Words continues to thrill and annoy me on a daily basis and I know you feel the same. Right now, I am creeped out anew by the word “tho,” as used on Instagram. It is not only gratuitous (” Those nails, tho.”) but the spelling is like a knife in my heart. MAKE IT STOP. So here’s a list I just came across, about words “you should never use to describe yourself.” I’m pretty sure these are all in the context of job interviews, because where else might someone claim to be “innovative?”
Here they are:
Innovative
World-class
Driven
Extensive experience
Authority
Global-provider
Motivated
Creative
Results-oriented
Responsible
Track record
Organizational
Guru
Curator
Passionate
Strategic
Collaborative
Ew! Who would use these words to describe themselves? Maybe they’re the professional equivalent of self-negating dating-app words like “eccentric” or “classy.” But wait. If you string all those words together, they might make a persuasive sales-pitch for a booty call! Try that out, mentally at least.
On another front, who is not sick of “quid pro quo” at this point? How about this phrase instead, from Virgil: sunt lacrimae rerum (tears haunt this world).
Here’s another list of those minutely specific words we don’t have in English, like Bakku-shan, Japanese for a woman who looks pretty from behind but not from the front.
Then there is the issue of linguistics by gender, like the female use of the word ‘just.”
Finally, let me run this by you. It’s a quote by physicist Wolfgang Pauli, after reading a colleague’s paper:
This paper is so bad it is not even wrong.
I was so amused by it that I repeated it to *someone* who did not share my delight and argued about why not for the next five hours (okay, five minutes that felt like hours.)
Please tell me if you like it, or if you don’t, using rational considerations and back-up sources. Thank you in advance, xoxo.
Thanks for making me smile and think once again, Sister Wolf. Now I’m going to pay attention to the word “just” and remember that tears haunt this world. A friend uses shortcuts like “tho” in emails, I pointed it out but she said that it’s automatic and can’t change.
Have you read Station Eleven? a novel about life after 99% of humanity has died of plague. A few survivors are living in an airport, talking over and over about their last conversations with loved ones or emails. A former company man remembers ‘I shot off an email and ended it “thx” How much effort would it have been for another three letters?’
For your enjoyment (maybe):
https://books.google.com/ngrams
Having scanned millions of books, Google developed this tool that shows us how many times words appear in them over time. You will see, for example, “paradigm” emerge and shoot up in the 1960s, with a steep drop-off recently, thank God.
Prince and David Bowie faked their deaths, tho.
https://www.wisegeek.com/10-hilariously-insightful-foreign-words-1
Insight itself doesn’t bother my sensitivities however insightful does.
Go figure.
Guru – worse than an anal bleed.
Tho’ – see above
My italian sister abbreviates ‘sono’ as ‘sn’ in text messages, which makes me apoplectic with rage.
We are all going to hell in a handcart!
Tribe,convergent, driven,dynamic, paradigm, Sis or Sister, sourced,fusion is the worst of All. Excuse my execution.
I’m exasperated.
“I would like you to us a favor tho” could have been tweeted…
Woke. Inappropriate.
Love love the quote. Thank you