Words We Love to Hate
I’m sure we have done this before, but I can’t find it and if the Hosts don’t want it feel free to close it.
Anyway, my first word is “robust”, particularly in the sense of policies and especially in HR-Speak, where it is used, in my experience, to justify hard, ie, pig-headed decisions, that are legal, but barely decent. It’s astonishing how anti-bullying policies can be found in just about every workplace, but the management is all but exempt.
Anyway, my first word is “robust”, particularly in the sense of policies and especially in HR-Speak, where it is used, in my experience, to justify hard, ie, pig-headed decisions, that are legal, but barely decent. It’s astonishing how anti-bullying policies can be found in just about every workplace, but the management is all but exempt.
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As in “thrives in a…”
It seems like nobody wants to hire someone who thrives in a slow-paced environment.
If you want to hear an excellent lampoon of all this nonsense, I very much recommend Armando Ianucci's podcast Strong Message Here.
'I'm good,' rather than 'I'm well.'
'Going forward.' Aaarrrghh!
I had a boss once whose vocabulary consisted almost entirely of management-speak gobbledegook.
I'll stop there. For my blood pressure's sake.
Agreed.
Motorcycles used all to be kick-started, and that can be very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Simply doing it forcefully and quickly isn’t enough; you need the right technique and good boots.
Also, jump-start and kick-start are not semantically equivalent in British English. YDMV (=your dialect may vary).
Words do matter. Compare the phrase 'young men of fighting age' with 'young men of working age,' for example.
Where I live and as I hear kick-start used, it definitely doesn’t imply either of those things at all.
The lost ridicule and irony of: "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps".
The grotesque reversal of: "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."
The tiring self-congratulation of misunderstanding: "Great minds think alike, but fools rarely differ."
The impatient mindlessness of unfinishing: "The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."
But more than any of these, as much as I hate them all (and more), I hate how "literally" has been tortured into merely emphasis and stripped of all its true power.
Seconded.
You can say these words and phrases are “overly” used, and I will have to put you on my enemies list.
For years I thought a bugger was part of a motorbike.
For those who (like me) hate corporate jargon, you may find this amusing: It’s by Weird Al, one of his songs not based on a specific other song, called “Mission Statement”:
https://youtu.be/GyV_UG60dD4?is=Qa5KEaO4Xt6gZtZ8
(It’s apparently a “style parody,“ in this case of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, though I have not heard enough of their stuff to really know, but that’s what it said in a comment on YouTube.)
Oh yes. As at the Olympics, medal winners are "medalling".
Ah, yes, “ Verbing”.
Here we contrive present participles by adding “ing” to a perfectly innocent noun.
In many instances this is a Good Thing, but we Christians, or at any rate, some of us, do it to excess. We have got lazy in not using another more elegant word instead.
Often it is shorthand, such as priesting, but I find it’s companion “deaconing” clunky and the very worst I have heard is “fellowshipping”, which sounds like a member of one’s congregation has been parcelled up and sent by DPD or some such. Won’t be seeing him again then 😉
Have never heard it used to describe anything remotely awe-inspiring.
Often used, not as an indication of likelihood, but as a re-enforcement of personal prejudices. eg if a person with an accent commits a crime the internet shouts "They probably came over on a small boat"
But it’s a long-standing phenomenon in English; it’s been going on for centuries.
Also incredible when you do something right. I was once being taken through the machines in a gym and the person taking me through them said incredible every time I used it right.
Well, the Gen-X/1980s exception to this is "totally awesome" followed by "gnarly," but I do see your point.
I'll second @Nick Tamen re: 'impactful,' and I'll add IRREGARDLESS to this awesome list.
Incredible's primary meaning has moved on from "cannot be believed". To be honest, so has "unbelievable"'s. I don't think the person referred to in EMF's "Unbelievable" was having doubt cast over either their existence or qualities.
https://www.reddit.com/r/foundsatan/
So Calvin spoke from beyond the grave then?
Hobbes was born in 1588. Calvin died in 1564.
On the 'kick-starting' thing, how about 'spear-heading'?
I've heard that one a few times.
'We have asked Bob to spear-head our new initiative in customer engagement,' and so on.
What's wrong with 'lead' or 'initiate'?
Wrong Calvin, wrong Hobbes
Gold star to that man.
Proactive: Avoids having to explain what it really is that you want someone else to do.
Best practice: You ask a potential supplier, “Do you employ best practices here?” How often do they reply, “Never - we are proud to be a worst practice shop.”? A useless phrase.
Excellence: Often used to mean the opposite of excellence. A cover-up; a clear expression of a lack of confidence in what we do.
Synergy: As in: “We must mobilise our synergies in this program”, or, “I haven’t the faintest idea what this is about – how about you?”
Energy: Energy? Fuel? Power? What do you really mean? Do you have even the foggiest idea of what you are talking about?
Networking: Consider the case of fish. Hundreds, if not thousands of fish get caught up together in nets and are dragged away. Then they die.
Stakeholder: The person upon whom unimaginable suffering will be inflicted as a result of your decision (related to proactive above).
Potential: According to a former high school teacher of our acquaintance from the Southern States, this is an old French word, meaning ‘ain’t worth a s**t’.
Champion: This is a relatively new addition to the business management vocabulary. It is synonymous with human sacrifice.
Utilise: A perfectly good word if you have a good reason for not saying ‘use’. However, we have been advised by a Scottish school teacher that 'utilise' is sometimes necessary to avoid confusion with 'youse'.
World class: We believe that someone outside our village may have heard of us.
I usually hear "I'm good" as a polite refusal, when someone has been offered something. "I'm well" probably wouldn't fit in that situation, since it sounds like it's more about the person's overall condition, rather than the specific question of whether or not they need the offered item.
That said, I don't particularly care for it myself, and usually just stick to "No, thanks".
I used that one a few days ago, to express an opinion along the lines of "It doesn't matter if the victim's family wants a lighter sentence for the murderer, they are not the only stakeholders in this situation."
I did hesitate, because I'm aware of the new-agey connotations, but I think it's a pretty clear way of stating an individual's connection to the situation under discussion. I suppose "interested parties" would work as well, but that doesn't seem as strong.
Also, as far as the audial effect goes, I tend to like harsh-sounding words.