h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do you have any words that make you cringe?

And if so, do you know if there is a reason, or is it something that just happens?

For example a friend of mine really got upset in biology lessons with the word Spleen.

He couldn't explain it until he found that when he was very young, his had ruptured and he'd had a pretty traumatic time until it was removed but he was either too young, or traumatised to remember it. Obviously subconsciously he had.

Over tlyou.

MMF

I knew a guy who hated the word "coagulate" after he was baby sitting his sister's kids and decided to make home made ice cream for them to keep them busy. When his sister got home with the newborn she asked what happened to her breast milk in the fridge.

I bet he has been put off ive cream ever since!

MMF

Yep.

I'm unhappy with the word 'Brexit'.

Not sure why - I can't say I've heard it recently.

In case you don't understand that word, our current PM is keen to explain that 'Brexit means Brexit'. That's made everything much clearer.

<BB<

The only words that make me cringe are either words used incorrectly or aren't proper words at all.

In the first category we have the following for example:
Loose instead of lose
Would of, could of, and should of (these really make my brain itch)
Could care less.

In the second category:
Irregardless,
TXTSPK like "U" instead of you,
and The Alot!

Actually, the Alot doesn't make me cringe anymore, it makes me giggle.

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

Proactive

Eww... I didn't think about words like "proactive".


Task item or action item
paradigm shift
going forward
core competencies
face time
ideation
right sizing


Very tinny words indeed.

Deanonymised. Due to Data Protection most of our work is done anonymously, but when it isn't, guess what it's known as.

<BB<

Indian-English words like 'do the needful' and 'prepone' (opposite of postpone) used to make me cringe, but I really like them now.

The military is famous for the use of contractions such as NORAD, NATO and SAMSON. When they make more contractions of the contractions, using the first letter of one of the titles and incorporate it into another string of letters . . . . I shuddered every time.

And though "conversating" is now an accepted word, it still bugs me when I hear it.

Those are properly called acronyms, not contractions. (Contractions are apostrophized words like 'isn't, wouldn't, let's.


Those ones made with acronyms inside other acronyms are called "nested acronyms".

I work at NASA and we're just as fond of acronyms as the military, if not moreso.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/acronyms.cgi?program=shuttle&searchall=true

Brexit was (and still is) a word I can't get on with and I know why.

It trivialised the question and gave it a sexy / trendy feel that didn't encourage much thought (and divorced the act of voting for it from what it actually meant). I'm pretty convinced that it was worth some votes for the exit campaign.

And Chillax. Stupid, stupid, stupid word.

PP.

I had acronym on the tip of my tongue - but the danged word eluded me. Old Man brain fart . . . .

I get irritated by TV programmes using words like perp (my wife has a fettish for SVU, CSI etc..., I suppose they're OKish)

Ewww - just say sodding perpetrator please, I am not a cop.

Otherwise, yes the management speak thing is horrible.

We're just about to go through our annual performance reviews and now have to do them and set targets for next year using STAR analysis (situation, task, action, results..<vomit&gt

I have to say I have used 'paradigm shift' a lot in grant proposals for attempting to extract government money to do some interesting chemistry with. But then since Blair, they really like buzz-words, so one must play the game.

Everything is an ...omics in science now too

Genomics made sense
Proteomics is kind of jumping on the bandwagon but still just about reasonable

The amount of money that went in to that we now get things like metabolomics and other more desperate attempts to inflate the apparent worthiness of people's pet research projects.

On another note

'Cringe' itself is a bit cringeworthy - I suppose that makes sense.

Does a pet research project have something to do with doing research on your pet?

Chillax and brain fart deserve to be expunged.

Kids! what are kids to do with children they are baby goats.

Swag!

I hate how millennials are misusing the word swag. Swag is NOT dapper attire and accessories. Swag is either loot or the free stuff one might bring home from a pharmaceutical convention; pens, stress balls, coin purses and the like.

The good old USA is now the home of properly spoken english, the rubbish we talk at times is very odd