Annoying Phrases - RANT
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You know how certain phrases just make you cringe? Like back when I was dating, phrases like "just friends" and "can we talk" were usually red flags. Other phrases (usually encountered when trying out an online dating site) were: 1. "voluptuous" (aka. fat) 2. "pleasantly plump" (aka. Greenpeace shows up when you sunbathe) 3. "moderately liberal" (aka. a rabid follower of Stalin) 4. "social butterfly" (aka. heavy drinker with sociopathic tendencies) 5. "artistic" (aka. I'm special because I'm 25 and still fingerpaint on paper plates) 6. "open minded" (aka. dumber than a bag of hammers and accepting of anything you or anyone else tells me - also means militant vegan or atheist and probably indicates excessive body hair). 7. "wants to be in a equal relationship" (aka. I want to be your equal, on the way to becoming your dictator and the despoiler and usurper of anything resembling your identity). Anyway, I've started noticing a similar reaction to other common phrases and because I'm cranky and in need of validation, I thought I'd throw them out to see if anyone else is annoyed by them. 1. eXtreme or Xtreme anything - You want extreme? Go soak yourself in gasoline and then jump in a volcano on live television. That's extreme. Anything short of that and you are probably just different, likely weird, and are exhibiting traits that will eventually/hopefully erase you from the gene pool. 2. enterprise or enterprise grade anything - yet another worthless group of words. This used to mean that an application could scale well and was flexible. Now it just means that the application has been obfuscated and abstracted to the point that it can no longer be maintained. 3. To the metal - This is supposed to mean that you dealt with something at a really low level. However, it always makes me think of worn out brake pads. "We went to the metal, so now we have no way of stopping. And thanks to our extreme, enterprise grade steering wheel, we can now hurtle off the cliff into oblivion faster than our competitors can point and laugh." 4. Metrics - yeah. These are handy, if you are using them. Otherwise you are probably just dumb for hanging on to them. Do you know how many cubic centimeters of fingernail clippings you generated last year? Who gives a crap? Also, if you are using arbitrary units (like "libraries of congress", "football field lengths", "interior surface areas of the Pope's hat" etc.), then you probably don't really need that information. 5. Database agnostic - This should mean that you don't care about
Well, this thread probably belongs in the Soapbox. But I'll throw one in. I hate the word "irregardless." THAT IS NOT A WORD. You mean to say "regardless." Bah!
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Well, this thread probably belongs in the Soapbox. But I'll throw one in. I hate the word "irregardless." THAT IS NOT A WORD. You mean to say "regardless." Bah!
Chuck Norris says "Irregardless", regardless.
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leckey wrote:
9. "You're fired."
I'd much prefer "You're fired" to "We're gonna have to let you go." Right, as though I'm here against my will.
Held hostage by money?
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Held hostage by money?
Trollslayer wrote:
Held hostage by money?
Well, aside from that :P The implication is that they're doing you a favor. You're still a hostage to money whether or not you have a job (unless you're rich).
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Well, this thread probably belongs in the Soapbox. But I'll throw one in. I hate the word "irregardless." THAT IS NOT A WORD. You mean to say "regardless." Bah!
Regardless of your personal opinion I've just checked 5 different dictionaries (Merian and Oxford included) and they all have irregardless down as a word.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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You know how certain phrases just make you cringe? Like back when I was dating, phrases like "just friends" and "can we talk" were usually red flags. Other phrases (usually encountered when trying out an online dating site) were: 1. "voluptuous" (aka. fat) 2. "pleasantly plump" (aka. Greenpeace shows up when you sunbathe) 3. "moderately liberal" (aka. a rabid follower of Stalin) 4. "social butterfly" (aka. heavy drinker with sociopathic tendencies) 5. "artistic" (aka. I'm special because I'm 25 and still fingerpaint on paper plates) 6. "open minded" (aka. dumber than a bag of hammers and accepting of anything you or anyone else tells me - also means militant vegan or atheist and probably indicates excessive body hair). 7. "wants to be in a equal relationship" (aka. I want to be your equal, on the way to becoming your dictator and the despoiler and usurper of anything resembling your identity). Anyway, I've started noticing a similar reaction to other common phrases and because I'm cranky and in need of validation, I thought I'd throw them out to see if anyone else is annoyed by them. 1. eXtreme or Xtreme anything - You want extreme? Go soak yourself in gasoline and then jump in a volcano on live television. That's extreme. Anything short of that and you are probably just different, likely weird, and are exhibiting traits that will eventually/hopefully erase you from the gene pool. 2. enterprise or enterprise grade anything - yet another worthless group of words. This used to mean that an application could scale well and was flexible. Now it just means that the application has been obfuscated and abstracted to the point that it can no longer be maintained. 3. To the metal - This is supposed to mean that you dealt with something at a really low level. However, it always makes me think of worn out brake pads. "We went to the metal, so now we have no way of stopping. And thanks to our extreme, enterprise grade steering wheel, we can now hurtle off the cliff into oblivion faster than our competitors can point and laugh." 4. Metrics - yeah. These are handy, if you are using them. Otherwise you are probably just dumb for hanging on to them. Do you know how many cubic centimeters of fingernail clippings you generated last year? Who gives a crap? Also, if you are using arbitrary units (like "libraries of congress", "football field lengths", "interior surface areas of the Pope's hat" etc.), then you probably don't really need that information. 5. Database agnostic - This should mean that you don't care about
1. People who slag off other people who use online dating sites. If we were dead honest nobody would ever procreate.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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1. I am SO with you on the Extreme thing. I actually wrote a rant post about it after I saw "Extreme Muffins." Now Victoria's Secret has "Extreme Sexy" stuff. 2. When you go to the doctor office in sweats, a hat, coughing and they ask, "So how are you feeling today?" Unless I am there for a standard exam, stop asking the obvious. 3. People who feel the need to state the obvious weather. "Oh it sure is raining!" or "Isn't it a beautiful day?" 4. At a restaurant when you are only half done with your meal, your drink is gone and the waitperson asks, "Would you like a refill?" I also hate it those places where they write their names in crayon. Like I can read your names through all the curly-q's. 5. People who use lend/borrow incorrectly. "I borrowed him my lawnmower." 6. Paradigm. I just hate that word. 7. White people who use black slang/ebonics such as 'bling,' 'snap,' or 'boo.' 8. Pretty much anything in the advertising industry. 9. "You're fired."
__________________ Bob is my homeboy.
leckey wrote:
1. I am SO with you on the Extreme thing. I actually wrote a rant post about it after I saw "Extreme Muffins."
Yeah but that's JUST "extreme". My favorite is the use of "ultimate". Once one produces the "ultimate cheeseburger", there's no place else to go. Or is there... "Ultimate Plus" of course! :rolleyes:
"Posting a VB.NET question in the C++ forum will end in tears." Chris Maunder
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Regardless of your personal opinion I've just checked 5 different dictionaries (Merian and Oxford included) and they all have irregardless down as a word.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
Paul Watson wrote:
all have irregardless down as a word
It has a history, coined first as a US colloquialism, but met with unusually more condemnation because of its sudden widespread use through radio broadcasting (entertainment) which sped the use of an otherwise regional expression.
_The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition._ Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so._Random House Unabridged Dictionary_ — Usage note Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s.Many people forget that the English language is a "living" language, it is always changing and drifting. The greater the separation, or influence from outside languages, the more it changes. You get regional differences even within the USA which likes to think it is uniform, put a Boston visitor in New Orleans and let them get around. They will squeek by, but there will be quite a few misunderstandings throughout the process, primarily because they speak regionally different versions. Many words are the same, but informal speech within the region forces a drift in usage. It is more noticeable in English speaking countries compared to each other USA->UK USA->Australia, etc. Since its origin was in a time when the USA was deliberately snubbing British spoken English, the sudden influx of this particular word met with an equal volley of teasing from overseas, which was shadowed by embarassed USA English speakers for providing a target. But all sides tend to forget -
1. People who slag off other people who use online dating sites. If we were dead honest nobody would ever procreate.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
Paul Watson wrote:
slag off
speaking of regional language... I had to look that one up real quick. I guess I don't get enough outside influence on Informal English. I recognize many phrases, but not that one. :) Now I will.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Paul Watson wrote:
slag off
speaking of regional language... I had to look that one up real quick. I guess I don't get enough outside influence on Informal English. I recognize many phrases, but not that one. :) Now I will.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Well, if you count England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as a region then yes, "slag off" is regional :)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
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Well, if you count England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as a region then yes, "slag off" is regional :)
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
Paul Watson wrote:
Well, if you count England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as a region then yes, "slag off" is regional
regional is origin, then it spreads outward through contact. All those had British direct contact. :) Thus regional. The USA was for a time, avoiding British contact. And Britain wasn't very happy with us either. ;) There are similar "regional" terms that come out the USA, which have completely different meanings in countries of British influence. As time goes by with less influence from Britain language will drift in each of those countries as it has in the USA. Without force of contact, language drifts. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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1. I am SO with you on the Extreme thing. I actually wrote a rant post about it after I saw "Extreme Muffins." Now Victoria's Secret has "Extreme Sexy" stuff. 2. When you go to the doctor office in sweats, a hat, coughing and they ask, "So how are you feeling today?" Unless I am there for a standard exam, stop asking the obvious. 3. People who feel the need to state the obvious weather. "Oh it sure is raining!" or "Isn't it a beautiful day?" 4. At a restaurant when you are only half done with your meal, your drink is gone and the waitperson asks, "Would you like a refill?" I also hate it those places where they write their names in crayon. Like I can read your names through all the curly-q's. 5. People who use lend/borrow incorrectly. "I borrowed him my lawnmower." 6. Paradigm. I just hate that word. 7. White people who use black slang/ebonics such as 'bling,' 'snap,' or 'boo.' 8. Pretty much anything in the advertising industry. 9. "You're fired."
__________________ Bob is my homeboy.
leckey wrote:
2. When you go to the doctor office in sweats, a hat, coughing and they ask, "So how are you feeling today?" Unless I am there for a standard exam, stop asking the obvious.
Arent we picky.
leckey wrote:
3. People who feel the need to state the obvious weather. "Oh it sure is raining!" or "Isn't it a beautiful day?"
Not one for beginning a conversation huh? Are you so efficient that you only use words that are not frivolous and have absolute importancy in their use?
leckey wrote:
4. At a restaurant when you are only half done with your meal, your drink is gone and the waitperson asks, "Would you like a refill?" I also hate it those places where they write their names in crayon. Like I can read your names through all the curly-q's.
Believe it or not some people dont want a refill and they ask so that they can save that 2 cents on the soda coming out of the bad just in case you are one of those people. As for the crayons, Macaronni Grill does that to be different.
leckey wrote:
5. People who use lend/borrow incorrectly. "I borrowed him my lawnmower."
This one I actually agree with but I believe you are too far north to hear this often.
leckey wrote:
7. White people who use black slang/ebonics such as 'bling,' 'snap,' or 'boo.'
Sup wit dat yo?
leckey wrote:
9. "You're fired."
Come eat at Domineo's! ;P
CleaKO
"Now, a man would have opened both gates, driven through and not bothered to close either gate." - Marc Clifton (The Lounge)
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leckey wrote:
9. "You're fired."
I'd much prefer "You're fired" to "We're gonna have to let you go." Right, as though I'm here against my will.
What would Chuck Norris say? :laugh:
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
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Regardless of your personal opinion I've just checked 5 different dictionaries (Merian and Oxford included) and they all have irregardless down as a word.
regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa
Shog9 wrote:
And with that, Paul closed his browser, sipped his herbal tea, fixed the flower in his hair, and smiled brightly at the multitude of cute, furry animals flocking around the grassy hillside where he sat coding Ruby on his Mac...
El Corazon's post is quite enlightening. No, I don't have a problem with the word being in the dictionary nor with language being a living thing. I just think the word sounds stupid.
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Paul Watson wrote:
all have irregardless down as a word
It has a history, coined first as a US colloquialism, but met with unusually more condemnation because of its sudden widespread use through radio broadcasting (entertainment) which sped the use of an otherwise regional expression.
_The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition._ Usage Note: Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so._Random House Unabridged Dictionary_ — Usage note Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s.Many people forget that the English language is a "living" language, it is always changing and drifting. The greater the separation, or influence from outside languages, the more it changes. You get regional differences even within the USA which likes to think it is uniform, put a Boston visitor in New Orleans and let them get around. They will squeek by, but there will be quite a few misunderstandings throughout the process, primarily because they speak regionally different versions. Many words are the same, but informal speech within the region forces a drift in usage. It is more noticeable in English speaking countries compared to each other USA->UK USA->Australia, etc. Since its origin was in a time when the USA was deliberately snubbing British spoken English, the sudden influx of this particular word met with an equal volley of teasing from overseas, which was shadowed by embarassed USA English speakers for providing a target. But all sides tend to forgetChuck Norris doesn't need a dictionary.
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Paul Watson wrote:
Well, if you count England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand as a region then yes, "slag off" is regional
regional is origin, then it spreads outward through contact. All those had British direct contact. :) Thus regional. The USA was for a time, avoiding British contact. And Britain wasn't very happy with us either. ;) There are similar "regional" terms that come out the USA, which have completely different meanings in countries of British influence. As time goes by with less influence from Britain language will drift in each of those countries as it has in the USA. Without force of contact, language drifts. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
El Corazon wrote:
Without force of contact, language drifts
I think the internet and television and so on will counteract the drift. I noticed that teenagers in Sweden tended to have an American accent, because of watching US-produced soapies on TV. Sweden largely prohibits dubbing of foreign TV or Cinema content, except for that aimed at young children (under-12, maybe.)
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leckey wrote:
2. When you go to the doctor office in sweats, a hat, coughing and they ask, "So how are you feeling today?" Unless I am there for a standard exam, stop asking the obvious.
Arent we picky.
leckey wrote:
3. People who feel the need to state the obvious weather. "Oh it sure is raining!" or "Isn't it a beautiful day?"
Not one for beginning a conversation huh? Are you so efficient that you only use words that are not frivolous and have absolute importancy in their use?
leckey wrote:
4. At a restaurant when you are only half done with your meal, your drink is gone and the waitperson asks, "Would you like a refill?" I also hate it those places where they write their names in crayon. Like I can read your names through all the curly-q's.
Believe it or not some people dont want a refill and they ask so that they can save that 2 cents on the soda coming out of the bad just in case you are one of those people. As for the crayons, Macaronni Grill does that to be different.
leckey wrote:
5. People who use lend/borrow incorrectly. "I borrowed him my lawnmower."
This one I actually agree with but I believe you are too far north to hear this often.
leckey wrote:
7. White people who use black slang/ebonics such as 'bling,' 'snap,' or 'boo.'
Sup wit dat yo?
leckey wrote:
9. "You're fired."
Come eat at Domineo's! ;P
CleaKO
"Now, a man would have opened both gates, driven through and not bothered to close either gate." - Marc Clifton (The Lounge)
CleaKO wrote:
This one I actually agree with but I believe you are too far north to hear this often.
I thought it occurred more often up North. Essentially anywhere with a large German immigrant population. The German words are the same for borrow and lend, at least that's what I remember from my college German class.
I would teach the world that science is not about truth, but is about trying to get closer to the truth. - Kathy Sykes
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What would Chuck Norris say? :laugh:
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
When Chuck finally says something, you're not alive to hear it!! :-D
-- Broadcast simultaneously one year in the future
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El Corazon's post is quite enlightening. No, I don't have a problem with the word being in the dictionary nor with language being a living thing. I just think the word sounds stupid.
Patrick Sears wrote:
I just think the word sounds stupid.
well... I have the same issue with garbanzo beans... :) but that isn't going anywhere. ;) colloquial expressions have less to do with sounding good, and more to do with sounding different. My ex used to give me hell over the use of reentrant. She swore up and down that it was not a word. But the computer industry has had an affect on language. Where did digital come from? Things change because a word is "coined" for a specific purpose. IN the case of reentrant it was used to describe parallel a processes problem of being in the same code at the same time from two different parallel operations (dangerous if your code is not reentrant). However, though I never pointed it out to her (she would never accept being wrong and my punishment would just be worse), reentrant is a word and has been for longer than computers have been around, computer programmers just took over one minor usage of the word. :) In the particular case of irregardless, the show generally attributed to originating the word (which I find many references to, but have never actually found the name of the show) was humorous entertainment. Which means the show could have coined the word only as a joke (since I don't actually know the show, and I wasn't around to hear it, I don't know for sure). In which case the joke is on us for adopting it. But that is the point of language. Usage breeds usage, its pretty much that simple. If you make a word tomorrow, doesn't matter what for (even some spoonerisms are gaining usage enough to be promoted to word status) then two things may happen: 1) people will ignore it, especially if it is not memorable, or doesn't stand out enough as different or 2) people will remember it and start using it. It really doesn't matter the contact. Now that I have heard slag off, I may not use it yet, but it becomes part of my understanding. The more often I hear it, or the greater contact with the new language form, then the more likely I am to use it in the future. If I were to start using it, people around me would be influenced slowly, and then the people around them, etc. Even a place like code-project promotes linqual shifts. Contact between people generate a blending of language drifts. Where USA has drifted there is the risk of influence to British English and others, and vice versa. The greater the contact the more the language will reblend together. However lingual shifts will continue, the great
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Patrick Sears wrote:
I just think the word sounds stupid.
well... I have the same issue with garbanzo beans... :) but that isn't going anywhere. ;) colloquial expressions have less to do with sounding good, and more to do with sounding different. My ex used to give me hell over the use of reentrant. She swore up and down that it was not a word. But the computer industry has had an affect on language. Where did digital come from? Things change because a word is "coined" for a specific purpose. IN the case of reentrant it was used to describe parallel a processes problem of being in the same code at the same time from two different parallel operations (dangerous if your code is not reentrant). However, though I never pointed it out to her (she would never accept being wrong and my punishment would just be worse), reentrant is a word and has been for longer than computers have been around, computer programmers just took over one minor usage of the word. :) In the particular case of irregardless, the show generally attributed to originating the word (which I find many references to, but have never actually found the name of the show) was humorous entertainment. Which means the show could have coined the word only as a joke (since I don't actually know the show, and I wasn't around to hear it, I don't know for sure). In which case the joke is on us for adopting it. But that is the point of language. Usage breeds usage, its pretty much that simple. If you make a word tomorrow, doesn't matter what for (even some spoonerisms are gaining usage enough to be promoted to word status) then two things may happen: 1) people will ignore it, especially if it is not memorable, or doesn't stand out enough as different or 2) people will remember it and start using it. It really doesn't matter the contact. Now that I have heard slag off, I may not use it yet, but it becomes part of my understanding. The more often I hear it, or the greater contact with the new language form, then the more likely I am to use it in the future. If I were to start using it, people around me would be influenced slowly, and then the people around them, etc. Even a place like code-project promotes linqual shifts. Contact between people generate a blending of language drifts. Where USA has drifted there is the risk of influence to British English and others, and vice versa. The greater the contact the more the language will reblend together. However lingual shifts will continue, the great
El Corazon wrote:
I have the same issue with garbanzo beans
You like chickpeas better? :wtf:
I would teach the world that science is not about truth, but is about trying to get closer to the truth. - Kathy Sykes