here are words i hate:
eclectic
incentivize (yeah, i know it’s not a work, try telling that to the people i work with)
succinct (a perfectly fine and good word but when you hear it about 309,298,092 times a day about your copy from someone whose not even sure what the word means, you want to punch someone in the nose whenever you hear it)
utilize (just say use damnit)
orientate (again allegedly it’s a word, but i don’t buy it)
share (blech! i have to use it too much)
pulchritude
here are words i love:
rad
gianourmous
wonky
zaftig
cacophony
apiary
draconian
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How can you not like pulchritude?!?
But, I’ll concur, “wonky” is one hella cool word. (ha! I said “hella”. I hate that word.)
My least favorite corporate word of all time has to be functionality. It’s just horrible and makes me cringe every time I hear it: about ten thousand times a day.
Sometimes if ya need a good word you just make on up.
whambasto! awsome (long a in the basto)
batacka vagina (nice batacka) short a’s
kumasegan bullshit
I detest the corporate phraseology “moving forward”….when my boss says that I make up an excuse and go home.
I am however sort of fond of electic (it just sort of works for me)
Yeah, I kind of like eclectic, too.
My most hated words are all corpspeak, like “maximize” and “paradigm” and “repurpose.” Special loathing is reserved for the willful misuse of “opportunity” as a euphemism for “problem,” as in “Shoplifting is a huge opportunity in the Juniors department.”
Going forward is my pet peeve. It means you fucked up, they’re rubbing your nose in it and being saccharinly sweet about it.
“Going forward, we’d like to see less mistakes on the copy we’re sending you.”
“Going forward, we’d like to see you back from lunch sooner.”
“Going forward, let’s put your nuts in a vice instead of saying ‘going forward’.”
I still use eclectic. Bite me. It’s a cool word even if you have an “opportunity” with it.
eclectic is a vile, over-used word that has ceased to mean anything.
Dick, my wife and I created an adjective, “Tordant Monkey” meaning “to find yourself in a jam”/”in trouble”/”be in a difficult situation”.
“Paper Jam and you have a report due in two minutes? That’s a real Tordant Monkey!”
The best part is, if they don’t immediately nod in agreement just because they don’t want to look stupid, stare at them like they didn’t get the analogy and say, “You know… the Greeks?!”
I’ve done that at the last 3 employers, now it’s caught on with other people. I even went so far as to talk about how the King of Tordurus gave a destructive monkey as a present to his daughter’s suitor, a rival prince, who couldn’t be rude and kill the monkey, so he simply returned the favor by visiting the Palace at Tordurus with his new monkey in tow. The monkey ended up causing so much destruction that the King of Tordurus had it killed and gave the prince his daughter’s hand in marriage.
It’s total BS, but it works.
at work, i hate the word “and.”
sounds strange, but people around here are so PC they don’t feel like they can say “but” so they say “and” instead.
e.g., “your design is good … AND it’s not exactly what we had in mind.”
also, if i hear the phrase “thinking out of the box” one more time, i think i’m going to lose it.
as a fellow copywriter, ya know what i hate?
leverage (as in “leverage our core capabilities”)
i don’t think orientate can be a word. try to use it in a sentence where you could not replace it by using orient as a verb. i can’t. therefore, i agree.
greg, you should never doubt me!
orientate
By stating that eclectic is vile, you are giving free reign t those who have VARIED tastes. Just the word VARIED gives me heebee-jeebees…
“My style is VARIED.” (It sounds so much more hideous the closer to Chicago you grew up; “vay-REED” vs “VAY-read”)
I’d rather have a thousand people saying eclectic than VARIED… even various and variety push the limits…
So before you tilt at any more windmills, Don Quixote, decide if you really prefer the alternative, or it’s the concept itself you despise.
closure…..closure…..closure yes thats my least favorite. secret translation:I’m done torturing you with the past yet!
I guess all the words have a place where they belong but I draw the line at bad fonts…oh man they gotta go!
i am humbled. 😉
however, using the model sentence from dictionary.com, he could also be orienting himself to the light of his knowledge.
“Awsome” use to be an expression reserved for describing events on a grand scale, such as volcanos,tidal waves, the Grand Canyon and landing men on the moon. Now teenagers and alike use the word to desribe the taste of the latest wine cooler. I weep for the future.
“Awsome” used to be an expression reserved for describing events on a grand scale, such as volcanos,tidal waves, the Grand Canyon and landing men on the moon. Now teenagers and alike use the word to desribe the taste of the latest wine cooler. I weep for the future.
this is a fabulous site … i came across it by accident and am so damn pleased to find people as passionately annoyed by certain words as i am. as an ex-editor and always-writer, i collect typos and mis-words with a passion.
my all-time two most hated
1. EXPRESSO (please someone make them stop, tell them THERE IS NO “X”!!!)
2. IRREGARDLESS (uh – not a word)
“orientate” is up there too but you already spoke to that one.
so – moving forward…
yeah, i have a beloved and dear friend who says both supposeably and eye-talian (instead of italian) it breaks my heart.
I actually prefer using Eye-talian. I also say that one thing is “more better” than another.
I’m a funny guy.