Annoyingly misused words?

[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.

 

[slaveway3242]

People who in real life say pwnage.... What is worse is when they say it with a P, which, isn't even how it's pronounced so now you really sound like a noob....
Oh and people who say noob IRL...
Oh and people who say IRL IRL....

 

[Count Igor]

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.

Hey, it's just something that I don't like for some reason.
And I think that if it's acceptable to say it on the streets, then you should be able to say it anywhere.
Though that doesn't mean I condone the usages of such words.

Ok, what about Sound then?
It isn't that bad, but I dislike it.

 

[DragonChi]

what I hate is people who vastly over use "lol" when talking.

a girl that i know says it at the beginning or end of every statement she makes when she talks to me on msn. Regardless of what the topic is or what was previously said that she is replying to. Especially when I mention something that is completely NOT funny at all and she throws in a "lol" in her response. Seriously, WTF is your problem? I don't understand that behavior at all.

All I can think about when she does that is "How do you sleep at night". It's just really insensitive.

I even caught her on it recently saying "why do you think that's funny?" and I think she said something like "Oh, I know its not funny, i just throw that in there for filler"...I was speechless. Does anyone else know someone like this?

 

[b3nn3tt]

It amazes me that people don't understand the difference between affect and effect. One is a noun, th other is a verb, it's really not that difficult

Not so much a misused word, but something that really bugs me is when people use an apostrophe to pluralise something. This especially annoys me when people refer to decades. It was the 90s, not the 90's. You are neither removing letters nor implying ownership, therefore you do not need an apostrophe

 

[TankCopter]

I don't see much point in ranting what's a word and what isn't as long as I can understand what you're on about, but it would be nice if people could at least understand the meaning of a word that they're using. Or spell it remotely right so I know what word it is. That is, if they actually wanted someone to be able to understand it, which I don't think is always the case.

A bit off topic but not greatly so- basic grammar is always helpful for understanding. Whether or not someone knows how to use a semicolon is fine, but if you've been through the early years of school I'm going to make the wild assumption that you were introduced to the capital letter, full stop and the comma at some point.

I know this isn't really basic, but an ellipsis is THREE PERIODS. Not six, not eight and definitely not a whole line. There's a point where it gets ridiculous and we've reached it.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

"Win"

Honestly, how can you win a thread. It's not a competition, it's a disscussion.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

"I could care less",
"That's so ironic"
"I like, literally blah blah blah"
"That is so epic!"
"I done that!"
"Youse guys!"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

 

[Singularly Datarific]

Irregardless.
The word is useless, the shorter version means exactly the same thing, it's used by people who try and sound smarter.

I once was caught saying that by my brother, I figured out I needed to subtract the Ir-.

Unique.

Also, when "literally" is misused, I (figuratively) weep.

My English teacher went over that usage, citing an essay someone wrote "it was the MOST unique..."
Most unique.
Is there such a thing as most right-handed? Or most dead?
It is a binary, it either is or isn't.

 

[Ampersand]

Language is supposed to played with, the little flourishes people add to their own spocken word doesn't do any harm.
Do you think anyone gives two shits that I constantly miss use the word Groovy?

No, but your use of 'spoken' kind of stuck out.

I'm dyslexic, give me a break o_o'

Arm or leg? I'm like the mafia, it doesn't matter what you have, I have a quota to meet.

Here is my badge:

Spoiler: Not really but seriously.

Just joking, i couldn't care less about it.

..........oh it's a play on words -_-'
Very punny.

 

[Xhu]

It amazes me that people don't understand the difference between affect and effect. One is a noun, th other is a verb, it's really not that difficult

Little-known fact: 'effect' can be a verb as well as a noun. When used this way it is roughly synonymous to 'cause'. One can, in fact, effect an effect.