Annoying Words & Phrases

I heard a woman on NPR declare, "Americans prefer big cars with lots of bells and whistles." That is a stupid expression. I have never heard of any cars having bells – and the only car whistle I'm aware of is the wolf-whistle accessory that many drivers in the 1940s-50s attached to their hot rods. The wolf whistle was named after a scene in the 1943 Tex Avery cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood.

 
Half the meetings I'm in now, I hear people talk about “in this space”

“We are making progress in this space”

I guess it is a trendy phrase, which makes it annoying.
Also trendy at work: instead of having you talk about something, they ask "Can you speak to this?".
 
Motivational messages are so annoying.

There are a few people who take the time to click on every single person's email and write a bullshit thing about how working as a team makes us stronger.

Every time I get one it makes me want to reply with condescending mockery they would likely not understand.

Here's one sent to us all, this week: "a man who conquers himself can conquer anything" or some shit..... It took a lot out of me to not reply to the sender (because I'm not an asshole who replies all unless it's completely necessary) and say: "Thank you! I will take on the the day and blitzkrieg all difficulties that have allied at my property to cause problems. Happy Monday!!"

That's definitely not something I need recorded on a work computer. Yet I bet they would reply thanking me for acknowledging them and think I just had a few typos.
 
Last edited:
Fixed it.

Hardy har har. So I guess my coworker would be right about typos. Even though I am nearly positive they would have no idea what that word meant spelled correctly or incorrectly. They would probably think I was talking about football.
 
Last edited:
I will explain JHDK's comment about typos. He had written "britzkrieg." He corrected it after I said "britzkrieg" is the Japanese pronunciation of "blitzkrieg." (The word means "lightning war" in German.)
 
My stupid typo ruined my joke about replying to my my dumb co-worker saying that I was going to attack the day like the Axis powers.

Also you know Blitz in football comes from britzkrieg? It's a real thing. You can look it up. It makes sense. I mean you send extra guys to attack the quarterback as quickly as possible. But it's weird that football just adopted a term from the Nazi military that's still around today.

It's like if a kicker hits the uprights with the football we called it. Oh he 9/11ed it.... Instead of doink or whatever we call it now.
 
Oh yeah the can we speak on this thing reminds me of another one....

Can I pick your brain?

Something about that doesn't sit right with me.
 
Last week a member of Canada's Parliament told someone (whom I will not name) to "put a sock in it." That is a stupid – and rude – and overused – expression. Brian A. Phythian, a grammarian and English teacher, has written several books about language and grammar. In A Concise Dictionary Of Phrase & Fable (1993), he says the expression originated among serviceman in the first World War: "In a barrack-room, socks would certainly be lying around at night and one can imagine a heavy snorer being shouted at and told to 'put a sock in it' (in his mouth)."
 
Letters published in the Los Angeles Times contain many stupid expressions and clichés. Letters in today's newspaper include these:

kudos
bromance
nailed it
history repeats itself
too little, too late
turned the tide
raised the bar
put a nail in his coffin
showed his true face
have their cake and eat it too
it's all about the Benjamins
edge-of-your-seat TV viewing
 
Can the word "kindly" just kindly fuck off and die already?

Like how in the living hell am I supposed to "kindly" do something? Just fucking tell me to do it.

"Please delete this account."
"Kindly, please delete the account."
How about just piss off and kindly die in a huge fire already?
 
My stupid typo ruined my joke about replying to my my dumb co-worker saying that I was going to attack the day like the Axis powers.

Also you know Blitz in football comes from britzkrieg? It's a real thing. You can look it up. It makes sense. I mean you send extra guys to attack the quarterback as quickly as possible. But it's weird that football just adopted a term from the Nazi military that's still around today.

It's like if a kicker hits the uprights with the football we called it. Oh he 9/11ed it.... Instead of doink or whatever we call it now.


But how many people wanna ban Fanta and Volkswagen because they have Nazi connections?

And yeah, that 9/11 term is yikes. That's like when that Asian basketball player had PbP guy talking about the "chink in the armor." Just yikes.
 
The Oxford English Dictionary defines chink as "a narrow opening or crack, typically one that admits light." The word dates from the mid-15th century and comes from the Old English word cinu, meaning "crack" or "split." "A chink in someone's armor" is defined as "a weak point in someone's character, arguments or ideas, making him vulnerable to attack or criticism."

The offensive word "Chink," referring to a Chinese person, dates from the late 1800s and is a modification of the word "China."

Using "a chink in the armor" in reference to an Asian basketball player? Yeah, that had a double meaning – and led to this:

ESPN fires writer of offensive headline about Jeremy Lin

 
put a sock in it."

That one doesn't really bother me. It's just shut up.

But how many people wanna ban Fanta and Volkswagen because they have Nazi connections?

If we start banning Nazi sympathizing brands we're going to ban a lot of fucking shit. Say goodbye to Hugo Boss, Chanel and Bayer off the top of my head....I mean besides the obvious ones you listed, but there's like a million brands that people have no idea were so heavily in favor of Hitler's Germany.

Wikipedia's got a whole list of them. I just looked it up. It's way more than even I thought.


chink in the armor

The term is kink in the armor right? Or am I wrong? Is it really chink in the armor? I don't know. I don't think chink is right though.
 

The term apparently actually is *chink* which doesn't make sense. You'd think it was kink.

The controversy I was thinking of was the Max Bretos one which is at that link. Sidenote: I met him years ago. Somewhere, I believe I may still have his autograph. (This was long before the controversy.)
 
If you’re talking about a human being, you are a bad person.
If you’re talking about armor, security, or are making a similar metaphor (that isn’t about a person) it’s fine. Just don’t be an asshole.
 
Back
Top Bottom