Words that drive you crazy

Another one I have a problem with is disingenuous.

dangerousbill said:

'Suddenly', because Elmore Leonard said never to use it, but I'm tired of writing 'abruptly' every time I want to say 'suddenly'.

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Change it to 'all of a sudden'.

TudorRose said:

Quirk, when used as a verb. YA lit these days seems to be full of lips quirking up or down.

Okay, this meaning may be in the dictionary, but it drives me nuts. I prefer smile and frown.

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It's not in the dictionary I checked! A sudden unexpected twist? How is a smile or eyebrow movement a sudden unexpected twist. This one fills me with rage. YA is not the only offender. I've also seen it in UF. For some reason I think it is a terrible word misuse that escaped from fanfic to terrorize innocent novels.

Unputdownable.

(No disrespect meant toward anyone whose book has been so described.)

I dislike most written slang terms. I especially dislike fiction that tries to bring slang into the conversation. "Whas'up bro?" "Y'all c'mon back!" "What'cha doing'?" Especially every other sentence.

For some reason, I absolutely hate the phrase "As you'll see..." I know whatever comes after it will be both boring and a lot more obvious than the time it takes to tell.

Jeff

eparadysz said:

Unputdownable.

(No disrespect meant toward anyone whose book has been so described.)

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I'd love to hear a bad reviewer refer to a book as 'unpickupable', though.

Roger J Carlson said:

I knew a PhD in education that loved "irregardless". He was crushed when I pointed that it was a mashup of regardless and irrespective and meant exactly the opposite of what he thought.

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And the biggest problem with that one is that those who use the "word" are absolutely stricken to have someone correct them on that. (And it drives me bonkers to hear people say it.)

Another one that I have heard that, to this day, gives me chills. Mispronunciation of the 'mischievous'. Can we please NOT say 'mis-chee-vee-ous'!

Okay, 'preventative' or 'preventive'?

Where I work, we are not allowed to use preventative. (Although I do, just to cause trouble.)

Kitty Pryde said:

It's not in the dictionary I checked! A sudden unexpected twist? How is a smile or eyebrow movement a sudden unexpected twist. This one fills me with rage. YA is not the only offender. I've also seen it in UF. For some reason I think it is a terrible word misuse that escaped from fanfic to terrorize innocent novels.

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The online Oxford does list it as

verb

(with reference to a person’s mouth or eyebrow) move or twist suddenly, especially to express surprise or amusement: [no object]: his lips quirked disbelievingly

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That doesn't make it any less of an abomination though

Loose for lose and all the variations. You're all a bunch of loosers!

Alright makes my eye twitch.

Drifting from fiction, bureaucrats mangling the language, and "coinaging" new words. Recently watched a TV documentary in which a D.C. bureaucrat used the word "planification," as in "the planification for this eventuality is ongoing." "We continue to make plans" apparently wasn't clear enough.

Donald Westlake had a wonderful scene about this "tendencyment" in Brothers Keepers, but then, if the topic is language, Donald Westlake probably wrote a wonderful and funny scene about it.

I see the "loose" for "lose" mistake all the time and its like fingernails on a blackboard! I'm mystified about how it originated!

Where are you at?

Well, I would think that's more of a (regional) colloquialism than poor usage. I think so, though am not sure.

Hereabouts we say, where are you?

Kumquat.


Otherwise, I agree with irregardless and alright. And over-the-top adverbs.

"Utilize." OMG, I want to rip out someone's tongue.

orientate

toward vs. towards is a regional thing. I think "towards" is more common in Britain. There are several threads in the grammar forum about it.

I really dislike "belly" for whatever reason, so I never use it.

Nothing screams "Hey, look at me everybody! I'm WRITING!" quite like the word "akimbo."

"From whence"

No need to add the 'from', people! That makes it redundant!

"Gaze" or "gazed". It's more about the context they are used, though. Most of the times, I see these words in sappy romances that I hate but bring myself to read. In other contexts, they are fine.

Melina said:

"From whence"

No need to add the 'from', people! That makes it redundant!

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Jane Austen does this. I'm considering a time machine.

"Till," unless you are churning up dirt. A lot of dictionaries say it's fine, but it makes me cringe. Take the time and write "until," man.

Not a word specifically, but the confusion/misuse of since and because makes me want to headdesk.

jaksen said:

Where are you at?

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Or the shorter version: Where you at?

Which, coincidentally, were the exact words a stranger texted to me at 2-freaking-am today.

I may have actually used an inappropriate idiom in replying to let them know they had the wrong number.

Squirrel on a Ledge said:

"Till," unless you are churning up dirt. A lot of dictionaries say it's fine, but it makes me cringe. Take the time and write "until," man.

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'til really makes me cringe too. what's wrong with writing out the full word?

Also, glaring redundancies (i.e. "I had to redo the test again"). Unless you did it once and then twice after that, you did not "redo it again."

To be fair I hear this more in everyday speech than I see it in writing. Doesn't make it any less annoying though.