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10-01-2007, 12:06 PM
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#1 (permalink) | ||
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Crazy
Location: Washington State
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Language Peeves
Are there things some people say - misued words, stupid things, overused cliches, that drive you nuts?
Here are some of mine: Using the word "literally" with a metaphore Quote:
Misusing "exponentially" This word means "the constant e raised to the power equal to a given expression, as e3x, which is the exponential of 3x." For example, if your income was $1000 last January and you increased your income exponentially each month by the power of two, here's what you would have made in later months: Jan $1000 Feb $2000 Mar $4000 Apr $8000 May $16,000 June $32,000 July $64,000 Aug $128,000 Sep $254,000 Oct $508,000 Nov $1,016,000 Dec $2,032,000 Keep it up and by next summer you'll be richer than Bill Gates. So if this were true: Quote:
DejaVu all over again: Redundant. What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas: Fun advertising slogan, but wayyyy over used at this point. For computer database nerds: Null Value"Null" means NO Value, so a null value is like a full emply space, or a dry wetness. Any others? Last edited by Racnad; 10-01-2007 at 12:09 PM.. |
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10-01-2007, 12:19 PM
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#2 (permalink) |
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Eccentric insomniac
Location: North Carolina
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yeah, I have a couple:
People who misuse the word exponentially: It doesn't have to be e. It can be 10^(0.00000001*t). Nucular Gender instead of Sex. We have a sex, words have a gender. Caucasian. It doesn't mean what we use it for. Next friday to mean the friday following the next one. We say next week to mean the week immediately following, but next friday always seems to mean the friday after the friday that is immediately following. "Turn right here!" when a left turn is indicated.
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"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." - Winston Churchill "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence |
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10-01-2007, 12:47 PM
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#5 (permalink) |
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Submit to me, you know you want to
Location: Lilburn, Ga
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I hate when people say ATM machine (duh doesnt the M in ATM stand for machine) and PIN number.....same reason
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I want the diabetic plan that comes with rollover carbs. I dont like the unused one expiring at midnite!! |
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10-01-2007, 01:53 PM
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#7 (permalink) |
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let me be clear
Location: Waddy Peytona
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hot water heater (water heater)
irregardless (regardless) stupidest (Accepted in conversation, but was considered poor English as far back as the 80's. I was told to use most stupid, more stupid, dumbest... not sure if that's really correct.) "to tell the truth" "bottom line" "let's get this puppy done" "to be honest" "big time" "what ever" references to someone being a "dog" overuse of "extreme", "radical", "alternative" I'm sure there's many more. |
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10-01-2007, 02:05 PM
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#8 (permalink) |
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But You'll Never Prove It.
Location: under your bed
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"I hate people who..."
"I hate..." "I hate..." "I hate..."
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe |
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10-01-2007, 02:10 PM
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#9 (permalink) |
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Confused Adult
Location: Spokane, WA
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my peeve is EBONICS and the rest of that hip hop slang.
MY PEEPS MUH DAWGS, SUP BITCHES! GUNNA GET MY CRUNK ON! spelling or pronouncing "that" as "dat" and "this" as "dis" you sound like an illiterate dog and just enforce the racial stereotype that you're a fucking moron in baggy pants. black people I like, cuba gooding, black people I dont like, pretty much every rapper. not because of thier race, but because of the culture that they adopt taking liberties with the English language to the point of rape. (and then we can digress into British English vs American English in another topic...) |
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10-01-2007, 02:36 PM
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#11 (permalink) |
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Psycho
Location: hiding behind wings
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Crompsin, I'd read that Bible. Fo. Shizzle.
It bugs me when people here (in the South, y'all!) say "carry". As in "Leslie's stopping by and she's gonna carry me to lunch." Leslie weighs 100 pounds soaking wet. She's not carrying you anywhere.
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Screw tradition! |
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10-01-2007, 04:07 PM
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#12 (permalink) |
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Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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any expression that would allow me to win at bullshit bingo I emailed the rules in today's marathon meeting - some people didn't find the humor in it...
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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10-01-2007, 04:25 PM
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#13 (permalink) | |
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peekaboo
Location: on the back, bitch
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Quote:
Growing up, my folks always said "Close the light." I never knew this was not acceptable until I moved 30 miles north...and just two weeks ago, I heard someone else say it!!!! Sounded weird... |
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10-01-2007, 04:38 PM
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#14 (permalink) | |
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Une petite chou
Location: With All Your Base
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"Oh snap."
"Shank" in place of other words, e.g. "Shank you very much." Ya'll instead of y'all. It's a contraction. The phrase "on tomorrow". WTF is that? You can't call someone "on tomorrow," ya dumbshite, you call them TOMORROW. Overuse of "specifically" (or misuse of "pacifically"), "seriously" "like" and "um." Like our medical director who said "um" or "uh" a whopping grand total of 48 times in a two-minute voicemail. The record is 87 in the same length of time by our Chaplain. "I'm seriously, like, um, going to kick some ass in the meeting tomorrow if they don't talk right, specifically regarding the nurses. Seriously." The one that really gets me for some stupid reason is a friend that constantly used "whenever" instead of "when". For example, she'd tell a story and it was "whenever I was going to the grocery store the other day..." No. It should be "When I was going to the..." She drives me crazy. The dang oompaloompa. My grandparents and that side of the family used to say "Good Niiiight!" when something surprised them or was unexpected. Instead of taking the lord's name in vain. It took me forever to figure that out as a kid, I always thought the were celebrating. 
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Here's how life works: you either get to ask for an apology or you get to shoot people. Not both. House Quote:
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. Ayn Rand
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10-01-2007, 04:56 PM
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#15 (permalink) |
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Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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That was an Archie Bunkerism - He always said Good Night Nurse... or something along that lines -it was his way of cussing in prime time
Actually is one that I'm guilty of often, and I try to stop myself from saying it because I know how annoying it is when people start every sentence with Actually...
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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10-01-2007, 05:51 PM
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#18 (permalink) | |
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Psycho
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Quote:
That's true it doesn't but any exponential(or number for that matter) can be represented in terms of e. Your example is e^(0.00000001*t*ln(10)). However, the initial point is somewhat incorrect, an exponential can be slow, take for example an exponential divided by a factorial. So it's technically not true that it has to be a big increase, i.e. it is possible that the the change in temperature of the polar ice caps can be approximated by an exponential. For small values of x, and a correctly chosen constant k, (e^x)/k! and the change around those values can be quite small. In fact (e^x)/(x!) is bounded and approaches 0 as x goes to infinity. /end math |
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10-01-2007, 06:04 PM
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#19 (permalink) |
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Insane
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^^^ Thanks for the math explanation of exponentials...I was debating whether or not it was worth my time.
Ebonics is a good peeve...Its disgusting to me that there are people here at the university who are so obsessed with rapper culture that they wont use english. when people use "stress" and "strain" interchangeably "AR-15 assault rifle" when people use "re-iterate" when they haven't iterated it in the first damned place. |
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10-01-2007, 06:26 PM
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#21 (permalink) |
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...is a comical chap
Location: Where morons reign supreme
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I can't stand it when people say "supposably" instead of "supposedly". My husband and boss both do it, so I hear it on a regular basis.
It used to drive me crazy when I worked at a grocery store and people would use "sale" instead of "sell", and vice versa. For example, the meat department was always overstocking stuff and would put up a sign that said "Priced to sale!". I don't know how many times I fixed the sign...and it would be incorrect again next week.
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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king" Formerly Medusa |
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10-01-2007, 06:27 PM
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#22 (permalink) | |
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Kick Ass Kunoichi
Location: Oregon
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Quote:
__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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10-01-2007, 06:49 PM
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#24 (permalink) | |
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Junkie
Location: Lake Mary, FL
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'Anyways' isn't a word. It's 'anyway'.
Drives me nuts. Quote:
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I believe in equality; Everyone is equally inferior to me. Last edited by Infinite_Loser; 10-01-2007 at 06:53 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost |
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10-01-2007, 07:33 PM
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#26 (permalink) | |
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peekaboo
Location: on the back, bitch
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Quote:
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10-01-2007, 07:54 PM
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#27 (permalink) |
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Life's short, gotta hurry...
Location: land of pit vipers
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A split infinitive is when you use an infinitive such as "to go" and put an adverb between to and go. The most notable is, of course, "to boldly go". Rules regarding the use of split infinitives have become quite relaxed.
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Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool. Last edited by Grancey; 10-01-2007 at 07:58 PM.. |
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10-01-2007, 08:13 PM
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#28 (permalink) |
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Insane
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My peeve is the misuse of the phrase "i could care less" instead of I couldn't care less. People just don't understand the difference
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"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!" "Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree." Sara |
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10-01-2007, 09:08 PM
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#29 (permalink) |
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Crazy
Location: Washington State
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In Jena, LA, Al Sharpton said in his speach "Two wrongs don't make a civil right." I have no idea WTF that's supposed to mean.
Not to rag on African American speech, but why is it that an idea seems more credible if you can express it in a rhyme? |
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10-01-2007, 09:45 PM
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#30 (permalink) |
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Life's short, gotta hurry...
Location: land of pit vipers
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One of my language peeves is the phrase "stop back."
I've also heard one person use the term to ride 'on the car' instead of 'in the car'. Where oh where did that come from?
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Quiet, mild-mannered souls might just turn out to be roaring lions of two-fisted cool. |
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10-01-2007, 09:54 PM
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#31 (permalink) |
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Mine is an evil laugh
Location: Sydney, Australia
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I have a couple. I work with a guy for whom English is a second language. His one funny is saying "Today morning", rather than 'this morning'. It is probably not incorrect - it just sounds funny to me.
The other is the use of "off of" - this seems an American usage (e.g. "he jumped off of the box"). I really can't see what the "of" is in there for ("he jumped off the box"). Just seems like a wasted word to me... edit: off topic - I just saw how similar Grancey's cat and my cat look. 
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who hid my keyboard's PANIC button? |
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10-01-2007, 10:26 PM
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#32 (permalink) | |
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Kick Ass Kunoichi
Location: Oregon
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Quote:
__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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10-02-2007, 02:37 AM
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#34 (permalink) |
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Unencapsulated
Location: Kittyville
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It drives me crazy that I say "ast" intead of "asked"... it's a holdover from where I grew up, I suppose.
"Rediculous" instead of "ridiculous"... ACK! Why do people *do* that?? Any bastardized form of internet chat... "u", "yu", "r", etc. We are not texting, there is no reason to be this lazy. Are you still annoying if you use some of these phrases etc. in jest?
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My heart knows me better than I know myself, so I'm gonna let it do all the talkin'. |
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10-02-2007, 04:38 AM
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#36 (permalink) |
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Asshole
Administrator
Location: Chicago
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AOLspeak drives me nuts, especially here.
Otherwise, I hereby crown Grancey the Queen Grammar Nazi of the Day. It shall be a good day.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo |
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10-02-2007, 04:53 AM
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#37 (permalink) | ||
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Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
Quote:
you have it... or you're praying... not sure how you can be on it... On the rag yes.. but on a period... not so much
__________________
Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
Last edited by maleficent; 10-02-2007 at 04:55 AM.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost |
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10-02-2007, 06:07 AM
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#39 (permalink) | |
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That's what she said
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Quote:
__________________
"Tie yourself to your limitless potential, rather than your limiting past." "Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him." |
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10-02-2007, 06:19 AM
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#40 (permalink) | |
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I Confess a Shiver
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Quote:
Alas, we're only debating word choices used in the most duplicated and popular book ever written. NOTHING IN THE BIBLE IS EVER WRONG! (drum crash) ... How's this for a language peeve: Crompsin's kid: "Dad, can I get a dollar or two?" Crompsin: "Yes, I noticed you still have opposable thumbs." The whole "can I get a" reminds me of shouting Baptists. |
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| Tags |
| language, peeves |
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