I do find many of the words or phrases mentioned here annoying. What bothers me more are grammatical errors by folks (often bright young people) who should know better. The ones I find most annoying–incorrect use of lay/lie, who/whom, and me/myself. I also get annoyed when words like disinterested/uninterested are used incorrectly so often that the incorrect usage eventually becomes the accepted usage. Maybe this annoys me because I’m old and I like rules.
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…and the misuse of your/you’re. Such misuse is rampant on Facebook.
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its / it’s
GB instead of UK
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Speaking on behalf of myself
Aren’t Great Britain and the United Kingdom slightly different though – as in, Great Britain is the island of Britain itself (England, Wales, Scotland), while the UK adds Northern Ireland?
So if I meant to leave out Ulster, I might reference Great Britain or simply Britain.
Needlessly expressing it as an equation:
GB = UK - NI
Exactly the point - but people often unknowingly refer to GB (or “Britain”) when they mean the entire country, the political entity – a slight to the Northern Irish, or at least their Unionists.
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Ohhhh, I see. Yeah, you’re right, they are often misused.
It’s all England to me.
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Or if half the of Scots have their say, some day the “LK” (the Little Kingdom of England and Wales).
“Evidence-based.” Every time I hear that term, it’s being used by someone in an attempt to justify what I consider to be bad public policy.
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A common one that jumps out often is using an apostrophe to indicate the plural. I even catch myself doing it when typing fast. I see that everywhere.
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Not a phrase, but an acronym:
SLAC
Small Liberal Arts College
Aren’t the vast majority of LACs small? That being the case, the S is unnecessary/redundant.
It is a LAC!!! Save the key stroke!
hehe
ETA: It has occurred to me, just now, that the S might also be used to mean “Selective”. If that is the case, never mind.
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The assumption that a college’s claim to “meet [full] [demonstrated] need” means that its financial aid will be good.
However, colleges define “need” in various ways, and can exclude some students completely (e.g. those with uncooperative divorced parents).
Recently I’ve seen the word “unalived” to refer to suicide or murder. I hate it.
“He unalived himself.” “He was unalived by a guy walking around waving a knife at people.”
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I had to sign my sons’ course syllabi yesterday. I wanted to take a red pen to every occurrence of the word “utilize.” Students reading textbooks are using the textbooks to facilitate learning. Students pounding nails with textbooks are utilizing the textbooks as hammers.
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I know on many social media platforms it’s the word “kill” that can’t be used, so people replace it with this. A woman was on Instagram sharing her mental health story and a comedian at a show told her repeatedly to “unalive herself”. She was really saying “kill yourself” but this isn’t allowed.
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Oh crap. I thought was selective. Oops…because it seems to get used with the top ranked.
It may well be. Or – snobby? hehe
Considering that most private colleges and many public colleges consider applicant aspects that could be described as pedigree* in admission, it may not be surprising that the use of that word shows up in a college-related forum.
*Legacy, relation to donor/politician/VIP/etc., and (before recent court decisions) race/ethnicity.