Happy New Year wherever you are! Last year (doesn't feel right typing that about 2020 yet), just after Christmas I randomly heard a radio discussion of worst words & phrases with someone from a group known as The Plain English Foundation. Apparently this is an annual part of their look back at the year but I hadn't heard about them or it before but it was funny in an 'i can't believe that is an official phrase' kind of way! With the pandemic especially, they were saying a lot of fancy, essentially dumb phrases had been made up for the media. They singled out a few like 'vertical consumption' meaning you can drink standing up but not sitting down at pub or bar with restrictions. (article linked ) Are there any phrases you would put up for a 'worst words' list like theirs? My fave of the one's they discussed was 'tree fail', as in a council had a sign in some park basically warning people not to stand or picnic under trees in case of tree fails (as in beware of falling branches) but apparently arborists phoned in and defended the phrase as it's actually one of their technical terms to describe a fallen branch which made it all the more funny to me!
We had something similar about all the words that were new in 2020 as the cover on our national newspaper- I’m keeping it to scrap (whether I scan and scrap the original or just reproduce the list I’m not sure yet)
To me one that has bothered me for a few years now is more a grammatical error but I am finding more and more adult people saying it. "LOOK IT!" Instead of look at it!
Can we get rid of bae? I am not fond of that word at all. Can we get rid of the non-literal meaning of literally? Like, we have the word figuratively. Let's just bring that back into usage!
That is quite a list of phrases! Vertical consumption I was just reading an article the other day about all the new words that have been made up during the pandemic. For the most part, they are kind of funny like Covidiot or Coronacation. As a teacher, the words I never want to hear again are actual words but I'm over it - Synchronous/Asynchronous
I refuse to accept this alternate use of literally. It's just wrong. I also refuse to accept "irregardless" as a word. I don't care if Merriam-Webster likes it or not! The words in that article are too funny. I don't think I've ever heard any of them. Maybe it's more regional? I can't think of any new words that I particularly dislike, but it does make me feel really old when my kids use slang and I have to ask them to explain because I don't have a clue what they are talking about.
Over the holidays my kids kept using the word “sus”. I had to ask what it meant. Apparently it is short for the very long and difficult to say word “suspect”. Go figure!
I kind of get sus because it is part of the original word, but the one I'm trying to figure out these days is "cap" and "no cap" meaning lie and no lie/for real. How in the world??
Another phrase that is popular but not necessarily bad is “mask up”. A year ago we would have just looked perplexed (unless we were heading into an operation room), now we grab our purses and dig out the masks (I have at least three in my purse at any given time)
I know this one! My 10 year old uses it because he learned it from Among Us. Apparently, the game uses the term sus.
I know I may look really bad for saying this but I am so so tired of hearing the phrase "give them grace". I will say my school district WAY over used this term this year so far and I think at some point we can be expected to stop giving people grace when the district is not necessarily doing it back to parents and students. Whenever I see the word now I cringe, and I hate that it's been taken out of use from what I have always believed it to be to be, and who truly gives us Grace, and mistreated in a way that has now made me despise the word. I also don't like the term boo. As in "he's my boo". lol. Does that age me? Maybe I don't know what it really means. hahahah
Honestly, I still am not sure what those 2 words mean. LOL. (synchronous/asynchronous) ... or how to pronounce them! LOL
i think 'sus' started back in the 90's here - aussie's love an abbreviation so someone here may well have started it lol - 'cap' i'm totally surprised by, it doesn't mean wearing a hat anymore?! DD has been crocheting bees and sewing on felt eyes and mouths and DS and her were saying one was a 'derp bee' and i thought they were talking about having some kind of derby like a race for the bees or something - so i just got educated in derp meaning foolish or stupid basically, so i'm feeling extra old and 'derp' myself this week!