A very long time ago, a reader of Domani Dave said some of my posts were ‘haiku-like’.
Can you imagine it? I cannot say how much that remark meant to me, though there has since (and certainly at that time) been ample reason to wonder where that impression came from.
The posts have with the passage of time become more ‘tweet-like’ in length, stemming from my belief that in the immortal words of George: ‘A man can put up with only so much’.
Here’s more brevity. Or, more accurately, less… non-brevity.
I started thinking about terms and expressions I don’t care for. After my previous post, hard to imagine where that rumination got started?
Apologies to the Brits, but one I don’t for a lot is ‘gobsmacked’. My friend Roger uses it incessantly. I learned the ‘gob’ part from my first viewing of ‘A Clockwork Orange’, when poor Little Alex is told to ‘Shut your filthy, bleeding gob!’ Maybe that’s the problem.
I also don’t like the word ‘corpse’, which sounds crunchy and gooey at the same time. What are some words you don’t care for?
You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.
9 comments
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March 24, 2017 at 8:29 am
itsmyhusbandandme
When some one says they got completely mad and went totally – Ape Shit.
JP
March 28, 2017 at 5:21 pm
larrymuffin
when they could say I was disturbed by or was angry, better expressions.
March 26, 2017 at 11:24 pm
Urspo
I am an omnivore of words; they all taste yummy in their way. What I don’t like is words used poorly.
Exception: modern terms like ‘power tie’ “playdate” “quality time” and ‘brainstorming’.
March 28, 2017 at 5:22 pm
larrymuffin
I agree with Spo on that one.
March 28, 2017 at 5:19 pm
larrymuffin
I do have words I really do not like at all and I do not know how those words came to be on everyone’s lips. Iconic, Systemic, Amazing, World Class, cutting edge, it would appear those words have now become standard in any topic.
March 28, 2017 at 5:37 pm
Dave
‘Countless’.
If I hear ‘countless’ one more time…
Not long ago I even heard someone say ‘Countless U.S. Presidents’!
You can count them! Argh;-)
March 31, 2017 at 7:26 am
wfregosi
“which begs the question” because it’s invariably used to mean the exact opposite of its real meaning.
“like” used as a, like, interjection into, like, sentences. Many years ago: prop master to me while we arranged a set for a rehearsal: “Over here do you want, like, chairs?” Will: “No, I want real chairs, not things that are like chairs.” Prop master: (look of complete incomprehension).
Literally and totally — seriously overused.
Dude!
March 31, 2017 at 11:10 am
Dave
My dear, living in a college town, you have NO idea how often I overhear conversations wherein almost every other word is ‘like’. ‘Valley-speak’ has even overtaken broadcasting, but really, how could that not have happened.
April 6, 2017 at 7:46 am
wfregosi
Reconstructing a response that I posted but seems to have disappeared:
I spent the years 1975 through 2007 on the Music & Theater Arts faculty at MIT and I have EVERY idea of at least three “generations” of student speak.
:-)