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This thread is all about cliches - hackneyed phrases that get used again and again in speech or writing, usually to the point where they drive the listener or reader nuts. You can find them in fiction, on the news media and in real life, used by politicians, sportspeople, businesspeople and (if we're honest) most of us. This is the place to post your favourites/most hated. NO MEMES PLEASE . They inevitably end up being cliched as hell, but they have their own thread. I'll start the ball rolling with a few: News Media Describing people who've died on military service as having "paid the ultimate price." What's wrong with just saying they died? The British media always used to say people being questioned by the cops were "helping the police with their enquiries," even if the person was usually known as "Knuckles" and the scenario probably wasn't one of cooperation. Business Describing your employees as "our/my people", which the organisation I work in often does. Personally, I don't think you should be referring to "our/my people" unless you're a reigning monarch or some kind of religious prophet. It presupposes quite a lot for a business. "Going forward" for "in the future", which is also much beloved of some politicians. Again, why? General "There are two kinds of X: those who Y and those who Z." This has been so beaten to death that there's an anti-cliche - "There are two kinds of people: those who think there are two kinds of people and those who don't." Sadly, that too is getting killed by overuse.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 10:44 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 16:01 |
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"Preggers" and "We are pregnant". Preggers because it's a loving ugly word, and We are pregnant, because there's no we in pregnancy. There's only the woman. Stop saying "We".
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 13:54 |
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"Touching Base". If you work even remotely with people from other companies, I guarantee you hear this way too often. I've been out of that environment for 3 years and hearing that phrase still makes me twitch.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 14:08 |
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"It is what it is." "At the end of the day." "Shoot me an email."
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 14:25 |
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Anything ever uttered by David 'We're All In This Together' Cameron. It'd be nice if he went the same way too. Also, anything even remotely related to Social Justice, but that's more for the SJ Trainwrecks thread.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 14:26 |
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"I'm not racist, but..."
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 14:58 |
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"Everything happens for a reason."
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:04 |
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"Dunning-Kruger Effect" But that's pretty much limited to these forums. For now.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:05 |
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When people refer to their baby as "baby". Surely it has a name, or you know, you could say "the baby" or "my baby" or "your baby" and not sound like it was conceived by a troglodyte smashing flint against bauxite or something. "They say vitamins are good for baby" well it sure is nice to know that adult is considerate of baby. You know, maybe I just hate baby and person who have baby.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:19 |
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lorn Wayne posted:"Dunning-Kruger Effect" Also "Brutalism", "comic sans", "teal and orange", and "the loudness wars" Just because you know about one single thing in an entire field of art and design doesn't mean you need to namedrop it at every possible opportunity, Goons! "Pisswater". To put it in terms that beer snobs will understand, calling a crappy mainstream beer pisswater is the Bud Light of language. "Political correctness". I don't think I've ever met a person who used it disparagingly that wasn't complete human garbage. "I'm an equal-opportunity offender". I sort of admire it for being shorthand for "I am willfully ignorant about privelege and the nuances of basic social interaction".
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:23 |
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"X years young." We get it, they are old but your saying they are young. Aren't you clever. every time there is a human interest piece about someone who is old and still working, this phrase always comes up.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:35 |
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"Agree to disagree." That's the key phrase somebody will use if they have no loving idea what they're on about.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:37 |
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Idiot Kicker posted:"Agree to disagree." That's the key phrase somebody will use if they have no loving idea what they're on about. Along with "I'm entitled to my opinion". Yes you are, but it doesn't make you any less wrong.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:41 |
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Idiot Kicker posted:"Agree to disagree." That's the key phrase somebody will use if they have no loving idea what they're on about. I normally use it to mean "you're stubborn as hell and your brain is warped so I can't be hosed arguing with you, you're draining, let's change the subject".
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:41 |
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This is more of a pet-peeve than anything, but the phrase "sour grapes" drives me nuts. Even when there's a perfectly reasonable time to use it, I don't.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:42 |
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This. Just... this.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:45 |
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Septic Knothead posted:"It is what it is." My most hated phrase. I hear it so much at work. It adds absolutely nothing to the conversation.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 15:53 |
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Sea change.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:16 |
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When people say "True." to you answering a question about yourself. "What are you doing today?" "Nothing." "True." "How are you?" "I'm alright thanks" "True."
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:31 |
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This isn't so much a particular phrase, but it probably still counts here: "IM AN EXAGGERATED CARICATURE OF SOMEONE WITH AN OPPOSING VIEWPOINT!1!11!! I R DUM LOLOLOLOLOLOL" Even if I agree with the person making the post, seeing this tacked on the end (where it always is) makes me want to put a fist through the screen.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:32 |
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General Panic posted:News Media Along these lines, "X lost his battle with cancer..." It's bad enough he's dead, you have to call him a loser too? Just say he died of cancer. And "per se," simply because it's used incorrectly about 95% of the time.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:45 |
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"Tapped" I never, ever, ever want to read another article that tells me how someone was "tapped" for a position, like they were a keg or a playing card. Why don't you use words like "chosen" or "picked" or "hired" or "found to be inoffensive enough" "<scandal related noun>-gate" Shut the gently caress up. Watergate happened in the 70s. If you cannot describe something terrible without referring to something that happened before half of your readers were even born, you don't really understand it.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:45 |
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dancehall posted:Along these lines, "X lost his battle with cancer..." It's bad enough he's dead, you have to call him a loser too? Just say he died of cancer. Argh, both of those. Especially since somehow cancer is more belligerent than every other disease, so you can suffer from heart disease but you FIGHT CANCER WITH AXES  . It is now the default verb for having cancer and it's stupid.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:47 |
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"normalcy" It's not a real word for one, it is redundant, it sounds dumb and the word "normality" works a charm. I don't know why this word in particular annoys me, but it does.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 16:49 |
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I especially hate it when people use a tired old phrase, but can't even say/write it correctly. "For all intensive purposes" is one I see a lot. Or when people use a phrase that they've heard before, but obviously never seen in print. I see things like "day javoo" on Facebook.  Also seconding "per se." Most Latin phrases seem to get used incorrectly. 
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:04 |
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Argh, both of those. Especially since somehow cancer is more belligerent than every other disease, so you can suffer from heart disease but you FIGHT CANCER WITH AXES People using euphemism for death in general is pretty awful. I know that people are afraid of their own mortality but the absolute refusal to say that somebody died (the most popular one in my region seems to be saying that somebody "passed") is pretty gross on a lot of levels. Also, maybe the inverse of what the OP had in mind but people being mindlessly pedantic about the "true" meaning of words or their proper usage are annoying as poo poo. "Decimate" might have meant "kill one out of 10 people" a million years ago but guess what, language is a living changing thing and now it means "destroy a whole lot of poo poo", you're no more correct than if you criticize Americans for spelling "color" without a "u". Same thing for people who don't understand that dialects and hyperbole are both perfectly cromulent aspects of the English language.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:09 |
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"Epic" is a word that I have come to despise thanks to idiots on the internet using it improperly, and way, way too much. I also hate it when people say "You should [insert task]" instead of asking me to do something. And most of the time, it's not something you should do at all, it's just something that the person wants you to do for them ("You should go grab this for me", etc.). Just ask me like a normal, respectful human being, loving Christ.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:18 |
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What does "per se" actually mean anyway? I've never really seen it used by people around me except internet people so I have no idea about it. Also I've seen it written as "per say" before and that annoys me even though I don't know what it means in the first place.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:22 |
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Suzuki Method posted:What does "per se" actually mean anyway? I've never really seen it used by people around me except internet people so I have no idea about it. Also I've seen it written as "per say" before and that annoys me even though I don't know what it means in the first place. I'd describe it as meaning more or less "in itself". So you could say the problem is not people using lating phrases per se, it's that they don't actually understand what they mean.  Related to "preggers" mentioned above, I hate "hubbie" for husband. You're not five years old, dammnit!
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:37 |
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Farbtoner posted:People using euphemism for death in general is pretty awful. I know that people are afraid of their own mortality but the absolute refusal to say that somebody died (the most popular one in my region seems to be saying that somebody "passed") is pretty gross on a lot of levels. This just reminded me of the weirdest euphemism for dying I know of. The pastor at the church I used to go to would say that somebody "passed into the church triumphant". That phrase always annoyed me. Has anyone else ever heard that or was she just extra weird about death?
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:39 |
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Suzuki Method posted:What does "per se" actually mean anyway? I've never really seen it used by people around me except internet people so I have no idea about it. Also I've seen it written as "per say" before and that annoys me even though I don't know what it means in the first place. "In itself" or "by itself" Most people misuse it as if it means "as such"
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 17:44 |
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I work in an office environment and I hate absolutely everything that everyone says. Touch base. Dropped the ball. Scored a point. Really any sports metaphors in general should never be used. "Mr. Customer" Any time someone says "ping" and they're not talking about ICMP. Threw him in front of a bus / under the bus. I never want to see or hear anyone use the word "caveat" again. Any time the final requirements of a project are described as "buttoning up". Everyone I work with seems to get really excited about any new acronyms. We hired a guy about three months ago that brought BOM (bill of materials) from his previous company. That guy was eventually fired, but BOM lived on. It was never used prior to his working for us, and now everyone says it all the time. BOM BOM BOM, BOM BOM B-BOM. My loving office sounds like that scene from Meet the Parents. There's another guy that seemingly can't communicate without using idioms and euphemistic language. I wouldn't have a problem adding some color to the same old poo poo that we have to say over and over, but he can't not talk like this. Which gives the impression that he doesn't actually know what he's saying or what those words mean. His speech is all slowly being replaced with cliches that don't mean anything. He's like a toy with a string that you pull if you want your brain to get punched in the dick. So basically I never want to hear someone say something without knowing what they mean or why they're saying it. Otherwise they're just repeating a collection of words to fulfill some kind of odd social contract. Strife fucked around with this message at Jun 30, 2012 around 18:12 |
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:10 |
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"Let's not reinvent the wheel."  Also when people write "should of" instead of "should've." It doesn't make sense!
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:20 |
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"Didn't know what hit them". For some reason I'm just sick of it.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:20 |
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"Double-down on..." I've grown to hate this phrase "with the fury of a thousand fiery suns". Yeah, that one, too.
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:22 |
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Perestroika posted:Related to "preggers" mentioned above, I hate "hubbie" for husband. You're not five years old, dammnit! I actually don't have a problem with 'hubby' because 'husband' is kind of an awkward word that breaks the flow of sentances a lot of the time, but Oh god I can't stand infantalizing language usually. The food network is unwatchable to me because of all their "yummy"s and "ooey-gooey"s. Same thing with referring to grown-assed men and women as "boys" and "girls".
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:37 |
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:Also, anything even remotely related to Social Justice, but that's more for the SJ Trainwrecks thread.  I'm sure gay/trans/queer people and women must love you. Don't get me wrong, I'm as disdainful of "Trans-Asian Demi-romantic Pansexual Otherkin Dragonborne Furry" Otakus or anybody whose first response to something is to look for signs of patriarchy influence as anyone else on these forums. But stonewalling "anything even REMOTELY related to Social Justice" sounds willfully ignorant at best. There are a lot of valid reasons built up over many years of scholarship and social activism for why certain prefixes and terms are used to describe very real phenomena and why queer theory, gender/women's studies, and sociology are established academic fields. Deciding to write it all off as pantywaisted handwringing is tremendously callous (and also stupid). Content: There's this thing that a lot of people do where they try to add gravitas or "deep feeling" to whatever it is that they're writing by going: He thought it was going to go X-way. But it went Y-way... (or something similar with that structure) and the way they frame it and set it up just reeks of this idea that "this is a big loving deal, see? This is serious poo poo man!" If you've ever worked as a writing tutor, you've seen this a million loving times. It's something kids often do with their schoolwork, but SO many people never grow out of it. It drives me up a loving wall to see something published with that because it just screams, "I never read anything ever- so I have no awareness of what decent writing looks and flows like. I think this sounds good." Also, "hipster" because 99% of the time I've seen it tossed around (especially on the internet), it's pointed at a relatively fashionable or attractive (particularly if it's a girl) young person doing generally innocuous things or (god forbid) being in possession of an iPhone/mac/camera/bicycle/pair of glasses/BMI of less than 30/concert ticket/alcoholic drink/nonalcoholic drink/healthy food/unhealthy food/shirt by some bitter weeaboo. Just browsing comments on Imgur or Reddit (or these forums, on occasion) brings up a ton of examples and the pent-up hostility and NerdHate behind them are incredibly obvious (and really sad). Half of the time a lonely Redditor describes somebody as a "hipster," he really means "vapid stinkyhole (why wouldn't she ever date ME?)"
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:41 |
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Now that I think about it that probably counts as a meme so nevermind. One phrase that's annoying is "make it win." I work at as a casino slot attendant. You can probably figure out the rest yourself. Kaiser Mazoku fucked around with this message at Jun 30, 2012 around 18:54 |
| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:50 |
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Excavation posted:I normally use it to mean "you're stubborn as hell and your brain is warped so I can't be hosed arguing with you, you're draining, let's change the subject". Yeah, any time I use "agree to disagree" it's because the other person is an aggressive loving jerk and refuses to acknowledge any other viewpoint, and I very badly want to stop being attacked, for, say, thinking that there's a difference between criticism and constructive criticism. Personally, I can't hear "a slap in the face" without sneering. I've spent much too long hearing MMO players use it to describe having their class nerfed or their armor made more available or a quest made easier to take it seriously. 
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:50 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 16:01 |
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Blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. THAT SAID, blah blah blah blah. To me, the use of THAT SAID translates to, "I want you to think I'm smarter than I really am. In a moment, I'm going to use the word hence and really blow you out of the water with my fake brains. Get ready to be rocked by my knowledge. I AM INTELLIGENT, OKAY?"
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| # ? Jun 30, 2012 18:54 |
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