<p>Anybody irritated by some rhetorical tics?</p>
<p>For me, the current one is “moving forward” (Just finished reading a memo by a Romney strategist). As if anybody proposed moving backward. It reminds me how irritated I was by “at this moment in time,” introduced, I believe, by John Dean during the Watergate hearings. I could not help muttering whether there were moments that were not in time.</p>
<p>Advance planning</p>
<p>LOL.</p>
<p>I used to live in the UK. We had to fill out forms that had been designed by Americans. The Brits always had something nasty to say about the rubric “future plans.”</p>
<p>I also hate ‘going forward’ in business correspondence and the now ubiquitous ‘shoot me an email.’</p>
<p>just about every word that W uses, which amounts to the utterance, “uuhh” </p>
<p>And if W intends to read from a script, he can at least practice reading aloud the script and read the words with some type of conviction.</p>
<p>Past history</p>
<p>Using “like” in front of every third word in a sentence. </p>
<p>You know</p>
<p>that’s ill</p>
<p>hit me up</p>
<p>Using ballgame versus the simpler … game. And to stick to the sports’ meathead talk, the one that drives me crazy is ESPN love for the asinine “buck and a number” to describe the yardage of a runner, as in a buck twenty for 120 yards. Of course, that is ESPN not C-SPAN.</p>
<p>My #1 pet peeve is the insertion of the word “actually” into oh-so-many places where it doesn’t belong. Are we to infer that statements in which this word is absent should be interpreted as deceptive?</p>
<p>A somewhat distant #2 is the use of the word “absolutely” as the affirmative word-of-choice when a simple “yes” would suffice. When everything is emphasized, points actually (sic) deserving of emphasis are shortchanged.</p>
<p>Oh, I forget my favorites: basically and literally</p>
<p>As we know, according to the new and emotional Mrs. Clinton, her supporters literally froze to death to come support her. :)</p>
<p>OK, how 'bout “totally devastated”?</p>
<p>“Very unique” or “really unique” - just being “unique” is no longer sufficient.</p>
<p>Basically is like a knife in my head. I also can’t stand literally. I LITERALLY ripped her head off.</p>
<p>A phrase that appears very common with young people: “Whatnot” Or is it “What not”?</p>
<p>Most business-speak: ‘best practices’, ‘core competencies’, prioritize, incent, etc.</p>
<p>The literally one bothers me. </p>
<p>Anyways is another one that gets on my nerves.</p>
<p>WashMom will literally kill anyone who uses “basically” in her presence.</p>
<p>I’m getting tired of people starting every sentence with “so,” although I confess to be an occasional offender. “So” is the “like” of the 00s for adults.</p>
<p>“Reportage” instead of “reporting.”</p>
<p>“Utilize” instead of “use.”</p>
<p>A writing sin: Using “lead” as the past tense of “lead” instead of the correct “led.” (As in, “Patton lead his armies through France in 1944.”)</p>
<p>Word!
Word up!</p>
<p>My number one, though, is the bizarre teevee promotional: “Tune in Sunday night for an all-new episode of Desperate Housewives!” How could a program be sort-of-new, partially-new, or newish? I should think that “newness” would be a binary state for a television episode. Basically, an episode is either new or a rerun, the “all” is like, you know, so literally redundant and duplicative.</p>
<p>How about, “Recorded before a live studio audience!!”</p>
<p>Would any studio audience be dead? Now, that would be silly.</p>
<p>“I’m getting tired of people starting every sentence with “so,” although I confess to be an occasional offender. “So” is the “like” of the 00s for adults.”</p>
<p>I do that in email (although never spoken English). Will be more careful.</p>