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Words which set your teeth on edge

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Ganesh

14:00 / 11.09.04

Y'know, those words which, used in conversation, are like biting tinfoil.

Ickle
Horrible horrible Chris Evans wannabe-cutesy horrible.

Bird
When used by a conspicuously upper-middle-class colleague to denote the feminine.

Wacky
Don't. Just don't. Unless you're Michael Jackson, in which case you can hardly make the situation any worse.

Kooky
See 'wacky'.

Funky
Particularly when used on interior makeover shows to describe fun-fur on a lampshade.

Snazzy
Not sure why; just the sound of the word is, for me, the intense humming of evil.

Homosexual
Specifically, the 'hom-oh-secks-you-al' pronounciation beloved of BBC newsreaders. Added Tinfoil Points for following it with the word 'lifestyle'.

[X] on acid
Cliched and lazy. Describe it properly.

(Yeah, yeah, it's a phrase.)

What does the nails/blackboard thing for you?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:18 / 11.09.04

What-ever I've suddenly become far too cool for this conversation with you (ie: Shit, I can't think of a good comeback)

Ganesh

14:24 / 11.09.04

And, in the same vein

Ewww
Deeply irritating US teen-speak exclamation along 'too much information' lines. Get over your parochial disgust response, Valley Girl!

Eloi Tsabaoth

14:33 / 11.09.04

More annoying fallback phrases.

It's like X meets Y!

It's X for the 21st century!

[Barely talented actor du jour] is the new [Preexisting actually talented actor].

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:48 / 11.09.04

another phrase of evil:

"My bad"

No. try "oops" or "I'm sorry", you over-cute-over-grown teen.

Char Aina

14:56 / 11.09.04

not much actually upsets me about other's word choice, but i do feel x is the new y should only be said when taking the piss out of those people who say x is the new y.

another that does shit me a little (unfortunately to be occasionally found falling out of my mouth) is using nononono immediately before refuting something.

say it once.
saying it repeatedly does not make your interlocutors sound more wrong.
it makes it seem like you cannot cope with dissent.

Char Aina

14:58 / 11.09.04

isnt "My bad" ebonicalisationally correct?
i guess you live in the yook so that point *is* a bit redundant...

Smoothly

15:07 / 11.09.04

Another vote for kooky (particularly in self-description), and her evil twin sister, Ditsy.

Stools, as in turds.

I used to know someone who'd stick her fingers in her ears and sing 'lalalalala' at the mention of 'terry toweling'.

■

15:30 / 11.09.04

Chimney when pronounced in that awful Chimbley cutesy way by adults who should know better.
That and the phrase National Debate as in "We need to have a national debate on the issue" (read as: "I'm not going to talk to you about it, so I'll pretend that there is going to be some future discussion in which everyone will be involved, so we can sweep it under the carpet for now")

Char Aina

15:30 / 11.09.04

b-b-but they had the big conversation..!

Tezcatlipoca

16:19 / 11.09.04

Hubby, oh how I hate and loathe that word, normally together with whomsoever happens to use it.

Most 20th century-isms are guaranteed to set my teeth on edge, as are pretty much all Americanisms.

Mike Modular

16:55 / 11.09.04

Bubbly
As in: "I have a bubbly personality" (Translation: "I will annoy you with my shrieking and general inanity"). Actually, I don't much care for it as slang for champagne, either. So, a double-whammy* then.

(*I hate that too, ever since it was used as the name of a made-up bullet type in the Judge Dredd film)

Can't remember any more right now. Must. Think. Harder.

(I do quite like 'snazzy' though, mainly because no-one really says it any more. Except maybe my mum)

Triplets

16:58 / 11.09.04

Wow, the first half of this thread is like reading cut-ups of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer script.

Triplets

17:00 / 11.09.04

Any kind of text speak. Ever. Unless it's from a cyborg killing machine. Then it's gud (but not God).

Mazarine

17:00 / 11.09.04

So with BiP on "my bad." I generally loathe all forms of baby talk, and my bad, for whatever reason, sounds like baby talk to me.

Whisky Priestess

17:09 / 11.09.04

Americans using "my bad" is acceptable. Others: no.

"Boyf" as short for boyfriend. Unbelievably twee, and so unnecessary. I instantly began to hate the first person I ever heard use it, particularly as she was clearly so proud of her achievement in getting a "boyf". And you just knew he'd be a dickh.

Actually, the words boyfriend and girlfriend have always annoyed me too. They just sound so ... adolescent, especially when applied to relationships of several years' standing. There ought to be some sort of term for the middle ground between "boyfriend" and "husband". And I don't mean "fiance".

I used to know a girl who used "povvy" to mean poor. I tried it once and it sat ugly on my tongue. Just wrong.

charrellz

17:23 / 11.09.04

There is a certain phrase which makes me want to destroy entire civilizations: What the crap. I don't know why, but I get the strong urge to punch anyone I hear saying this.

grant

17:46 / 11.09.04

Writing for the tabloids has spoiled me for this for life.

Good lord, I've even used galpal without irony in conversation.

I'm doomed.

Pity me.

----

Oh, and I love using funky in the sense of something that smells wrong. Or for music (or related sounds) with a wa-wa guitar and a hi-hat cymbal on the backbeat.

I do find a residual disdain for the word sesquipedalian, simply because it's too "clever." It cannot be properly used in a non-cute way. It sounds beautiful... but it's like a warning sign for wankitude.

grant

17:52 / 11.09.04

There ought to be some sort of term for the middle ground between "boyfriend" and "husband". And I don't mean "fiance".

I prefer "better half" or something similar -- and I kind of like it when someone talks about "my lady" or "my man" (old or not) -- but I have grave, grave reservations about my S.O.

w1rebaby

19:50 / 11.09.04

terror (or "terrr" / "terrr-ist")

freedom

edgy

chemical imbalance

flip-flop

leverage

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:51 / 11.09.04

Text is a NOUN, for fuck's sake. A NOUN!!!

■

20:52 / 11.09.04

"It's all good"
Used exclusively in situations where it's very fucking clearly NOT all good.

Charlie's Horse

23:57 / 11.09.04

Every time I hear the word nuculear (new-cu-lear), I have to bite off a rat's head just to calm back down. Maybe that's just me.

Whisky Priestess

00:08 / 12.09.04

I blieve it's pronounced

NOO-KOO-LAR

(and spelt nucular)

for gee-shucks bonus points

flufeemunk effluvia

00:28 / 12.09.04

SMS slang in general makes me want to destroy buildings with my bare fists...

ROFLOLMAO!!!!!1!!!!one!!!!

Warewullf

01:01 / 12.09.04

Tasty
Oh how I fucking hate the sound of that word.

Grub or Tucker when talking about food.
Call. It. Food. You. Prick.

More-ish (ie. It makes you want more of it.)
I'll kill you if you say this in my presence. And it's not even a real word.

Alex's Grandma

01:04 / 12.09.04

Hello ? As in " are you sure about that ? " as in, hearing what's otherwise a perfectly reasonable term used that way makes me want to go " postal, " again a word that conjures up that special feeling of an ice-cold insect crawling up the back of your neck. There's something uniquely bloody awful about Buffy-isms outside the context of the show, especially out the mouths of Brits.

Also sad as in " you are, " get a life and No, I've got a boyfriend - the most innocuous phrases can get a bit wearing if you hear them often enough.

Ganesh

03:22 / 12.09.04

I'm hating my thread. Already.

Panic

22:17 / 12.09.04

Given that I've just been through two hurricanes and possibly a third this week, I've grown intensely hateful toward the phrase "hunker down."

Every five minutes on the damn tv or in overheard conversations. Damn it! Damn it all to hell! Hunker this you sonsofbitches!

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:32 / 12.09.04

Going forward

What exactly the bollocks is wrong with the far more accurate in the future or from now on?

Spatula Clarke

23:34 / 12.09.04

I'm hating my thread. Already.

Your bad.

nedrichards is confused

06:31 / 13.09.04

Synergy, an unparalleled shortcut to wankerhood.

Benny the Ball

11:21 / 13.09.04

I really hate More-ish as well. And anyone who makes rhyming slang up - saying things like 'lady godiva' for a five pound note - hoxtonite cock-knockers the lot of 'em.

Used to work with a woman who hated the words 'moist' and 'tunic' so would slip them into as many emails and conversations to and with her as possible.

Moist seems to be a word that several ladies I know dislike, a friend of mine hates it also.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:23 / 13.09.04

The only way to deal with "synergy" is to pretend that you have misheard it as "zymurgy", and see how long you can carry on the conversation before everyone else notices.

Hattie's Kitchen

11:34 / 13.09.04

Oriented.

It's OrienTATED, you lazy bastards.

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