Annoyingly misused words?

[JUMBO PALACE]

As already mentioned "I could care less". BUT THAT MEANS YOU DO IN FACT CARE! Just add an n't and it'd be right!

 

[thedeathscythe]

A lot of the things I'm saying have already been said, so I'll say something new. This one my buddy told me and listen close to your friends and you may hear it. I hate it when people say "For all intensive purposes..." That makes no sense. They always mean "For all intents and purposes" but they have never seen it written so they just say it phonetically.

EDIT: I actually hate it when people type to you and say "I'm not aloud to go out tonight, sorry." It just pains me to see the english language bastardized so badly these days.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Irregardless.
The word is useless, the shorter version means exactly the same thing, it's used by people who try and sound smarter.

Actually it means "not without regard for." Cancel out the two negatives, and irregardless = with regards to. So it's even worse than useless: it's often the opposite of what people intend for it to mean.

I believe George Orwell made a list of cliche'd expressions in his essay Politics and The English Language. Toe the line, often misused as tow the line; the hammer and the anvil, people who think the anvil get's the worse side of the exchange. It just means that a person has no idea what (s)he's actually saying, and just thinks it sounds clever.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

I actually hate it when people type to you and say "I'm not aloud to go out tonight, sorry." It just pains me to see the english language bastardized so badly these days.

You should ask if they can sneak out quietly.

Seriously, I hate it when people don't know the meaning of irony as well.

I'd still hold that a diabetic getting run over by a truck full of insulin would be ironic. Words aren't said, but the outcome (killing a diabetic man) is different than the obvious intended result of a shipment of insulin. This definition is limited because it only takes linguistic irony into account.

 

[thedeathscythe]

I actually hate it when people type to you and say "I'm not aloud to go out tonight, sorry." It just pains me to see the english language bastardized so badly these days.

You should ask if they can sneak out quietly.

I think you meant "You should ask them if they can sneak out quitely." Those kind of spelling mistakes, which have all been said, also grind my gears.

 

[jboking]

I used to get frustrated when I heard someone use a word incorrectly. However, after listening to stephen fry I've slowly realized that it rarely matters if I can understand what they mean and what message they intend to convey to me.

Honestly, it's now the overuse of words the bugs me. Things like 'epic' or 'awesome.' It's not that I feel they shouldn't use the word because they are using it incorrectly, but rather that I wish they would find a more unique way to convey that message.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Literally

Despite what The Oatmeal says, I don't mind when people use "literally" as exaggeration. Think of it as the ultimate in hyperbole - "I was so _____ that this actually happened. No really."

Just because someone asserts something as truth doesn't mean that it is, or is intended that way. Don't take "literally" so literally.

 

[Lexodus]

I actually hate it when people type to you and say "I'm not aloud to go out tonight, sorry." It just pains me to see the english language bastardized so badly these days.

You should ask if they can sneak out quietly.

I think you meant "You should ask them if they can sneak out quitely." Those kind of spelling mistakes, which have all been said, also grind my gears.

You know what else grinds my gears? When I can't find the droids I'm looking for!

 

[Zechnophobe]

Also, although this doesn't quite fit with OT I'm gonna include it anyway.

Winningest.

Is this real? Do people actually use that word?

I'm English, I've never heard that word used, or seen it before today. I sincerely hope I never hear it out loud, it's just awful!

I have only heard winningest used in Football. Where the Winningest Quarterback of all time was the one who had the most raw wins, independent of losses. It is actually a somewhat worthy distinction, since it doesn't say you have the greatest win percentage, and does bundle a concept into a single word.

Hooray Grammar freak thread!!!
"Times'd" instead of "multiplied"
"Versed" as another form of "versus"
and people using "literally" when there is no figurative or alternate form of what they said and they just mean "seriously"

I HATE PEOPLE WHO BUTCHER THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!

Don't you mean "I hate it WHEN people butcher the English language?" Surely someone you like has at least at one point in their life done some of this butchery. And clearly you can't hate someone until you are aware of the butchery.

I think people seriously need to stop acting like language is immutable. It changes. We add new words, and snip out older ones. The words you think are 'okay' and 'real' are just those most familiar to you.

 

[Nick of Blades]

the word "gay" as an insult. it insults gays, linguists, the speaker's intelligence but not the actual person being insulted

^^^ I completely agree with this.

 

[pipers_r_gods]

Irregardless.
The word is useless, the shorter version means exactly the same thing, it's used by people who try and sound smarter.

I hate it when irregardless gets used, but the "ir" at the front of the word implies the opposite, making itself redundant, not the same word.

 

[F-I-D-O]

Fail
Epic
Irony
Gay (huge pet peeve of mine, how is object X (X=not a sexual object) homosexual/erotic?)
Irregardless (damn it, it's not a word)
OMG (in real life)
Any internet acronym in real life
Over 9000
Faceplam
Addicting

I get annoyed easily.

 

[SD-Fiend]

anthropomorphic

 

[mike1921]

Literally. If there would be no alternative interpretation of your sentence by removing the word you're using it wrong. Not to mention when people use the word literally and it's not even correct in that sentence instead of just being redundant.

 

[DannibalG36]

"literally" sees abuse every... single... day...

I just hope that one day every person who overuses that word will see what they are saying come true.

 

[William Dickbringer]

really cussing not that I'm against cussing just when you say curse words as describing word like "she's so fucking hot" or "that's so fucking annoying" seriously expand your vocabulary it'll make you more smarter

 

[Andrew Abbess]

When a grown up says pokeyman.It's pokemon people.I thought they covered spelling in 2nd grade?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Irony for sure!
Sympathy/Empathy (most people have them backwords)
Plethora

OT: "I could care less" is annoying to me. As has been pointed out a great many times, you could care a great deal, and still be able to care less.

"I could care less" is sarcasm.

Not in the way it's generally used. Most people just use it to mean they couldn't care less without thinking about it. Used properly, there's nothing wrong with the phrase.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Love - people through it around all the time when they mean physical attraction or are in lust when it comes to members of the opposite sex; to love somebody you must truly know somebody not just want to pork them as they have nice tits.

It really starts to irk me when applied to physical items, "I love this new Black Ops game" - no you don't, you may like it a great deal but you do not love it, especially if you're on facebook five minutes later bitching about the online bugs.

The main reason for my loathing of the use of love is it cheapens the meaning, when it's tossed about so carelessly then when it's come to be used for it's real reason its meaning is that much less - "I love you" when told to your spouse would probably have more weight if you hadn't minutes earlier said "I'd love a Dominoes right about now".

You know what else I hate? 'Fit', as used to describe someone attractive. No, fit means to be pychisically/mentally able to do something.

E.g. "I say, that square peg seems fit for the purpose of going into a square hole".

Not "Omg, that bird was well fit innit!"
[sub]Fucking chavs...[/sub]

Yeah! I'm fit but definitely not attactive! oh wait.

...

OT: here's another one, "noob."

whenever I run into a *ahem* "true gamer" that constantly spouts the word "noob" (both online and in real life) I often ask them if they even know what it means; they often pretend they know.

let me explain: noob is a slang, it actually roots from the term "newbie." its always treated as an insult, but really it's not.

this is the same thing with "leet"