Words that should be deep-sixed

January 17, 2018 • 2:30 pm

Grania found this tw**t, which I think is right on the mark:

The words I especially hate here are “bae”, “totes”, “amazeballs”, “cray cray”, “whatevs”, “be like” and “epic”. Some of them, like “yolo”, “awks,”, and “well jel”, I’ve never heard before.  I’d add “genius” when used as an adjective, but we’ve been over that before.

“Wine o’clock”?????

195 thoughts on “Words that should be deep-sixed”

    2. Perhaps it’s a problem with who you attract as friends? I’ve never used any of those words.

      There is a certain (male) friend on FB though, who shall remain nameless, who uses the word noms rather a lot. Surely that’s a short step from nom nom? 😀

      1. I gather newspapers prefer Mum as in “Mass-Murdering Mum kills 20” or “Mum of 6 wins Nobel Prize” rather than “Woman”

    1. Beer-thirty is how I’ve always heard it. There’s even a bar on the way to Lawrence, KS with that name. Neither that one nor wine o’clock other me but the rest of the list I find quite irritating.

      1. I say ‘beer o’clock’ whenever I accidentally get to the store/mart around six pm. The lines are always super long and filled with individuals buying just beer.

    5. Well, I think that ‘methinks’ and ‘meseems’ can be useful alternatives to IMMO, I’d say.

      1. Methinks that if `methinks’ has a problem, it is that it is actually archaic. Use with irony.

    6. Oh dear. I’m in trouble with you lot. I use them jokingly, not seriously though. Does that help?

      1. Usually ‘end of’ means that the person thinks they have made the definitive statement on the subject and that no further discussion or contrary opinion is necessary.

        I take ‘end of’ as provocative since the opinion expressed is usually the opposite to what I think on the subject or is often anything but convincing in spite of the rant.

        Often used in discussions about politics or dogmatic ideologies: eg. libertarian economics, Objectivist stuff

        1. I find they tend to say “That is all”. As if that was the final word on the matter.

          (That’s the right-wing tactic for ending an outrageously offensive statement. The left-wing counterpart for similar obnoxiousness is “Just sayin'”. )

          cr

    8. Methinks that methinks is a perfectly fine word. It does, in the creosote adverts words, what it says on the tin.

        2. Swift wrote an essay doing nothing but thinking of the children, and their gastronomnomnomic potential.

    3. I never thought of the etymology of that until now.
      I’m guessing it’s a cognate with “six foot (1.8m) under”?

  7. We have to keep Yolo, or Davis won’t have a county! (It means “you only live once.”)

    1. Yes, I wondered about that too. Maybe it’s being used in some slangy way that I haven’t heard.

      1. It’s worth noting (for other words too) that the author is from Kent, England. That accounts for things that sound very English to me – “preggers”, for instance.

        “Banter” (and worse, ‘bantz”) is used to mean alleged wit and conversation that those taking part is admirable and the pinnacle of how to spend your time (“Great bantz last night, lads!”), but which is probably simple-minded, boorish, and repetitive. Think of the conversation on Top Gear, if you’ve seen it, or people of less ability trying to ape it. It might well contain a lot of this list, in fact.

        2. ‘preggers’ is a bit lame and very old hat.

          I think ‘up the duff’ is way more expressive

          cr

      2. It’s OK, Jerry. I’ve been an old guy shouting “get off my lawn” since I was 23.

        And I really wish kids would turn down their damn rapping music.

      3. If it makes you feel any better, I’m only 32 and I still regularly catch myself thinking “these damn kids…” when it comes to my neighbors (mostly early-20s at the oldest college students, and damned hooligans from my aged perspective!). 😉

      4. My botanical iggorance is preventing me from describing a “lawn” in eye-watering, jaw cracking detail. Something L would attach his name to.
        I’m sure someone can (dis-)obilge.

      1. There is a short and horrible geological literature on scalding volcanic mud pits covered by verdant greenery.
        There is a longer literature with fewer 3rd degree burns, on plain vanilla liquid swamps under greenery. Basically, lovely flat green things should get your “avoid” neurons firing.
        This post was brought to you by the clothing “wetsuit”, and the search term “bog-trotting” ; we are not at home to the sport of bog-snorkeling. That’s in Somerset, IIRC.

  11. Somewhere on Microsoft’s website, appears the word “upskill,” a verb, apparently, meaning to increase one’s skill, especially by taking a course offered by Microsoft.

  12. I can’t stand “bae”! But if I had to choose one of these to NOT destroy, I’d probably go with “methinks” (because it sounds like pseudo-Shakespeare).

    “Amazeballs” is funny, but I don’t use it.

      1. It’s pronounced “bay.” It’s for when you’re too busy to say “baby” as a term of endearment. Mustn’t waste time with extra syllables!

  13. I can’t stand most of those. Staycation I’ve only heard once and it was used to mean that the person was taking a week off but staying local. I hate preggers. Totes, amazeballs, cray cray. Awful. I’ll see nom nom here and there on Facebook and it’s usually moms talking about their babies eating yummy foods. That doesn’t bother me too much.

    1. I am beginning to think there is no universally acceptable greeting amongst anglophones.

      In a recent post by PCC(E) on this subject (words to be banished), someone commented that they hated “good morning”.

      I can see disliking “hey” as too casual (I do use it sometimes, but only to people I know well). But good morning? That construction is almost universal across languages.

      1. I should have added that it is not particularly offensive if used in very informal settings among good friends. What I was thinking of was its use on network news, among other places, e.g. And now to our White House Correspondent – Hey Peter, Hey Hoda.

      2. Come to the Isle of Man where the traditional greeting to people of all genders and ages is “Hey Boy!”

        It’s falling out of use as more UK-ites come over but it’s still fairly common, To best effect it has to be in the local accent which robs it of the risk that a recipient will take the “boy” element badly

        * as part of our cunning plan to confuse Americans and other foreigners, the IOM is an tiny island between England and Ireland but it isn’t actually part the UK. It is in the British Isles though!

        1. My grandfather used to say “Hey Boy!”: he was born in Wales. The Welsh also say “Boyoh” in much the same way.

          I just learnt that the the Isle of Man is a “Crown Dependency”: not sure whether that means that it is dependent on the UK or the UK is dependent on it:)

          Apparently the Queen has the title of “Lord of Mann”, spreading further linguistic gender confusion. I suppose that “Hey Boy!” would do for her too!

          1. Jersey and the other Channel Islands are also Crown Dependencies which means they will be defended if they are invaded but they were not when the Germans invaded in 1939.

        2. Jam, circa 1978, “Hey Boy, you got any money?”

          Not a good start to an evening with a bottle of wine and a take-away curry.

    2. As a teen (long, long ago) I might address a letter thusly, “Sunny salutations on a salubrious day!” My G-d, I was such a pompous ass.

    3. Suspect that Hey is Old Norse. In any event, it’s Swedish (spelled Hej and pronounced exactly as Hey/Hay).

    4. I’m fine with “hey”, but even at the ripe old age of 32 I’m already sick of how “how are you?” or “how’s it going?” have become greetings – not actual inquiries, but greetings, where two people may meet and exchange “What’s up?” and “How’s it going?” without either actually answering the stated questions. As someone who works register at a neighborhood store, it is a regular annoyance for me to say “Hello” to a customer, have them respond with “how’s it going?”, and then completely ignore a response when I give one (or just go through the meaningless repetition of “good, you?” “good, thanks” before we stop talking).

      1. I don’t mind ‘how are you’ but I always have to remind myself that it’s not a serious question to be taken literally. I have a tendency to answer it, much to the disconcertment (is that a word?) of the person who asked it.

        cr

      2. Try “Fit like [loon | quine]”, just to add a little spice to your liquidity.
        I particularly like “quine” as a gender-recognising indicator. Compared to the much-complained about “luv”, “pet”, “hunny” (“hun” for males), what does “quine” contract? “Queen.”
        Of course, when a screaming queen flounces up to the bar at the local poof palace, it takes on the opposite meaning. It’s slang, you expected consistency?

        1. Bloody AutoIncorrect! “Loquacity”, not liquidity!
          ( I do like that My phone makes “Bloody AutoIncorrect ” a 4-press sequence. Seems fitting, somehow.)

  15. I read all the science posts

    ^^^^couldnt help it

    … hey, how about a good ‘ol satirical idea : convert scientific terms into their low-literacy equivalents. I’ll try:

    Restriction digest = triggy
    Quantum electrodynamics = Q-dick

    2. I wonder whether those fire-spreading raptors are totes ‘yolo!’ before they drop their load?

      2. No, not a bit. It’s been used that was for a really long time.

        I know that disliking neologisms is a futile effort. Nevermind, I still hate it. I think it’s because it’s an integral part of the current offense culture.

        1. Although “disrepect” as a verb apparently has a venerable history, I don’t remember it used a verb until the last couple of decades, and then as part of the offense culture current in the US.

          In my 1965 edition of Webster’s New World Dictionary, the entry for disrespect is, in full:

          (dis’ ri-spekt’), n. lack of respect; discourtesy; rudeness. v.t. to have or show lack of respect for. –disrespectful, adj. — disrespectfully adv., –disrespectfullness n..

          So, clearly, it is acceptable English.

          And I still hate it.

          à chacun son goût.

      1. Not in typical USian speech — until very recently, as part of the offense culture.

        I’d be curious to see substantial citations in US writing or speech in the 20th century prior to the 1980s or 90s.

          1. Sure, in the USA, for the great bulk of language. I’d listen to local TV announcers for sampling. Pronunciation might vary; but the words themselves are pretty consistent.

          3. I have come to appreciate the term since everyone from Canada to Argentina is an American. Admittedly, American is generally taken as someone from the USA, but I have met many folks in the other Americas who would prefer USian over American.

          4. Despite living in the US for years and reading US media for decades I’ve never seen it. Apart from Urban Dictionary, the only references to it I’ve found are people complaining about it.

    2. Mental image of being flayed …. nay, “flensed”… by thespian with rubber knives.
      Second mental image : marketing enactment of first image to a “select clientele”. As Mary from the bus would say, “with leather?”

      1. Must admit most of the terms mentioned appear alien to me too.
        Stacation? Hollibobs? Totes? Chillax? Well jel? Gawjus? I haven’t a clue what they mean, and I’ve never seen them before, I think I must be kinda backward, if not retarded.

    2. I said above that I don’t use any of those words, but I missed methinks. I use that for fun – not seriously. And I think my vocabulary is reasonably good too. So we’re both in the same boat.

  19. There’s a Harry Enfield sketch about the Scousers where Terry is about to get married but can’t remember his bride-to-be’s name so he just calls her ‘Preggers’.

  20. When I retired from teaching English–and I was very much on the prescriptivist side of things, I adopted as my mantra, “change is good.” Not giving a sh*t has served me well, but I confess I will never accept ‘wellness.’

          3. Sorry, but “dickoration” has already entered my vocabulary. I haven’t decided what it means yet, but that will … spurt forth in its own good time.
            Actually, I just get the feeling that a certain politician of orange permatan and implausible hair is in the frame. And I don’t mean Robert Kilroy-Silk!

      1. When I translate my resumé (not using the ‘Merkin) into German and Polish, I will try to remember to incorporate it.

    3. It has a certain place. With a thick application of sarcasm.
      “The Sun has risen in the East!” — “Amazeballs”!”

  24. I was always miffed upon hearing somebody in an argument use the phrase “same difference”.

  25. Common phrases around here that annoy me, “bougie” (meaning “bourgeois” and pronounced “boo-jee”), and “you do you” often as “you do you bae” or “you do you bear”.

    “Awesome sauce” seems to have mercifully died.

  27. Honestly I don’t give any importance to any words, liked or not by some activists. I use words commonly found in any text. Who gives anyone authority to ban words? They will go out of use by themselves.

  28. Honestly I don’t give any importance to any words, liked or not by some activists. I use words commonly found in any text. Who gives anyone authority to ban words? They will go out of use by themselves.

    I didn’t use this email before

  30. I only use two of these words: banter and epic. Banter is just a normal word, and I only use epic in the properly, as when talking about a film or event of sweeping proportions.

    1. Banter is a fine word. I don’t know why it’s on the list. The other words are either nonsense words or abbreviations. They are all redundant.

      If we can’t use the word ‘banter’ what word do we use to denote banter? ‘Repartee’? ‘Taking the piss’?

      1. Ken listed some above, but I prefer raillery to his suggestions. Persiflage and badinage will sound a touch pretentious to most people. Repartee is also a fine choice and one I probably use more often than banter.

  31. Okay, this list just made me laugh. I’m laughing now, still. I’ve heard most of these words before, but never saw a complete list, and the high concentration of was just sort of an overdose. But where’s “peeps?” How could peeps have dodged that list?

    Virtually all of the English language was at some point mispronunciation, the bastardization of foreign terms, bad grammar or, per above, words that I have no doubt pissed the majority of that day’s speakers off.

    Question I’d love to ask Shakespeare: “So, what words and expressions most annoy you?”

    I bet he’d say something like “Shirt. You ever heard that word? People are saying it all the time now. And great. As in, not huge, but just really good. God it pisses me off!”

  33. I’m not so much bothered by new fake words. Most of them will disappear in the near future, as passing fads are wont to do.

    I find it annoying when existing words with well-established meanings are given new, stupid meanings. My most recent peeve is “thirsty”. Now, if you want to indicate your desire to drink something, you’re likely to incur sniggers from juveniles and morons.

    It’s also annoying when completely inoffensive labels like “midget” or “Oriental” are magically transformed into slurs by PC fanatics. Their suggestions for replacements – “little people” and “Asian”, respectively – are awful or nonsensical (half of Asian people aren’t “Asian”).

    2. ‘Thirsty’? I’m only aware of one meaning for that and it is usually assuaged by beer.

      What other meaning could it possibly have?

      cr

    1. That reminds me of Matilda The Nun. She was’t popular, either, and got deep-sixed into the deepest Abbess.

        1. One of my musical heroes!
          “Contributory Negligence” got me through many a dark night of the thumb.
          Actually … double checks memory … the ONLY act for whom I’ve brought tickets twice.

  35. As a certifiable old fart, I figure that, by the time any current slang makes its way to my eye or ear, it’s already fallen out of fashion. Accordingly, I trust myself to use it only with a pronounced ironic twist.

    Not that I have any objection to slang and jive-talk in general, mind you. Hell, I talk that talk alla time myself, but most of mine dates back to ’50s jazz musicians and rail-riding hobos from the 1930s. And, of course, the Sixties Sex-&-Drugs-&-Rock’n’Roll argot that flows like aural mother’s milk for me.

  36. When I lived in France we regularly had “cheese o’clock”. Looking back, it probably wasn’t much different to wine o’clock – or in some circles, beer o’clock.

    1. What the heck would that be in French? Fromage o’l’horloge? Something’s lost in translation.

  37. Most of these make me cringe, I agree. But a couple I associate with modern Internet parlance. Lolz and Epic, for example. Staycation is playfull or cute I think. The ones in the list that are absolutely cringeworthy are, Bae, Cray cray, Be like, Preggers, Nom nom or Noms, Hubs/Hubby/Hubster. The others I’ve never seen on threads, except maybe, Methinks, which we can thank Shakespeare for bringing to our attention.

  38. Two phrases from my profession that I would like to see disappear: “big data” and “data science”. Unfortunately, given current trends, these aren’t going anywhere for awhile.

    1. I see your annoyance. The 199ps seem to have dropped a (student) generation from “computing science” into “programming”, as if you could divorce understanding what you are asking the processor to do, from the language you use to ask it.
      I’ve seen several “MOOC” courses recently which describe themselves as “showing how to solve `big data` problems” … but they’re introducing “computer science” issues which were just part of the subject in the 1980s. An algorithm that makes two random reads into mass storage then a comparison in main memory is going to suck compared to one that only makes one ransom read. Because mass storage has latency, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a 30 second latency to rewind the tape, or a 30 ms latency for the disc to rotate so you can read (then parse!) the hard disc sector.
      OTOH, even if you have 96GB of “main memory” (random read, 30 ns), you can still fill it easily if you’re chewing a TB data set.
      There is a bloody good reason that Fortran built a metric shit-ton of numerically *efficient* algorithms, and of this month’s language Dr l’heure doesn’t use that, your performance is going to suck, if it doesn’t flat-out crash.
      I hung the University’s mainframe for several minutes using a naive Ackerman’s Function implementation, and stolen (Post-It !!!) professor’s credentials. Naughty GravelInspector! When Ah were nobbut a lad!

  42. I’ve never seen any of these locutions before.

    I feel so guilty and – what’s the word/phrase? – “uncool” and unhipster and un-“edgy.”

    1. Knocking around with the rather abrasive personalities here will knock the edginess off the most adamantine of personalities.

  43. Haven’t heard some of these, but one nobody’s mentioned is Dope, meaning Very Cool. At least one guy I know with an undergrad degree from a prestigious U and who is a partner in a successful brewpub uses it all the time. The other partner not as much. I just cringe.

      1. Yep, that one too. First heard yrs ago down in SW PA, where the average intellectual capacity seems somewhat lacking (based on relatives who live down there).

  44. Many of these have been polluted by modern overuse in cutesy ways. “Methinks” is actually a real Elizabethan English, and of course should be kept in performances of “Hamlet”.

    “Well jel” is an old Essex slang, and become popular due to a TV series “The Only Way is Essex”, much the way the dialect of a certain seaside town in England became Hollywood “pirate” talk after actor Robert Newton used it in his performance of Long John Silver in “Treasure Island”.

    “preggers” is a fairly old Brit slang. Perhaps we should allow people to say it if done so in a Brit accent??

    The others are I think all Internet modernisms.

    Although almost all of these are defined in the online “urban dictionary”, it often has no info on their origin (which may be impossible!!),

    But yes these are tiresome. I would especially suggest that the phrase “epic fail” is an epic fail.

    1. He who mentions the “Urban Dictionary” (of which there are several, mutually vampiring) is condemned to find the Profanisaurus. Enjoy!
      Any other Roger Mellie fans?

  45. My current bane is “Ossum” (spelt ‘awesome’). It crops up everywhere.

    “Would you like sugar in your coffee?”
    “That’d be awesome”.

    [Rant mode ON]
    NO IT FLAMING WOULDN’T. The second coming of Jesus would be awesome. A volcanic eruption would be awesome. If you’re in the right mood a tropical sunset might – just – be awesome. The only thing awesome about sugar in your blasted cappucino is your staggering ignorance of the English language, you twerp.
    [/Rant]

    A close second is “Failure is not an option”. Failure is always a possibility and reciting that silly phrase like a mantra is going to make precisely no difference. I look forward to your abject and humiliating failure. Have a nice day.

    [Please note “you” above is not addressed to any reader of this website…]

    cr

      1. If so, you should go to Fiji and follow the little narrow-gauge sugar cane train to the wharf at Lautoka. Because there beside the road you will see a hill of brown sugar. It will blow your mind!

        cr

    2. A close second is “Failure is not an option”.

      I find this particularly galling when delivered over a satellite phone link from literally half a world away.
      ‘scuse me, Fuckface on 5 times my pay, but if YOUR idea fails, it’s not you going to be burning to death, it’s us. You want us to “get a grip”, well I’ll see you in the fire-filled room, trying to get a seal on your buddy’s face mask by the light of the jetting flame above our heads. Let’s see you get a grip then.
      (rant off)
      I’m going to have to do that course again, in the nears future. To prove that I can control my terror, breathing, and bowels simultaneously. [Yawn] Another day at the office. Filled your car recently?

    1. “politics”
      You spelled “shilelagh” wrongly. After you meet “shilelagh”, you either die, or “you is woke”, with a new appreciation of “42”

  50. Another one that’s very over-used: Iconic. Every goddam thing is iconic anymore (often when awesome has already been used in the same sentence).

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