<p>I had to revive this thread because I just heard the phrase that I hate the most and I don’t think is has been mentioned. I really want to throw something when I hear it. </p>
<p>Baby Bump</p>
<p>pre-buttal
Spare me.</p>
<p>^^^ Nope, I don’t like that one, either. Nor do I like prequel. They are both in the dictionary, however!</p>
<p>How about “pro-active” as the opposite of “reactive”? What ever happened to just plain “active”?</p>
<p>“Umm…”</p>
<p>“I have to tell you.”</p>
<p>The latter phrase was used an extraordinary number of times by someone being interviewed on NPR the other day; the subject matter matched the didactic phrase.</p>
<p>“I was gonna say!”</p>
<p>I think this means, “I agree with you.” But, I’m not sure.</p>
<p>at the end of the day is a great song…les miserables.</p>
<p>But my least favorite rhetorical tics are when people just don’t really say what they want to say but sortof work around what they are planning on saying, and then once they finally do, they emphasize what they say talking about it as if it were profound.</p>
<p>“To be honest” is my least favorite. Why would anyone need to say that? But back when I was doing therapy, I would warn people when I was going to be brutally frank.</p>
<p>My son has trained me about the “unique” thing.</p>
<p>In addition to many already mentioned, my pet peeve would be using words in the wrong order.</p>
<p>In the example</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>…what they’re really trying to convey is that it’s a ‘live’ recording (ie recorded in a concert in front of an audience instead of in a studio with editing, overdubs, etc.) so they should have rearranged the words to say:</p>
<p>“Recorded live before a studio audience!!”</p>
<p>Another example:</p>
<p>“All cars do not get good gas mileage”</p>
<p>instead of</p>
<p>“Not all cars get good gas mileage”</p>
<p>e-dad’s post reminded me of a couple of miserable years working under misapplied Six Sigma concepts. I don’t care if I never see the term “dashboard” again (sorry MIT!)</p>
<p>Has anyone noticed the use of "So, " to start a response to a question?
I think the first time I picked up on it was on Imus one morning…then on the Today show… for instance, Meredith would ask a doctor, “Can you explain how this treatment works?” The doctor responds with “So, in the early phase of using radiation…” </p>
<p>Now I hear it all the time…on Hardball… professional peers… just seems like a crazy way to start an answer to a question. To me, beginning with "So, " is almost like a parry to a question instead of just answering. Perhaps it is the latest way to signal that your are summarizing? I just don’t get it…jarring to me.</p>
<p>Did anybody mention paradigm?</p>
<p>I once recorded before a (figuratively) dead studio audience. It was late at night and they just weren’t into it. Perhaps we could parse “live” as referring to the amount of energy displayed by the audience, in the same way we refer to an energetic person as a “live wire.”</p>
<p>But BassDad, they hadn’t been embalmed and just waiting for burial, were they?</p>
<p>No, although I have actually heard of a recording that was made inside an ossuary. Now there was a dead studio audience in the literal sense.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This error in logic is, unfortunately, very common. Another common example:</p>
<p>“All that glitters is not gold” which should be “Not all that glitters is gold.”</p>
<p>“To adminstrate” should be “to administer.” When I hear it, I want to help by giving the speaker a sanitary napkin.</p>
<p>“But that would be a whole nother thing completely.”</p>
<p>I don’t know why but 24/7 annoys the heck out of me.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>See post 16. Me too!!3!</p>
<p>I will quietly offer, orientate instead of orient. However, I say quietly because I really can’t be annoyed with any usage or I’d have a heart attack or stroke with the number I see every day.</p>
<p>One I do try to combat is the omnipresent rhetorical use of the second person, as in “When you play sports you need to wear a jock strap.” I wrote in the margins, “Actually, I don’t.”</p>
<p>A funny instance was the student who repeatedly referred to “the male *****.” I was finally moved to write, “Is there any other kind?”</p>