The "Annoying Phrase" Thread

[GHT]

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits."
Unknown

That's why artificial intelligence is no match for human stupidity.

 

[3fingers]

"Don't try this at home." There was a time when kids instinctively knew that it would be stupid to try and do the things depicted in cartoons.
It seems that no matter how impossible it would be to copy, a disclaimer has to accompany it for fear of litigation.
View attachment 190997

The silica beads that come in a thousand different products to absorb moisture are all plainly labelled "do not eat".
What would possess someone to take that little white sack out of the box that contained their new laptop and decide to eat it? You know somebody somewhere has done it though.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I got one of those in a box of actual food the other night, and the way it was packaged and compressed looked for all the world like a seasoning packet. I almost tore it open and sprinkled it in the pot until my eyes focused on the DO NOT EAT inscription.

I used to amaze the kids by eating those cornstarch packing peanuts for laughs, but even I draw the line at silica gel. The packing peanuts are actually pretty good, especially if you sprinkle them with powdered cheese. Low-rent Cheetos!

 

[Nobert]

I used to amaze the kids by eating those cornstarch packing peanuts for laughs, but even I draw the line at silica gel. The packing peanuts are actually pretty good, especially if you sprinkle them with powdered cheese. Low-rent Cheetos!

As opposed to those posh, hoity-toity Cheetos.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In our neighborhood, Frito-Lay products were the Veuve Clicquot of snacks, when all we ever got was Circus Time.

 

[Benny Holiday]

@Zombie_61 Brilliant! I must remember that one!

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Here's an annoying phrase that grinds me whenever I hear someone who's trying to sound more educated, smarter, or more sophisticated than an objective judgement would suggest. (Drum roll, please) "indicate"!

From Latin indicatus, past participle of indicāre (“to point out, indicate”), from in (“in, to”) + dicāre (“to declare, originally to point”)

"Last week you indicated ..." No, I did not indicate, I said, or I mimed, or I wrote, or I expressed through an interpretive dance, but I did not indicate unless I pointed toward it.

 

[tonyb]

Here's an annoying phrase that grinds me whenever I hear someone who's trying to sound more educated, smarter, or more sophisticated than an objective judgement would suggest. (Drum roll, please) "indicate"!

From Latin indicatus, past participle of indicāre (“to point out, indicate”), from in (“in, to”) + dicāre (“to declare, originally to point”)

"Last week you indicated ..." No, I did not indicate, I said, or I mimed, or I wrote, or I expressed through an interpretive dance, but I did not indicate unless I pointed toward it.

I fear that battle is lost ...

 

[GHT]

Why do Z listers, when interviewed, always use the word like for what sounds like every other word?
"We were, like, going to do the gig, like, but the police, like arrived and I, like....................."

 

[LizzieMaine]

I can see using "indicate" as a shorthand way of saying "call your attention to" or "point out." "Our records call your attention to thus and so," "Our records point out this and that."

I'm a firm believer in language as understood, which is not always the way the Sherwin Codys of the world would like it to be. Languages change and evolve with time. To a twelfth-century monk, we're all speaking gibberish.

As for hypercorrection -- the use of overelaborate grammar and pronunciation in order to seem more socially-correct -- nothing bugs me more than hearing a native speaker of a non-rhotic dialect, such as is traditional in much of the Northeast, trying to mask their accent by overpronouncing and drawing out their "r's." "Parrrrrrk the carrrrrr in Harrrrrvarrrrd Yarrrrrrd" is far more obnoxious to my ears than "Pahk the cah in Hahvid Yahd." My mother did this when she worked the switchboard at the hospital, and it was like shoving broken glass down my ear canals whenever I heard it. It sounds as phony and as affected as that "Kansas City British" accent the elocution teachers were pushing on movie actors in 1929.

 

[tonyb]

Popular usage trumps, no matter what any of us might think of it.

Still, it grates when I hear, say, “reticent” used as a synonym for “reluctant,” or “sketchy” for “sleazy.” Although I acknowledge kinda liking “skeezy,” which I take to be a relatively recent entry into the lexicon. But “sketchy” will always mean to me “like a sketch, not entirely filled in, incomplete.” It does NOT mean anything like “disreputable.” But, again, popular usage trumps, and the misusers are legion and I am but one of a small and diminishing number.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I can see using "indicate" as a shorthand way of saying "call your attention to" or "point out." "Our records call your attention to thus and so," "Our records point out this and that."

Wouldn't it be better as "Our records show ..."? That's clear and direct, without the pomposity of "indicate".

 

[ChrisB]

People don’t die any more, they don’t even pass on, they now just say that they passed (passed what, a kidney stone, flatulence?), or worse, they transitioned. When I go, say that I kicked the bucket, croaked, am pushing up daisies, but not any of the aforementioned euphemisms!

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
I recall a discussion here some time back listing many of the euphemisms for dying, a large percentage of which were quite amusing.

The proprietress of a greasy spoon where decades ago I took my breakfast at least three times a week told me of the death of another regular customer by saying “Chick is past.” It was among the more poetic utterances I’ve ever heard. It makes perfect sense — Chick is no more, he’s in the past, but let’s be economical and say it in three simple, single-syllable words.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sentences like that are why I love dialects.

 

[Skyhawk]

"At the end of the day."

Annoying to me because everyone seems to be saying it in the media, on TV, Radio, etc recently. It has almost become a knee jerk reaction it seems. A brainless utterance that follows along with the herd.

Be thoughtful, be unique for gods sake!

Some PC phrases really bug me but I won't get into those....
It wouldn't be PC

 

[tonyb]

^^^^
That’s been mentioned already, and I agree.

But, as others observed, it means pretty much the same thing as “when all is said and done,” which was perhaps similarly regarded before it became part of almost everybody’s working vocabulary.

 

[Dreamofgilgamesh]

Just don't get me started on all the things I hear that annoy me! My current hate is often heard by news reporters on the TV and they should know better. Suddenly every surface under your feet has become a floor. If someone is hit by a speeding car they're left laying "on the floor" Athletes that fall over are "on the floor" Single descriptive words such as road, grass, pavement, ground and such like have all become "floor" Am I but a voice that calls in the wilderness?

 

[3fingers]

"At the end of the day."

“when all is said and done,”

"Where the rubber meets the road."
Painting with a very broad brush here, but many times uttered by someone who would struggle to change a flat tire.

 

[tonyb]

Just don't get me started on all the things I hear that annoy me! My current hate is often heard by news reporters on the TV and they should know better. Suddenly every surface under your feet has become a floor. If someone is hit by a speeding car they're left laying "on the floor" Athletes that fall over are "on the floor" Single descriptive words such as road, grass, pavement, ground and such like have all become "floor" Am I but a voice that calls in the wilderness?

I have the opposite peeve—every underfoot surface is “the ground.” If we’re indoors, and not in a dirt basement, “ground” is not even close to accurate