Recently I saw a license plate with one of those made up words we could do without . I actually skulked behind this car, going out of my way to see who in their right mind would put it on their plate. Unfortunately, I was thwarted by a red light, which meant I’d wasted a whole boatload of time just to lay eyes on the person who had the nerve. After that, I started thinking about words I dislike – a lot. Words I refuse to say, words you couldn’t pay me to write. Uh. Maybe I’d take money. The word on the license plate?
“Sharted.”
Yep. That word.
With that, here’s my list,and it probably comes as no surprise what tops it:
- Shart
- Any word turned into a cutesy version of itself. Selfie comes to mind
- Ilk (as in, “his/her kind,” but honestly, it sounds like someone about to throw up.)
- Awesome
- Awesome sauce (huh?)
- Adding “age” to make a plain word more formal – as in “signage.”
- Adding “de” to words (like “de-planeing,” for getting off the plane. Can’t they just tell you to exit the plane?)
- Experience (as in how was your dining experience? How would I answer this? It was awesome with some a little bit of awesome sauce???)
- Misspoke (words that sugar coat reality – tell it like it is. I lied!)
- Panties (underwear!)
What words make you cringe?
I prefer “disembark” for leaving a plane. Which I guess came from leaving a boat, originally?
“shart” is one that makes me cringe as well. And “guesstimate” doesn’t make me cringe so much as spark an I’m-sure-unnecessary rage.
Disembark – too formal! Banned! Just kidding… 🙂
I first heard “shart” from Phillip Seymour Hoffman in that movie with Ben Stiller – Along Came Polly. It totally grossed me out. (somebody will probably ban “gross.”)
Weirdly enough, cash. Instead of money or dollars, etc., the word cash bugs me. I don’t like the way it sounds and couldn’t tell you why.
I get that Jennine – it the same for me with panties…just don’t like it, or veggie, or comfy, or people talking about “comfort foods, ” like we still need to nurse at our mother’s breast. That’s a cringe factor off the chart.
Your number 2 is just part of the language in Australia — although it doesn’t make things seem cutesy, but rather rougher and less formal, friendlier somehow, and is most often applied to people’s names. Jonesey. Hawkie. Barnsey. Simmo. Undies.
Which reminds me, most of my pet hate words are not the word itself, but the American corruption of the word. I’m not talking the sort of changes that give any country its unique richness of language, but of things such as Americanised (See? S not Z) spelling of words which no other English-speaking country changes. These changes complicate the world in an unnecessary way, and are a constant annoyance now that spellcheck is a thing that pops up to annoy us all over the place.
There’s a word the rest of the world likes to use for these “different” American spellings. It’s “wrong”.
As for your list, I agree with almost all of it. Especially awesome, which I sometimes use when speaking, and cringe every time I do it.
Awesome list. Woops. (which is different from woopsie)
I know what you are talking about when you mention the American version – while others use the British version. I worked for a Canadian company for a long time, and would get emails from colleagues with certain words spelled like centre, litre, labour or colour, etc. for center, liter, labor, or color. I’m sure you can appreciate why this change in America. We muddied the waters before for a serious cause, and when we decided to be independent, it was all or nothing – I guess .Like driving on the right side of the road instead of the left. This behavior (behaviour) would seem contrary, but the funny part is…some British used American spellings in the 17th century.
I did a little research and found out that in the 19th century and into some part of the 20th, Australia used “or” endings but now “our” endings are taught in today’s curriculum and NZ uses primarily British endings. Canada only recently(1990) completely adopted the British version for use in their newspapers.
I am guilty of using “amazing” which I also cringe at, but I think it made my previous list.
I ought to make up a list of words that mean one thing for us Americans but something else for others. For example I’ve always laughed at the word “shag,” which here, in my home state of NC and in SC too, is a form of dance – but it’s a WHOLE other form of “dancing” elsewhere.
This was fun. 🙂
Yes, us aussies have some, ah, interesting, words for certain favourite pastimes — shag, root, naughty, it continuees, and becomes quite a list. Kind of like Eskimos having many words for snow…
Language is so interesting when you get into it — the American word color, for instance, comes from the English colour, which comes from the French colour, which comes from the Latin color.
Colorful, colourfull, cull-a-fool, cooler-fuel. Words! The real and the less so. Ya gotta love em!
Amazing, awesome, and cacophony and many more but I’m typing on my Kindle because my laptop crashed. It’s really cutting down on my wordiness . I miss my little laptop and I know you know how I feel.
Here we are… lovers of words (books/writing) while finding words we could strike from the Dictionary if we could. Funny.
I’m sorry about your laptop – hopefully it is being fixed and you’ll have it back soon…
Donnaaa….I bought a keyboard for my Kindle. I feel like I went from a Hummer to a Beetle. Love it, what a blast. How did you go a week without your laptop? I’m going through withdrawal.
Dare I ask, what’s “shart”. I am not familier with the term. If it’s profane I’m surprised because I pride myself with a dirty mind and if it’s not…I guess I’m just plain literistically naive.
Something about Kindle + keyboard = wonky. Right? Like trying to text with gigantic fingers. My sister-in-law loaned me hers…it just wasn’t the same. But at least I could work and knowing I could made all the difference.
Oh my. Hm. It’s not really dirty… like our favorite dirty word. Fuck. Which is even better when transformed into Averil’s expression = fuckity fuck. (I think it might be my favorite)
But it IS dirty as in NASTY. Best described – not here. Email on it’s way. 🙂
Got the email. Clever but eeww.
About the Kindle. I hated using the scene to write so I bought a Bluetooth keyboard. It’s amost like a ‘for real’ shrunken laptop.
Yeah. Eww.
Shrunken laptop…well, as long as you have something that functions somewhat like a laptop. That’s why I so appreciate my brother-in-law – and his stash of “gear.”
Panties?!? I fear I have traumatized you in some way… 😉
LOL! Um, underwear on the floor really just doesn’t cut it, now does it? For that, panties works!