Annoyingly misused words?

[BiscuitTrouser]

Irony. Irony is my pet peeve now, even if it is my favourite form of wit.

Here is not irony.
"hey that guy stole your seat, his name is david too!"
"Thats pretty ironic"
Thats not ironic at all. Its a bit funny, and a tad coincidental but NOT ironic.

Irony: To do something beyond ones own intention. Usually the polar opposite of what you set out to do. Achieving this reversal of ends in the same action.

For example, a fat man eating at mcdonalds crosses to the salad bar across the road to enjoy a healthier lifestyle and extend his lfiespan. He is then hit by a truck full of diet pills. THIS is irony. By trying to extend his lifespan he ironically shortend it.

Putting up a wet floor sign and having people trip over it is ironic, you accidently achieved the oposite of your own intention. Now that is irony!

Verbal irony is a little harder, a vegan liking vampire weekend, meetloaf the band, and other meat named bands is ironic. Its ironic because despite hating meat he has managed to end up literally saying the phrase "i hate meatloaf" which is rather ironic, seeing as he takes immense steps to avoid it.

THERE PEOPLE. READ THIS. KNOW WHAT IRONY IS.

 

[John the Gamer]

Teriffic. Sounds like a 'bad' word, like Terrible. Instead, it's a word for 'good'...

 

[kurtzy23]

Seriously, I hate it when people don't know the meaning of irony as well.

Ah Futurama, there always seems to be a reference to everything in that show.

yes that is so annoying one of my freinds keeps saying it it drives me nuts

 

[SmokingMirrors]

The frequent use of the word "Fuck" get to me somewhat.

 

[Goro]

I, literally, died..
Really? But you're here now, who performed CPR?
What?
You said you literally died. Did you actually die?
No.
*take out bat perform beating*

 

[DAJ_]

You know what I've been seeing a lot lately that's driving me crazy?

"Lost"

As in "I'm sorry for your lost." Or "Well, it's their lost."

It's loss, you idiots! "I'm sorry for your loss!" You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.

 

[Nannernade]

When people confuse the words scythe and sai (Sorry if sai is spelled incorrectly) I remember back in 9th grade I had a half hour argument with my teacher about the way you pronounce the word, it is pronounced scy-th people...

scythe
   /saɪð/ Show Spelled [sahyth] Show IPA noun, verb, scythed, scyth·ing.
?noun

I assume you were using a phonetic spelling of scythe. If you were, it represents an incorrect pronounciation.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.

Eh close enough... thanks for the correction though.

That's fine, I'm surprised that you weren't annoyed!

Well I was a little annoyed, but why make a fool out of myself for such a little mistake? ^^'

 

[Ickorus]

I don't know if this really counts but I absolutely hate it when people say then instead of than.

Then = A place in time, a proper use would be "Everything was better back then" or "Then he tried to make my Dog lay eggs"

Than = A comparitive statement, a proper use would be "My Chicken can lay eggs faster than your Dog"

Please please please no more of this "I can eat eggs faster then you".

 

[Gamblerjoe]

OT: "I could care less" is annoying to me. As has been pointed out a great many times, you could care a great deal, and still be able to care less.

"I could care less" is sarcasm.

Not in the way it's generally used. Most people just use it to mean they couldn't care less without thinking about it. Used properly, there's nothing wrong with the phrase.

Im not sure what you mean by "couldn't care less without thinking about it." How does going from not thinking about something to thinking about it constitute caring less?

At any rate, when i was young, there was just an everyday phrase "I couldn't care less about X." Like many phrases, it got hackneyed and stale. When something becomes common enough, it becomes susceptible to variation. Eventually people started saying "I could care less" but in a thickly sarcastic tone. Eventually that became commonplace, and people started dropping the tone. I have seen this transition occur over the corse of my life, and i couldnt possible be more sure of what i am saying. Maybe this just happened in the region where i grew up and most of the world didnt start hearing it untill it became what it is today. Kind of like the word "wicked."

 

[Geekosaurus]

the word "gay" as an insult. it insults gays, linguists, the speaker's intelligence but not the actual person being insulted

I wrote a blog about this. And if anybody is keeping score; yes - this is the second shameless plug of the same blog entry in one day:

http://theforceisstrongwithhim.blogspot.com/2010/04/gay-first-post.html

It really starts to irk me when applied to physical items, "I love this new Black Ops game" - no you don't, you may like it a great deal but you do not love it...

Love (noun)

1. a strong feeling of affection
2. a great interest and pleasure in something
3. [count noun] a person or thing that one loves

It might bother you but it seems they're not doing anything wrong. If, however, you're opposed to the overuse of the word 'love,' in applying it too readily to items that do not deserve such high level of admiration, rather than saying that it cannot be used to describe physical possessions; then sure - I can see why it might grind your gears.

I'm personally not bothered about the misuse of words. That doesn't mean I wont judge you when you do it though.

 

[slopeslider]

The word kill.

Murder is an even more serious assault and can have bystanders go into shock.
At the young age of 11 my sisters use the word kill in sentences
like, "Oh, I'm going to kill her!"
it's just vile and unnecessary.

To be fair murder victims don't exactly survive to witness people making light of the horrific act that was performed upon them.

Just sayin'

(Also brownie points to WHOMEVER > uses something from this post as their most misused word)

Attempted murder. Knowing someone out there wants you dead and still does. Living not knowing when the next attempt on your life will be. Being in a witness protection program.
It can still be bad for the victim.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

OT: "I could care less" is annoying to me. As has been pointed out a great many times, you could care a great deal, and still be able to care less.

"I could care less" is sarcasm.

Not in the way it's generally used. Most people just use it to mean they couldn't care less without thinking about it. Used properly, there's nothing wrong with the phrase.

Im not sure what you mean by "couldn't care less without thinking about it." How does going from not thinking about something to thinking about it constitute caring less?

At any rate, when i was young, there was just an everyday phrase "I couldn't care less about X." Like many phrases, it got hackneyed and stale. When something becomes common enough, it becomes susceptible to variation. Eventually people started saying "I could care less" but in a thickly sarcastic tone. Eventually that became commonplace, and people started dropping the tone. I have seen this transition occur over the corse of my life, and i couldnt possible be more sure of what i am saying. Maybe this just happened in the region where i grew up and most of the world didnt start hearing it untill it became what it is today. Kind of like the word "wicked."

Punctuation is important :/ I meant that, without thinking about what they are saying, people use "I could care less" to mean "I couldn't care less." What you're talking about may really be a regional thing -- around here, it was "I couldn't care less" in a heavily annoyed tone, until one day people started saying "I could care less" in the same tone, intending the same thing, but actually saying the exact opposite. I can understand it being used sarcastically, but I have never once actually seen it used that way; most people simply don't think about what the words in the sentence mean, and use "could" when they mean "couldn't."

 

[Cheesus333]

The wanton abuse of "random" gets me. But I think it just about gets everyone.

And "epic". Christ, do I hate misuse of "epic".
I really do not want it becoming the new "awesome", okay, we already have one of those.

I think I saw a comedian talking about that on TV once. He was talking about how, when an astronaut gets into space and ground control ask him what the view's like, the only words that will actually fit the situation are words that are commonly used to describe catching a cup before it falls or the taste of a particularly good burger.
Obviously he was presenting it in the form of a joke, but it touches on a real issue. We're running out of sacred words.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

"******" Nobody knows it's the definition of a bundle of sticks or a meatball stuffed with pork.

I knew that on account of knowing people who eat them. I'm somewhat suprised they retain the name though given its use as a slur.

 

[TheDudeMan14]

the word "gay" as an insult. it insults gays, linguists, the speaker's intelligence but not the actual person being insulted

I consider that slang, not a misuse of the word. It's the same as someone in the 70's calling something "groovy" a term used to express their opinion on something. "gay" is modern slang.

Edit: How does it insult gays?

it insults gays because people use it as an insult to random people, as if it's something bad, which it isn't.

and i don't care if it's slang, all words we use, including insults, should have meaning, otherwise, when we insult someone, we're just having infantile temper tantrums and not actually using our unique human interlect. and the word "gay" shouldn't be used as a bad thing

think of it this way, imagine for example your blood type was A+, now how would you feel if, in an arguement with someone, i described someone i dispised as "such an A+" maybe it's not the best example but hopefully you get the idea

Then how are we gonna insult things we aren't fond of. Language is constantly evolving to keep life exciting and added variety to life, if we didn't use "gay" then what do you suggest we use?

 

[interspark]

Then how are we gonna insult things we aren't fond of. Language is constantly evolving to keep life exciting and added variety to life, if we didn't use "gay" then what do you suggest we use?

maybe by actually describing them? "god! this is so stupid / boring / pointless / annoying!"

 

[Bakuryukun]

Overrated.

 

[astrav1]

Ahoy there fellow escapists! What would you consider as your favourite/most hated/most annoying misused words?

Me? Irony/ironic, quite a few people can't seem to grasp the concept and flail the word around like a sword-chuck (cookie for reference), harming all language users in their path, including themselves.

Commence!

I'm the exact same. Also 8-bit Theatre. Great reference. So Ironic. (Sarcasm to the ironic reference)

 

[Hollock]

When people say legit instead of cool. "your skateboard is legit!"*drinks mountain [sub] excuse me[/sub] MTN Dew (why not DW?).

 

[mobsterlobster]

And all past/present/future mix ups (They may say "I writ that" not "I wrote that" and the suchlike)

ALSO THIS! Writ, drawed, sleeped...THESE ARE NOT WORDS! I can only forgive non-english speakers for words like this.

I once heard someone say, and I quote the exact words, "What do we do once we gone done catched them ball?"
I tell no lies.


Also got another: All those words that apparently mean "Good".
Ones like "Rape." (I know!) "Nectar" "Cracking" and loads more, even worse.

What's wrong with "cracking"? Do you hate "smashing" too? Although I do agree with the usage of "rape". For example, a certain football pundit got in trouble because, when describing a bad tackle or something (I don't watch football, a friend told me this story) he apparently said "he got absolutely raped". My friend was defending the pundit saying "everyone says that" and I said "I never say that someone got raped, unless I'm talking about someone who actually got raped". Besides, even if it is common among lads of our age (mid twenties), it should definitely never be used on national television.