Just because people say it, is it a ‘word’? This is becoming complicated, thanks to the internet and all its attendant evils, which are now too astronomical to count.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary has just added 150 new words, making official words out of shit like ‘gamification’ and ‘freegan.’ Remember how upset we were about ‘selfie’? It will never end. Soon, there will be no real words in use, just gibberish.
Every time I learn one of these new ‘words’ my world gets a little bleaker. I just recently learned ‘YOLO’ and ‘MLIF’ although one hopes that such acronyms aren’t considered words by the forces in charge. Oh god, is ‘snapchat’ a word? Here is some trending internet slang, by the way, if you’re not sufficiently discouraged.
Awful words are one thing, but awful usage can be even worse. For example, why have people started using the word ‘so’ to begin a sentence? I read that it was started by Mark Zucherberg, as if he doesn’t have enough to answer for.
How about the ‘because‘ thing. Because idiots.
It’s so hard to keep up. By the time I find out about a horrible new word and object to it, it’s already in common usage and people will just shrug and defend its existence. (Most of these people are my husband but I assume he speaks for Everyman.)
Any words or word usage bothering you right now? Jump in.
I completely agree about awful word usage being just as annoying. ‘Can’t’ and ‘even’ are perfectly good words, but it’s seeing them in all caps and repeated over and over on Tumblr that makes me want to throw my laptop against a wall… OH MY GOOOOOOODDD. CAN’T. I CAAAAAN’T!! CAN’T EVEN!!!!!
I’m damn near addicted to Tumblr. After working in an office all day I need something beautiful to look at on my commute home, but Christ Almighty. I seriously need to unfollow tumblr accounts that can’t post a picture of anything without adding this shit. Also, all caps makes it look like they’re screaming. Calm the fuck down.
triggerhippy – I HATE the Can’t Even. Hate.
‘Sick’ to express appreciation.
‘Asap’ said as a word
‘Awesome’ far too big a word to use willy nilly
‘Willy nilly’ not used enough
JWU, TLDR, but U shld Carpe gnarly memespeak tout suite.
B/C YOLO.
Did you mean MILF? Because you definitely are a MILF. Embrace that one, Sister!
People who use THEY instead THEIR. “It broke they heart.” Arrrrggghhh! Or, “I seen it.” Go back to fucking 4th grade.
“Sort of!” Celebrities often throw in “sort of” in their interviews etc. They use it in every kind of description, story, or answer they give, just thrown right in willy nilly! 😉 Anyone else ever notice this?
The whole concept of putting slang into dictionaries pisses me off. Its slang for a reason, and shouldn’t be treated as actual words in a dictionary. I quite like slang, especially regional slang & slang from different countries (that don’t put it in the fucking dictionary!) Slang changes too often, think about Cockney Rhyming Slang, it’s constantly evolving as the times change, certain celebs become very popular and so on. No way you can make a Cockney Rhyming Slang dictionary! (There actually is a site that tries to keep up with it, but as I said, it’s constantly evolving so it’s difficult without cooperation of those who actually speak it.) “YOLO” UGH! You don’t fucking live only once, you live every day, you only die once! My daughter (she’s 14 and it drives her crazy too) and are are on a campaign to change it to “YODO” but sounds a little too “Star Wars” for me! (A whole other rant…) As a NY’er, I hear all kinds of crimes against language that drive me insane, using words improperly to try to sound intelligent, just leaving out words, oh anything you can think of. The actual slang I find kind of funny and of course we always make fun of each borough and it’s accent (I have a true NYC accent which is actually no accent, the ones you hear on telly or in film are all from the boroughs, NJ, LI) but hells no (that’s a good one, ew!) to putting it in the dictionary! Keep it on the streets, we don’t need to make it legit, its no fun then!
YOLO drives me nuts. Particularly its overuse on social media. If you were so concerned about getting the most out of life, you’d put your bloody iPhone down and start living it.
I had someone shame me yesterday for not knowing what FOMO meant.
Well, I don’t have a FOMO. Which is probably why I didn’t know what FOMO meant. And why I still don’t give a flying fuck.
what the fuck is a FOMO? I don’t want one either.
Fear of missing out.
Maybe I should invent a new one. FOSA. Fear of stupid acronyms.
To me, Yolo is the name of the county my college is located in.
Not a new one, but
“At the end of the day”.
Go to sleep already.
Drives me nuts!
“That — —– tho”
hate.
I just can’t stand “speaks to” when what’s really meant is ” addresses”, “pertains”
“refers to”, “comment on”.
Makes me quite grumpy (ok, grumpier)
“Quite Unique”
“Rather unique”
“A little unique” and so on.
Something either is unique or it is not unique.
When anything is described as ” so fun” rather than such fun that drives me fucking crazy.
Helen – Oh, I HATE that kind of ‘speaks to’!!! Those same people like to say ‘parse.’
Awesome is way overused, at least where I live. Absolutely everything and everyone in Austin is awesome and it’s driving me nuts.
I don’t know what YOLO is but it makes me think of the word yellow.
“Oh, snap!” must be a G-rated substitute for “Oh, shit!”
Beginning a sentence with “So”, especially when writing an article or blog post, ensures that I will not read any further.
Throw a hashtag in front of anything and I get pissed.
Life is not Twitter.
My worst, hated, hate?
#blessed
I see it and think “fuck you”
kellie – With you on #blessed. If you’re #blessed, keep it to yourself.
I hear and hate nouns used as verbs. Please understand that I am a journalist and the people saying these are PROFESSIONAL WORDSMITHS:
“Architect a solution to the problem”
“Please effort that story”
Ok…let me think
HERO for anyone who does anything remotely brave, good or necessary
MONEYSHOT referring to anything that is not porn related..By people who should know better!
White people using very black slang…stop already…
INAPPROPRIATE to describe any kind of questionable behavior
CONVERSATION. Thank you Hilary, as in “we need to have a conversation with Putin about his intentions in Ukraine and the quantity of Botox he is using in his face.”
GUYS as in “those guys over at the dept of defense, or Vatican, or local Harley dealership”by people who should know better. (Hello media)
EVER after every goddamn event. The best Christmas Ever, the best sale ever, the worst wedding ever! Stop it.
Fairy tale wedding..this is2014 girls…
That’s it for now, gtgtb (got to go to bed)…
One more..
The use of “folks”. As in “those folks over there in Iran who are aiming nukes at us,” or ” the folks who think global warming is a hoax (another word)”, or “folks need to get along”. Wtf! Folks? Rubbish…
I shudder when I hear,
‘my bad’.
Can’t stand ‘LOL’ either. Have never used it and never shall.