Abuse of Strong Words

[adakias]

Egregious. I know... a lot of people who use that word way more than necessary, and rarely in the right situation.
Also: (adjective) as (expletive). This word pattern has been thrown around too often in my social circles. It's cold as fuck. I'm thirsty as shit. I'm confused as hell.

Oh yes, the adjectival expletives have been making me cringe since their inception. The one I've heard the most is 'it's cold as balls' which doesn't even make sense! Balls are not cold.

I do like how the word egregious appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 though. It was perfectly timed comically, and I have to wonder in what way it could be mispronounced that would irritate someone so much.

I've never heard "cold as balls", but I have heard "old as balls", and I REALLY don't like the images that accompany that statement.

And I always imagined that she pronounced like "e-greh-greious" or something. I dunno. I loved that line. Loved. No exaggerations. :3

 

[Caravaggio]

Epic, people use that word so much that it's basically lost all meaning.

Also am I the only one that thought this would be about cursing?

You might want to make your thread titles more clear, you bastard.

Ha, but had I meant it to be about swearing, I would have said abuse of swear words. But you can go ahead and complain/reinforce their use here if you wish as well.

 

[ThreeWords]

I've "Abused" every word in the book. But I'm not really that worse off for doing so, in my mind as long as you get your point across, you're good. But that's just my opinion.

I'm of this mind mostly, but when I am serious, I lean more towards the OP. When I say something with all seriousness, I mean it; my promises are always kept, and my word is binding. On the other hand, I've refrained from saying that I love anyone outside my family at any serious moment for several years (and yes, I have been in relationships during that time, but to be fair, I'm a teenager, and I don't think I'm going to run into actual love for some time yet)

 

[Anarchemitis]

Rape, Hate, Love, Lust, Idiocy, Racism, Necessity, Need, Want, Desire, Desperation, Pain, and every cuss word uttered under the sun in the English language.

Take that, idiom.

 

[Caravaggio]

Egregious. I know... a lot of people who use that word way more than necessary, and rarely in the right situation.
Also: (adjective) as (expletive). This word pattern has been thrown around too often in my social circles. It's cold as fuck. I'm thirsty as shit. I'm confused as hell.

Oh yes, the adjectival expletives have been making me cringe since their inception. The one I've heard the most is 'it's cold as balls' which doesn't even make sense! Balls are not cold.

I do like how the word egregious appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 though. It was perfectly timed comically, and I have to wonder in what way it could be mispronounced that would irritate someone so much.

I've never heard "cold as balls", but I have heard "old as balls", and I REALLY don't like the images that accompany that statement.

And I always imagined that she pronounced like "e-greh-greious" or something. I dunno. I loved that line. Loved. No exaggerations. :3

Me as well. As inappropriate as it may sound in the context of this thread specifically, I felt intense emotions of affection and great stimulation in my hilarity detector from that line.

 

[Caravaggio]

Rape, Hate, Love, Lust, Idiocy, Racism, Necessity, Need, Want, Desire, Desperation, Pain, and every cuss word uttered under the sun in the English language.

Many of those I agree with, only how have want or pain been abused?

I know you can complain about people saying their pain is greater than it actually is, but it usually is the only word that can be used for what it describes, and 'discomfort' usually is an understatement that will get you ignored by physicians.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Any profanity, when used to an extreme, ceases to be witty or carry any real impact.
I'm not puritanical when it comes to swear words, but there comes a point where they are used so much that they cease to be anything other than annoying or padding.

I notice this a lot with certain comedians. They pad out their act with profanity because they need time to fool the audience into thinking they paid for a 30 minute show when in fact is only 20 minutes long.

On this site, it's the usual chestnuts of:
"Irony" (used to call someone retarded without actually saying it),
"Love/Hate" (there are how many definitions of Love now?),
"Troll" (which can be used to describe any post they don't like, irregardless of content or context)
"Ninja" (ok, so you didn't say your opinion first...WHY DOES THAT MATTER? Even if you don't reiterate the line, why not elaborate on that part of the discussion since you believe in it? Someone else saying it first doesn't make yours any less relevant! This isn't a contest to see who goes first, it's a discussion board! DISCUSS!)

And the usual hyperbole words like "Best/Worst ever", despite being the only logically definitive points in an otherwise undefined scale (Best being at the top, worst at the bottom, everything in between being fuzzy), they seem to be used quite frequently.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I actually like people using strong words, possibly out of place. You know what they mean and it makes conversations more amusing/less monotonous.

 

[The Grim Ace]

If one more thing is 'unprecedented' then absolutely nothing will have ever happened in the history of the world. Seriously, please, for the sake of verbally erasing posterity, slap anyone who uses that word excessively. Yes, I know that means newscasters are about to have deeply red faces, I'm okay with that.

 

[TheHecatomb]

So, people of the escapist, what other words have you seen being abused recently?

I think calling something like this "abuse" is pretty much the same thing.

It's just something that happens. In my native tongue Dutch the word "idioot" (which would indeed translate to "idiot") was once an official degree of mental retardation. Can you imagine that now? A highly educated doctor, who after months of research diagnoses that someone is an idiot?
I don't think I could count how often I've called friends of mine idiots, without the risk of them getting upset. Even as an insult the word hardly does the job anymore.

I'm not necessarily saying it's a good thing (nor a bad thing for that matter), it's just something that has been happening for ages and in all likelihood will continue to do so, regardless of how you or I would feel about it. Go with the flow I say, language is merely one of the tools to achieve the higher goal, communication.

 

[Crispee]

Swearing in general personally, recently I've decided to not swear unless there's an actual necessary reason for it, such as extreme situations, or when I need to shock somebody.
Because in my opinion, hearing somebody who never swears loudly drop an F-bomb has a much bigger impact than somebody who overuses the word to the point of being mundane, and situations like that are the real reason for such language to begin with, rather than everyday things.

That's just my two cents. ^

 

[Cupid]

Some people get caught up with the words "I love you" which I feel gets uses alot and for all the wrong reasons. Probably because to love someone is different than being in love with someone. So when the time comes to getting dumped, it can be a real shocker because "you said I love you." I try to remember when that is said to me, and I remind myself that it most means "I like you alot" it's just that it's so openly said anymore. I have to find a replacement for these 3 words I think when I will one day say it to someone, after much thought and sleepless nights.

And "epic" is just retarded now, I hate that damn word.