Thursday, April 1, 2010

irksome words

There are many words that I love, but a few that irritate me.

interesting: It doesn’t really tell me much. I want to hear something more descriptive; what exactly do you find interesting.
You betcha: Palin played a role there.
No offense 1. This doesn’t diminish the offensive remark which has been perpetrated . 2. Implies that I should be offended, even if the statement that followed wasn’t offensive.

Rural, vocabulary, thatched, thwart , thrice: I can’t seem to pronounce them correctly.

addicting (I don’t mind addictive though), Bush (the ou sounds makes the sh sound rather harsh and it carries unpleasant associations) , cockroach (I dislike them), dank (brings to mind a tank and mold, for some reason), Cheney (I imagine chains) , serendipity(why should we have the word pity when speaking about something pleasant) , terror/terrorize (seems to have lost all meaning)

Babe as a term of endearment.

Are there any words, expressions, cliches that irritate you? Or words you love?

7 comments:

  1. I dislike "no offense" for the same reason you do. And what is with the pseudo-word "addicting"? It drives me crazy.

    Another word I hate is "hermeneutic." I swear it doesn't actually mean anything. In the six years I spent hearing it used in academic dialogue I was never able to make any sense of it. I'm pretty sure academics just throw it around as a filler word to add more syllables to their sentences. Academics always need more syllables.

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  2. Thanks Kathleen for commenting; I rarely get any comments, so I'm always excited to see you've commented! :)

    I agree with you on "hermeneutic." I only have a very narrow definition of it in mind, as a theory of interpretation, but you can refer to something as a "hermeneutic interpretation," which puzzles me.
    Academics definitely throw around too many unnecessary multisyllabic words.

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  3. I just wanted to add that I use interesting often and find myself irritated, more so than if others use it, because I should be able to state why I find something interesting.

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  4. I am not that sensitive on words as much as I am by actions. Certain behaviors and comments irritate me.
    Like racist and other ignorant comments.

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  5. There are definitely some actions that irritate me. I agree, it's so difficult to hear racist and ignorant comments. Do you encounter any, Aso?
    You could say you're sensitive to the way words are used to as to invoke insult or offense.

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  6. True! Although sometimes words can sugar pill the spoiled ideas.

    I do encounter plenty of implied and stated biases daily. Don't you?

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  7. Yes, I definitely do, Aso, so I can definitely sympathize, and they always dampen an otherwise good day.

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