but I feel kind of anxious if someone doesn't complete a spoken thought. (OCD.)

So are you .

Atheletes are notorious for "y'know"; beginning, middle, and end of sentence. How about "Well", which preceeds the answer to most questions during an interview.
Reporter: Do you think Jeter can sustain his high level of performance.
Girardi: Well, I don't see why not.
I think it originated with Ronald Reagan.

"Well" is one of my favorite words.

I am really tired of the word "issues." I think it started with shrinks who told people who were neurotic, or just plain nuts that they had "issues." It has now crept into the language in all respects. If your car is broken you have "issues" with it. If your knee hurts you have "issues" with your knees.... and on it goes. I really have issues with the overuse of that word.

During my municipal government career I would never write or speak about problems or trouble. Instead I would write or speak about issues, challenges, and concerns. Those words would usually take the wind out of the sails of people who were problem-oriented. In fact, I actually started doing that in the Army.

I have the impression that Americans tend to overuse the word "bizarre".

Followed closely by "awesome!", which is sometimes accompanied by "dude".

As in "go to the well to draw water"....?

When you hear a person say- "you know" after everything they say

or "You know what I mean" after every sentence.

I can never understand people who when they have lost something and then find it say "it is always in the last place you look"

Well of course it bloody well is cos once you have found it you are going to stop searching for it are you not??

Ha ha!! So true Yogi. Also, what does "Every dog has its day" actually mean???


TIS

In the Godfather book somewhere there is a quote about how even a humble man may have his revenge if he is patient enough. Same concept...
Every dog has its day

I am stealing this from George Carlin, but I hear it al the time. If someone suddenly dies, or suddenly becomes ill, when people hear about it they inevitably say, "How could that be? I just saw him last week."

What does the speaker think that his or her having seen this person has a direct effect on longevity or good health?

Oh, I know one that many people say all the time. It really bugs me for some reason.

Where you at?

When I was working at the school, if we needed to get the Principal or administrator on campus (we all had radios), we use the walkie talkie. I'd hear a co-worker get on and say "Where you at?". I don't know it's not major, but still it bugs.

TIS

"You can't win for losin'" I have no idea what that means.

I think it's probably the same feeling expressed in the lyric "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all".

I have a black cloud over my head.

I'm the 'black sheep' of the family.

This is not an expression in the same vein as has been discussed in this thread, but how many of you recognize these: "Rid off the table" or "Get rid of it". It apparently is not know much outside of the northeast.

The whole "its and it's" thing drives me crazy, as does the confusion between "there, they're and their". Also, "I seen" instead of "I saw".

There and their? Madonne! Many of my students over the semesters haven't had a clue of the proper use of those words. Also, if you read posts in other forums such as the NFL, Yahoo, or Answers you will read those words extensively misused. It's the dumbing down of Americans.

What really grinds my gears is GOP members referring to my political arty as "The Democrat party."

Hell, I live down in the sticks. A lot of yall would get a kick out of what these "kin folk" have to say (haha, so fuckin annoying) ...
I'm with ya on the "my bad" - I gotta stop using it. I don't think I see a problemo with the rest, except the fa***t sounding bag of chips quote Mignon mentioned! ;-)

Black Cloud Over Head I can relate with ... its about one of the only ways you can truly describe depression.

"Sweetheart". What an empty, fake word. I don't think I'd ever trust anyone who used it.

Sweetheart is better than being called sourpuss I guess.

What about "Darling". Does anyone use that one???? I'd prefer sweetheart to darling (although I don't care for either)


TIS

I think it depends how it's used. I don't think it should be used to address someone you hardly know, though, because that is empty and fake. However, I think it's a nice way to address a family member or close friend.

I like Honey better than sweetheart.

I wonder where the expression (and evidently soon to be Pacino movie) "You don't know Jack" come from???? Who's Jack?

I was walking with my three year old grandson last week. He's full of questions and asks why, what to everything. I used the expression, "Holy cow" and he asked, "What's that mean grandma?" Try explaining that to a 3 year old.

TIS

Apparently, Jack or some form of it is a term from old England that was used to refer to a man. Of course, a man was supposed to know how to do all kinds of things. So,if you didn't know, you don't know what a man is supposed to know. Thus, the phrase.

Why is a toilet called a "john"?

There seems to be some dispute over who first invented the toilet and one of the alleged inventors was named John. Something of the same seems to be the case when it comes to usage of prostitutes since those who did wanted and used the name John. On the other hand, many of our terms are corruptions of foreign language words. For example, whore may derive from old English or from Arabic houris which can also mean a beautiful woman.

Gee Oli, do you have a book handy of where these sayings originated? Let's see, here's another? Where did the term "John Doe" come from?


TIS

It's origins are disputed. In old England John Doe began to be used as a substitute name in prosecutions and found its way to being the name of any unknown person.

No TIS, I don't have a book handy, but I guess I've lived long enough now to have absorbed certain questions and answers.

I use Crab Ass quite a bit, but no reflection on you of course.

TIS, I would call you Darling, Sweetheart, Honey, Babe-O-licious, Main Squeeze, Sugar Baby, Babe, Doll Face, Lucious, and many more.....whew! Cuz I Loves Ya.

Oli, according to several websites, The flushing toilet was invented by Sir John Harrington for Queen Elizabeth I.

http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/TheLoo.htm

When people say "Hey, it's the least I could do!". Thanks for the minimal effort. How about "I did absolutely everything I could!"