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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Your least favourite English word
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Recently, Oxford Dictionaries had an interactive page where readers could submit the words they liked least in the English language.
"Moist", "Brexit" and "no" came top of the list before trolls got hold of the site and the page had to be closed down. So - what are your least favourite words, for any reason at all - sound, pronunciation, associations, whatever?
(Btw, please let's try to avoid obscenities.)
I remember someone saying once she hated the word "parsnip" because of the shape people's mouths made when they said it.
I think "yummy" would probably be top of my list, along with "smoothie". Has anyone got "work" on theirs? Anyway, over to you.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
I was surprised by 'moist' since the GBBO had been enthusing about the dampness of drizzle cakes using the very word.
And I know that there's one which makes me cringe, but I can't remember what it is! Except that it's used in management speak.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
Moist is on my list, and it made me cringe when it was used so frequently on GBBO this week.
My husband can't stand the work 'ramekin'.
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'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
One of my favourite poems is Edwin Morgan's Canedolia which is all about the suggestiveness of words (in this case placenames) irrespective of meaning.
- what is the best of the country?
blinkbonny! airgold! thundergay!
and the worst?
scrishven, shiskine, scrabster, and snizort.
I think you can dislike a word for the sound - as above - or the meaning - 'selfie', 'Trump' - or the context in which you have (all too often) heard them - 'leverage', 'synergy'.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Kittyville
Shipmate
# 16106
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Posted
"Horrid" is one of mine. There's just something... twee about it.
Posts: 291 | From: Sydney | Registered: Dec 2010
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
For what it's worth, geirvarta was recently voted the worst word in Icelandic. It means nipple, but is made up from the words for spear and wart...
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Jack the Lass
Ship's airhead
# 3415
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Posted
I can't stand "chillax". It just reminds me of David Cameron trying to be down with the kids. Stupid, pointless word.
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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog
Posts: 5767 | From: the land of the deep-fried Mars Bar | Registered: Oct 2002
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Sipech
Shipmate
# 16870
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Posted
Working in a very corporate environment, I abhor business jargon more than most, though these often come in phrases (out of the box calculation) or undefined three letter acronyms (TLAs).
I think my most hated word (along with its cognates) is neoliberal as it attempts to co-opt the positive connotations of the term 'liberal' and uses them for a concept which is really rather conservative and utterly repugnant.
Posts: 3791 | From: On the corporate ladder | Registered: Jan 2012
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
Never heard of "faffing", so hard to dislike it.
I'd nominate "arguably" and "hoodie".
The first because it's disingenuous and the second because I have a vision of a criminal with a penis head. Sorry for that image and beung obscene. I faff that the world should adopt the Saskatchewan English term "bunnyhug" for this item of clothing.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Not a word but a phrase: the meaningless "going forward" (as in "We will adopt this new policy going forward").
[ 27. August 2016, 14:38: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jack the Lass:
I can't stand "chillax". It just reminds me of David Cameron trying to be down with the kids. Stupid, pointless word.
I totally agree!
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
The New York Times did a similar survey, and "moist" and "ointment" were high finishers.
I'm more interested in words that just sound bad to people, regardless of normal use.
The odd one for me is "pizza." If you get past it quickly, fine. If you carefully enunciate both syllables? Nails on a chalk board.
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
What is it about "moist"? Would "joist" or "oyster" also be in the same category?
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
Phlegm. Ugh, that's gross.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Lyda*Rose
Ship's broken porthole
# 4544
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Posted
"Torrid". Whether talking about sex or weather conditions, it sounds so melodramatic.
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"Dear God, whose name I do not know - thank you for my life. I forgot how BIG... thank you. Thank you for my life." ~from Joe Vs the Volcano
Posts: 21377 | From: CA | Registered: May 2003
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Hilda of Whitby
Shipmate
# 7341
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Posted
Smegma.
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"Born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad."
Posts: 412 | From: Nickel City | Registered: Jun 2004
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Bene Gesserit
Shipmate
# 14718
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Posted
Leveraged
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Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus
Posts: 405 | From: Flatlands of the East | Registered: Apr 2009
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cornflower
Shipmate
# 13349
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Posted
Pro-active I can't stand - the only trouble being I'm not sure what people would have said before they started saying that. Also 'bullet points'..aaarggghhh!
It also drives me mad when people say certain things ungrammatically (not that I don't, I hasten to add)...but particularly when it's people like journalists etc who surely ought to know better. For example: 'We were sat on the wall' or 'The boy was laid (often pronounced 'led') on the floor...which might be OK if someone were actually laying the boy on the floor. Surely it should be 'we were sitting on the wall, or seated, and the boy was lying on the floor.
Oh just remembered a word I absolutely cannot stand, and that is 'gobsmacked'. Ok maybe to use now and then, in the pub or whatever, but all sorts of people use it all the time. What's wrong with using 'astounded', 'astonished', 'shocked' etc? It is an absulutely horrible expression, I think.
Posts: 111 | From: uk | Registered: Jan 2008
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Urfshyne
Shipmate
# 17834
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Posted
Surely the one word that most young people dislike most is "Don't".
Posts: 98 | From: Maidenhead - lost | Registered: Sep 2013
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
Words that my family know to avoid around me are nice and posh.
And moist is too squelshy and squirmy.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I have issues with "Plaza" but only in a special context. My husband has the annoying habit of saying "i'm going down to the plaza" when he means "I'm going to the supermarket" or "strip mall." I'm sure he picked it up from their pretentious names for themselves. Rather like all the cities and housing developments around here that call themselves Whatever Point (preferably Pointe, the extra e just makes it, right?) in spite of being nowhere near any geographic feature that would add any meaning whatsoever to the word. It makes me want to stick that Pointe right up their Plaza.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
"Impact," when used as a verb.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
Quadroon.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
Rather like all the cities and housing developments around here that call themselves Whatever Point (preferably Pointe, the extra e just makes it, right?) in spite of being nowhere near any geographic feature that would add any meaning whatsoever to the word. It makes me want to stick that Pointe right up their Plaza.
I always insist on pronouncing floofy shopping plazas or housing developments with that word as such-and-such pwahnt. If they want it to be French, dammit, it should be French. We also have near here a shopping plaza called Towne Centre. Which I pronounce "toon sahntruh." Pretentious twats.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Jonah the Whale
Ship's pet cetacean
# 1244
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Posted
Wellness. It ought to mean "health", in which case it would be fine. But it means something slightly different and is used in a fluffy, trendy, faddish way that people on the latest health bandwagon love. Ugh.
I actually really like the word "moist".
Posts: 2799 | From: Nether Regions | Registered: Aug 2001
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
We also have near here a shopping plaza called Towne Centre. Which I pronounce "toon sahntruh." Pretentious twats.
Early in my junior year of high school, my English teacher assigned some reading—an early American piece entitled "Massacre." She pronounced it "MASS-a-cruh." The entire class looked at her funny, and finally someone asked, "Do you mean 'MASS-a-ker'?" "No," she answered. "It's spelled "cre" at the end—MASS-a-cruh."
I really am not making this story up. The rest of the year, we all jokingly talked about things like sitting in the "centruh" or the "middluh" of the "theatruh."
/sidetrack
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I never have figured out what "behither" means.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
We also have near here a shopping plaza called Towne Centre.
Good lord. Give it another generation, and the USA may learn to spell.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
You all know I detest overly. I don't mean it's overly used, but that it is used at all. It shouldn't exist.
And unnecessary verbing. Work on the basis that nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs. Resist the temptation to turn nouns into verbs. It isn't always possible, but do try.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Gee D
Shipmate
# 13815
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
And unnecessary verbing. Work on the basis that nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs. Resist the temptation to turn nouns into verbs. It isn't always possible, but do try.
Our current intense dislike is "disrespect" as a verb. Soon no doubt, we'll move on to "happy" used as one - "go and happy the dog" etc.
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Not every Anglican in Sydney is Sydney Anglican
Posts: 7028 | From: Warrawee NSW Australia | Registered: Jun 2008
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
And unnecessary verbing. Work on the basis that nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs. Resist the temptation to turn nouns into verbs. It isn't always possible, but do try.
As Calvin told Hobbes, "verbing weirds language."
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Egeria
Shipmate
# 4517
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Posted
Words that make me want to throw a novel across the room: "luscious," "scrumptious," and "luxuriate." I once picked up a crappy romance novel while under the impression that it was a real mystery, and that last word gave the game away! Even typing those words makes my stomach do a slow roll...
Any and all business-speak and psychobabble. Unfortunately, that would be a very long list. I especially detest the expression "in denial," which seems to mean "I know your circumstances better than you do and I'm not going to believe a word you say."
And in the library world, the expressions that people use to avoid talking about actual books, research, and so forth: "information science" and its relatives. I am not an information scientist, or an information manager, or a custodian of documents, or a learning resources centrist. I am a librarian. And when I am in the Library taking notes for a conference presentation, I am not an "information consumer"--I am a researcher. (And I'm not giving any donations to the "School of Information," which does not have, and does not seek, accreditation from the American Library Association.) ![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
There are lots of other works and expressions that ought to be jettisoned, either because they were stupid to start with or because of overuse: "wake-up call" for anything but the kind you request in a hotel, "the new normal," "bad-ass" (colleague at UCLA, I'm looking at you), "sucks" (vulgar, juvenile, and ubiquitous), and "iconic." ![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
And finally pomo-speak. It's no accident that the pomos and self-proclaimed "critical theorists" (neither critical nor theoretical) produce prose that "wins" bad writing awards. It's meant to disguise the writer's inability to do research and to think clearly, all the while sounding brilliant (because obscure). I am especially appalled by the simple-minded use of "around" as an all-purpose preposition. We have discussions on that subject, not around it. I am concerned about this or that problem, not around it.
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"Sound bodies lined / with a sound mind / do here pursue with might / grace, honor, praise, delight."--Rabelais
Posts: 314 | From: Berkeley, CA | Registered: May 2003
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
And unnecessary verbing. Work on the basis that nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs. Resist the temptation to turn nouns into verbs. It isn't always possible, but do try.
Our current intense dislike is "disrespect" as a verb. Soon no doubt, we'll move on to "happy" used as one - "go and happy the dog" etc.
The verb "disrespect" predates the noun by two decades (1610s vs. 1630s) and both of them predate you and me by over three centuries.
One of my pet peeves is people who bitch about "innovations" that are older than they are. The more centuries, the worse.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
I nominate all those meaningless corporate buzz-words that get thrown around and then picked up by churches to make us sound like we're actually doing something when we're not:
missional
visionary
collegial
networking
servant leadership
stewardship
study group
"smart" goals & objectives
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:
I actually really like the word "moist".
All about context.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Associated with the Olympic Games is "to medal." She did not medal, although she was expected to win at least a silver. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
[ 28. August 2016, 00:19: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
quote:
Originally posted by Jonah the Whale:
I actually really like the word "moist".
All about context.
Some contexts are moister than others, as Betty Crocker said to Duncan Hines.
[ 28. August 2016, 00:30: Message edited by: mousethief ]
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
As soon as I saw the title and before I read the OP my choice was work - but then I've been retired nigh on two decades!
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I consign all, or most, management speak to the bin but the word actualise used as management speak really aggravates me!
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
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What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Tobias
Shipmate
# 18613
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Posted
I hate 'pop'. The 'popping' of a balloon I can bear, but not the numerous other senses in which the word is used:
"I'll just pop out; she'll pop by later; pop it in the oven; pop a cardigan on. Just pop up on the bench for me."
Moreover, the word often brings other horrors with it:
"Adding a pop of colour gives vibrancy to a space!"
"This mascara will make your eyes really pop!" ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
"A look that's trending with women now is to rock a high pony twinned with a pop lip!"
Posts: 269 | From: Terra Australis Incognita | Registered: Jul 2016
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Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Associated with the Olympic Games is "to medal." She did not medal, although she was expected to win at least a silver.
Oh yes.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I think we have slid over to what usage we dislike rather than inherently abhorrent words. Difficult to separate perhaps.
Language takes on the character of its age - at present ISTM arid, technological, polysyllabic, vague and depressing. As David Frost said some decades ago, a modern translation of Psalm 23 would start 'The Lord is my sheep maintenance operative'.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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ThunderBunk
Stone cold idiot
# 15579
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I nominate all those meaningless corporate buzz-words that get thrown around and then picked up by churches to make us sound like we're actually doing something when we're not:
missional
visionary
collegial
networking
servant leadership
stewardship
study group
"smart" goals & objectives
Let them all be consigned to the fiery furnace. And "being church" along with them.
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Currently mostly furious, and occasionally foolish. Normal service may resume eventually. Or it may not. And remember children, "feiern ist wichtig".
Foolish, potentially deranged witterings
Posts: 2208 | From: Norwich | Registered: Apr 2010
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Naughty and cross ( in the context of being cross).
I'm not sure why, but I think they sound like nursery words. I've disliked then both since I was a child.
One of the lists I saw when I was reading and article about this had hello as a word many people said they disliked.
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
I don't like the sound of "oily".
Generally I prefer the sound of words with hard consonants. I love the sound of "cuckoo clock" with its four hard ks. Soft consonants are fine in longer words, but I don't like the sound of short words with a preponderance of vowels and only soft consonants.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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MSHB
Shipmate
# 9228
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I nominate all those meaningless corporate buzz-words that get thrown around and then picked up by churches to make us sound like we're actually doing something when we're not:
missional
visionary
collegial
networking
servant leadership
stewardship
study group
"smart" goals & objectives
And then there are the church-related terms that are borrowed by commercial enterprises. Many years ago I was surprised when a conference speaker was called a "technology evangelist".
I suspect that "servant leadership" and "stewardship" were actually church terms borrowed by the business world. But that won't stop the church world from borrowing them back.
Missional, visionary, and collegiate might also be examples of this.
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MSHB: Member of the Shire Hobbit Brigade
Posts: 1522 | From: Dharawal Country | Registered: Mar 2005
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by cliffdweller:
I nominate all those meaningless corporate buzz-words that get thrown around and then picked up by churches to make us sound like we're actually doing something when we're not:
missional
visionary
collegial
networking
servant leadership
stewardship
study group
"smart" goals & objectives
How could I forget "networking"? Or its churchy cousin, "fellowshipping"?
And I cringe every time I see that a church has an "executive pastor."
(I will say, though, that I've heard "stewardship" in the church all of my 50+ years—long before I heard it in any other context.)
[ 28. August 2016, 13:00: Message edited by: Nick Tamen ]
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Doone
Shipmate
# 18470
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Posted
I cringe at 'hubby' ugh
Posts: 2208 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2015
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Nenya
Shipmate
# 16427
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doone:
I cringe at 'hubby' ugh
Worse than that is "husby" and yes, I have heard it used. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
Management speak. And "kingdom purposes" because I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. (We had a thread here a while back in which we concluded that kingdom purposes are those which further the cause of Christ. That cleared it up nicely.)
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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.
Posts: 1289 | Registered: May 2011
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