I find lists like this fascinating. Hugo Lindgren, now editor of the New York Times Magazine, inherited a list of words, titled simply “Words We Don’t Say,” from his predecessor at a previous job. It’s a list of words that the former editor “found annoying and didn’t want used in his magazine.” For example, alphabetically:
AUTHORED
BIGS (meaning “prominent people”)
BISTRO (okay in restaurant reviews, but sparingly)
BOAST (meaning “have”)
CELEB
COMELY
COMFORT FOOD
DUO
DON (meaning “put on”)
DUBBED
EATERY
We do not have a physical list like this in our office, but they exist in editors’ heads. For example, our managing editor, Bethany Jean Clement, is opposed to virtually all uses of the word “moniker.” I would second that (but less ferociously), and include from the above list “dubbed” and “boast.” We’ve had recent editing discussions about the use of the simple-but-sometimes-necessary word “great” in reviews (some people are pro, some are con).
The post containing the list asked readers which words annoyed them, and Lindgren went ahead and printed a list of all of them and hung that in his office below some skull-and-crossbones symbols for good measure. I love knowing other people’s word-related pet peeves (“pet peeve” is one of mine, actually). I have a feeling quite a few people are adding “snowpocalypse” to theirs right now.
I’d be thrilled if I never heard the term “master class” to refer to a great performance. Using it to refer to an actual class taught by an expert of some kind is OK.
“Going forward” tacked onto any comment about business or the economy.
This entire thread is like a worn-out Portlandia skit, with @25 being the last joke you laugh at before it becomes painfully unfunny.
I try to never say or write “Moist Clown”
“Threw up in my mouth a little bit” needs to be retired. “Sounds like a plan” too.
I’d also like never to hear “on a daily basis” again. What’s wrong with “every day” or “daily”?
In wildlife documentaries. When every tooth, claw, talons, and beak is “razor sharp”. Wow. Do they know how Sharp actual razors are ?
The incorrect use of the word “momentarily” to mean “in a moment” as opposed to “lasting a moment” really annoys me, as does “winningest”. You cannot use that type of adjective like that. It is wrong.
However my largest hate is reserved for the use of repeated “too” as in “too too much”. Once is enough.
Don’t use “decimated” unless you actually mean about 1 in 10.
If you lost 80% of something it wasn’t decimated, it was 8 times worse than decimated.
Whenever I hear or read “ATM machine” or “PIN number,” I want to connect the perpetrator to the Department of Redundancy Department with my fist. It doesn’t help that they’re often in the same sentence.
People using the word “literally” when they don’t mean it literally. “It was so funny, I literally died.” Obviously you didn’t.
My biggest peeves are supported by U.S. style guides: Don’t put the periods and commas outside the quotation marks. Don’t capitalize the t in “the” unless it’s part of a proper noun, etc.
I had a boss who had words that she DID like. One of them was “however.” She was also really into parallel construction. (My boss was not primarily a writer.)
@54: “Moist Clown”
Now that’s a winning pseudonym if I ever saw one.
Lots to agree with here, of course, but nothing brings me as much validation as seeing “eatery” on the original list. God, what a stupid, stupid word that real people do not ever use in conversation. I think there is no other word in English that so forcefully communicates a writer’s failure to give a fuck.
Yeah, I hate that almost as much as I hate people who spell pimiento “pimminnow.”
😉
@6,17: The new fad, at least it was new to me, in the business community is to use “leverage” in place of “utilize,” presumably because the douche-y impact of “utilize” has diminished with overuse. “I leveraged Microsoft Excel to create this awesome 3D bar chart.”
The word the makes me wince, wherever it’s used, is “temblor.” If a word can really only appear in a headline of a second-rate newspaper, or the copy of a horrible weekly ad-rag, it should be banished.
My favorite awful usage, deployed ironically by a photo editor who had had his fill of corporate-speak, was the verb “effort.” As in, “I will get one of my photogs efforting in that capacity.” The suits would get wood, and the newsroom flunkies would get a little inward chuckle. Before they all got laid off.
@65: Reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr_3S4GcZ…
#63 I agree, it’s a great psuedonym. Not as good as “Can-O’-Beano”, which has a nicer rythm, an uses a ” ‘ ” , adding flavour and depth. Yum!
“Addicting” vs “Addictive”, “Flash forward”
Fuck “snark.”