Posted on 05/29/2007 2:17:17 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Readers have responded in their thousands to The Daily Telegraph's call to select the worst phrases in the English language.
Since our invitation was issued in February, more than 3,000 of you have submitted personal inventories of the damned, containing the phrases, aphorisms and clichés that irritate the most.
High on the list of grievances was the increasing use of slang, poor grammar and the incorporation of Americanisms into everyday speech.
Many of you shared frustrations over the misuse of "forensic" and "literally", while management jargon such as "downsizing", "brainstorming" and "thinking outside the box" also received plenty of nominations.
The Daily Telegraph has responded with its own compilation of annoying phrases, and She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook is now available on Amazon.
Here is a selection of your comments so far:
"It's not rocket science". Rocketry is engineering, not a science. - Tony
The phrase "up close and personal" was irritating to start with and has become hackneyed and meaningless e.g. I went on a river trip and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a crocodile - Margot Lang
I can't stand "to die for". Nothing's that good and even if it was, you'd be dead and wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever it was. - Vivsy
"Pushing the envelope" always conjures up for me some ridiculous scene in a mailing room or post office. - Nigel Brown
Why, when someone famous dies, do tributes always "pour" in? Also, when a plane crashes in the sea, the media is quick to remind us that the waters are always "shark-infested". - S.Winrad
Only £1,999.99. - P.H.Heilbron
"This door is alarmed". Is it really frightened? - Alan Lawrence
The infuriating rising inflections at the end of sentences that make everything sound like a question? - Steve Grant
I hate being addressed as "hallo there". My name is not "there". And why have all the cookery books and frying pans disappeared? What is a "cook" book and a "fry" pan? - Susan Byers
When the waitress plonks the plate in front of you and says, "there you go". Where do I go? Where's there? - Ken Clarke
"It will be in the last place you look". Well of course I'm not going to continue to look for it when I have found it. - Tom Batt
Scarmable.
Here in CT, we think that he is engaged in "solatio" (the art of blowing sunshine from his hind quarters). Frackin' surfers.
Here’s a really stupid financial one..
“He/She has more money than God”
I don’t think there is any documentation of God ever having ANY money at all, he doesn’t need it.
So a true, though completely misleading, statement by me would be “Like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, I have more money than God.”
Sometime in the past 10 years or so, even highly educated people have begun to say the word “is” twice in a row. For example it is common to hear people say something like: “The problem is, is that ...” rather than simply “The problem is that ...”.
"TRUTH TO POWER!"
Said by moonbats who think saying idiotic things is the greatest thing to do in life.
That one's especially nice when the speaker can't pronounce "paradigm" correctly. (puh-RA-di-jem is my favorite...)
Dang, I forgot lose/loose
The relationship between the customer and the sales clerk is adversarial to the extent that the sales clerk is trying to find out what the customer needs, the depth of her committment to spend money satisfying that need and what she will accept to fulfill that need.
That's a lot of information the clerk must gather before he can close a sale. The easiest way to gather that information is to engage the customer in conversation, let her talk, and remain attentive.
If the clerk is smooth at engaing the customer in conversation, the relationship becomes less adversarial. In some cases, it can resemble the relationship between a therapist and his patient.
Your idea of the clerk's job description assumes that he works for you. He works for the store, and his job is to move the merchandise at the highest price and lowest cost.
Scarmable?
The idea that a wealthy person who does a charitable work is "giving something back" presumes that the reason they're are well off is that they took something that they weren't supposed to have in the first place.
Easier to burn it down and burn it up...
PRE-OWNED!!!!!!!!!!
Arrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What’s wrong with the venerable term, “used” Lexus?
“pro-active”
When I say “Thank you”, younger folks generally reply “No problem”. Whatever happened to “You’re welcome”?
I hate it when the word “gay” is used as a synonym for “homosexual”.
ping for later
That makes me feel a little better. I was visiting some of my British relatives for the first time in years and another American in my party, who shall remain nameless, used "seen" instead of "saw", several times. I cringed and assumed they would see it as a low class Americanism.
I've noticed that the "I seen" usage is very common in the Northwest US.
“Rad” as in to be exceptional, best...
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