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Common phrases that society should phase out

mobilehaathi said:
YOLO - "You only live once" often shouted immediately preceding an untimely demise doing something stupid
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Cue an icon of 'face palm'.

But thank you for the explanation of the word itself, and for putting this horrid expression into its proper cultural context.

Right. Not a term I shall permit to pass my lips, and one which, if I ever do consider a dramatic return to the Groves of Academe, I shall immediately commit a verbally violent assault upon the person of any student foolish enough to let such a term slip within range of my hearing.
 
A blast from the past that I still, occasionally, hear: "My bad!"

It basically means "my mistake" (but I don't want to use the word "mistake.")

That said, I have used it. :)



Michael
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Flexibility and adaptability, yes, but some of the terms used are just crude and clunky, instead of being articulate, eloquent and gloriously expressive.

There is a place for language as a bludgeon, but when the bludgeon becomes the default form of expression, then, language loses its grace and much of its meaning.

More to the point, some of these expressions are ghastly euphemisms which are designed to distort and mask their true meaning, rather than express what is meant by elucidating it clearly in plain, elegant prose.
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Exactly. It was "Eatery" that really annoyed me.

I mean, if everyone started playing this bizarre "lets-make-a-noun-out-of-a-verb" game, we'd have all manner of crazy stuff like...

  • Drinkery (a bar)
  • Sleepery (a hotel)
  • Livery (home)
  • Cuttery (barbershop - that one exists in real life. Ugh!)
  • Workery (could be an office, could be a factory, could be anything)
  • Poopery (no need to explain :) )


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Tinmania said:
A blast from the past that I still, occasionally, hear: "My bad!"

It basically means "my mistake" (but I don't want to use the word "mistake.")
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When I first heard "my bad", I thought it was a contraction of, "Am I bad?"

Not a question. More a proud declaration. As in "Am I BAD, or what!!!" <high-five>
 
Arran said:
Exactly. It was "Eatery" that really annoyed me.

I mean, if everyone started playing this bizarre "lets-make-a-noun-out-of-a-verb" game, we'd have all manner of crazy stuff like...

  • Drinkery (a bar)
  • Sleepery (a hotel)
  • Livery (home)
  • Cuttery (barbershop - that one exists in real life. Ugh!)
  • Workery (could be an office, could be a factory, could be anything)
  • Poopery (no need to explain :) )


----------



When I first heard "my bad", I thought it was a contraction of, "Am I bad?"

Not a question. More a proud declaration. As in "Am I BAD, or what!!!" <high-five>
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OMG!
I spend a lot of time in the poopery today, because I got the runs.
I am out of toilet paper but wtf.
YOLO, right ?! :)

Just noticed that I used a lot of the naughty phrases :eek:

My bad.
 
Tomorrow said:
"We're pregnant." No, your wife is pregnant. You are an expecting father, but you're not pregnant.

"Starting a family." You mean "having kids." You started a family when you took up with your significant other. Childless couples are families, too.

"My birthday week." There's a reason the word day is in there - that reason being, it's not a week.

The business phrases everyone seems to loathe so much don't really bother me.
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This one always cracks me up.......
 
A.Goldberg said:
"You know what happens when you assume? You make an ass at of you and me."

People think they are so clever saying this and I think some people think no one has ever heard this expression before. It's the worst and I literally want to punch the next person I hear say it.
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Seconded.

"You know what happens when you say that? You make an ass out of you. Now ****."
 
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet..

This "NorCal" drivel they call slang: Hella, Hecka, etc. For example, "It's hella cold".. Unless they've been to Michigan, They don't know what the climate of the place is like, let alone know that it really exists.

Gotta go. Eighty-Six'ed. (another one that should go.) Out the door. Away with it.

BL.
 
bradl said:
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned this yet..

This "NorCal" drivel they call slang: Hella, Hecka, etc. For example, "It's hella cold".. Unless they've been to Michigan, They don't know what the climate of the place is like, let alone know that it really exists.

Gotta go. Eighty-Six'ed. (another one that should go.) Out the door. Away with it.

BL.
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I grew up in Michigan, live in northern California, and have been to Hell!

Good riddance to "hella!" Never even heard of "hecka.":eek:
 
Tomorrow said:
I've seen YOLO written out online, but never in my life have I ever heard anyone actually say it. I'm certain it would annoy me, though - I don't even care to see it written.
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I hear it a lot from my fellow undergraduate students (especially when alcohol is involved and stupid and/or careless actions are more likely to occur) and it makes me grit my teeth. The saying "you only live once" is stupid enough and is a terrible excuse to do something that can cause harm, but actually saying, no, screaming "YOLO!!!!" makes it about 100 times worse.
 
I'm tired of beginnings like Hmmm; Argh; Ugh; Erm, Eh; FWIW; and endings like Imo; My 2 cents; Sigh; Shrug; Grrr; and all other banal and consistently used enough to be tedious phrases.
 
FieldingMellish said:
I'm tired of beginnings like Hmmm; Argh; Ugh; Erm, Eh; FWIW; and endings like Imo; My 2 cents; Sigh; Shrug; Grrr; and all other banal and consistently used enough to be tedious phrases.
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Actually, I rather think that they function as the written equivalent of clearing your throat, preparatory to saying (or writing) something which with your interlocutor might not (probably will not) agree, and you are trying to do this politely.

Julien said:
"Head over heels". It's heels over head. We or usually head over heels.;)
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Not if you are tumbling forward, off balance because of the power of what has stunned you. Kids can go 'head over heels' (indeed, countless eons ago, I recall being able to do that).

The expression seems usually to be used in the context of 'falling head over heels in love', and can be seen as the equivalent of something that makes you stumble forward, but with momentum, such is the power of the psychological pull.
 
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Julien said:
"Head over heels". It's heels over head.
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You are correct. For an explanation, take a look at the (often fascinating) World Wide Words site, which is a trove of useful information regarding the meanings (and etymologies) of the words and phrases we have come to live with.
When it first appeared, back in the fourteenth century, it was written as heels over head, which makes a lot more sense. Logically, it meant to be upside down, or, as to turn heels over head, to turn a somersault.

It became inverted around the end of the eighteenth century, it seems as the result of a series of mistakes by authors who didn’t stop to think about the conventional phrase they were writing.
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Emphasis mine.

Its an accident that has stayed with us. Blame Davy Crockett.
 
vrDrew said:
You are correct. For an explanation, take a look at the (often fascinating) World Wide Words site, which is a trove of useful information regarding the meanings (and etymologies) of the words and phrases we have come to live with.


Emphasis mine.

Its an accident that has stayed with us. Blame Davy Crockett.
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Now, that is something I hadn't known until now; I had never thought to check the origins of that particular expression. How fascinating.

Arran said:
Interesting. The phrase - itself - is suffering from the condition it describes. :)

That's actually quite clever!
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Indeed, and very nicely phrased.
 
Not a phrase, but "utilize" has a specific meaning and is widely used incorrectly in business, presumably to sound more intelligent.

Also the "Murica" meme, usually invoked by urban elitists for some banal caricature of or condescension towards middle class American culture.
 
Go the extra mile

When people say this they have a very loose idea of how long this mile is and would prefer it to be open ended. When people work hard through good will, you get the extra mile and the few hundred after that. If you have to ask for it, you'll probably get a few inches and then you have to ask again.
 
Peter K. said:
I don't know if anyone will agree with me, but I don't like "on the ground". The most recent example I can think of is how certain people were said to be on the ground in Ferguson, MO.
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'On the ground' isn't an expression I would go to war over, mainly because I think it expresses a relevant distinction between someone 'in the studio' (and someone who is out 'on the ground'), or someone who is 'at the office' and a colleague who is 'on the ground', or 'in the field'.

Of course, when the meaning moves beyond the literal into the metaphorical, we may have an issue.

Nonetheless, it is not the worst offender against language that I have come across.
 
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