hated expressions
Posted by: Dan M on 09 April 2004
The expression that is currently driving me crazy whenever I hear it is:
"Are you still working on that?"
Uttered by nearly all restaurant waitstaff when you pause to talk during your meal. A thinly vailed attempt to move you out so the next punter can be fed. And since when is having a meal out supposed to be work? Argghhh.
THis is closely followed by any Pentagon expression for the latest Iraqi operation - "operation (insert self-righteous B.S.)"
Anyone else care to rant on phrases that automatically induce a locked jaw?
Dan
[This message was edited by Dan M on Fri 09 April 2004 at 15:47.]
"Are you still working on that?"
Uttered by nearly all restaurant waitstaff when you pause to talk during your meal. A thinly vailed attempt to move you out so the next punter can be fed. And since when is having a meal out supposed to be work? Argghhh.
THis is closely followed by any Pentagon expression for the latest Iraqi operation - "operation (insert self-righteous B.S.)"
Anyone else care to rant on phrases that automatically induce a locked jaw?
Dan
[This message was edited by Dan M on Fri 09 April 2004 at 15:47.]
quote:Hmmm... Perhaps there is a legitamate usage: "although he was found guilty of the burglary, his sentence was reduced because medical evidence proved that he had been burglarised as a result of a severe blow to the head".
Originally posted by rodwsmith:
1 "Burglarise"
quote:Although I usually say "it is to be hoped" when that is what I mean, I am sympathetic to the use of hopefully in its place, simply because the meaning "it is to be hoped" is needed so often that it deserves a word of its own. Hopefully, if people stick to the convention that "hopefully" means "it is to be hoped" if and only if it is the first word then confusion can be avoided.
3 "Hopefully"
Again, a perfectly useful adverb being stripped of its meaning. "Hopefully they are praying" means that they are praying with hope, not that it is to be hoped they are praying.
quote:Oops! I think I verbed it today.
4 "Target"
Is not a verb.
quote:Unless you call it "wuh wuh wuh" or "triple-u", as I tend to. The trouble is I often have to explain what I mean by "triple-u", which usually takes far more than nine syllables.
Finally, a witticism from the late, great Douglas Adams. _"W.W.W. is the only abbreviation in the English language that takes three times longer to say than what it's short for. Nine syllables instead of three."_
It's interesting that some non-destructive "rule breaking" irritates some people, including me. For example, I was in my early thirties before I realised that I had been routinely using "which" in place of "that" in phrases such as "the hi-fi which I own is an Electrolux". Nevertheless, even though there is no loss of meaning or clarity in such cases, I began to find this kind of stray "which" painful almost immediately.