The "Annoying Phrase" Thread

[scottyrocks]

“I need a single belly button as a go-to on this project” and “Drop the kimono”.
I’d love to be in a meeting where somebody said these!!
My response would not be a “near miss”!
B

Ps: what the heck does “Drop the kimono” mean anyway??

'Open the kimono' means to disclose information about the inner-workings of a company.

Kim Kardashian, however, as a result of much backlash, plans to drop the word kimono from her new KKW Kimono Shapewear line.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Kim Kardashian, however, as a result of much backlash, plans to drop the word kimono from her new KKW Kimono Shapewear line.

We won't ask how or why you know this.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

'Open the kimono' means to disclose information about the inner-workings of a company.

In Japan it means ' Appraising the goods."

 

[GHT]

Damn you, I am now re traumatized after you placed me back into every horrific corporate strategy/rebranding meeting I ever attended. Not sure I can emotionally recover from this.

Belfastboy, I really do feel your anguish. Thirty years ago the company that I worked for had one of the nicest directors. He was head of sales and marketing and he certainly knew his subject, but oh, did the man love euphemisms. This was a time before the internet, yet somehow those strangled English jargon expressions went round the English speaking world as quick as today's email and this fellow was always first to use the latest "buzzword, or expression." It drove me mad. And others too, I remember sitting next to my regional manager, he had scribbled the word "Bullsh**t" on his agenda sheet, it caught my giggle button. In an attempt not to laugh I sipped from a glass of water and pretended to cough. You should read Mark Peters.

 

[tonyb]

“Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.”

 

[scottyrocks]

We won't ask how or why you know this.

It's called the internet . . .

 

[tonyb]

I can't help but notice that some of these phrases which apparently get up people's noses are things that I employ from time to time: "Skill set"="Set of skills;" "At the end of the day," just another way of saying, "When all is said and done." 'Low hanging fruit" is something I occasionaly say, usually to describe making fun of an easy target.

Circling back to industry jargon, I had forgotten one of my own bugbears in this arena: the word 'font.'
This is a quintessential example of a term taken out of its professional idiom and applied willy-nilly. As anyone who was in publishing or graphic design before the 1980s could tell you, the word for a specific style of letterforms used as movable type is a typeface. Times New Roman is a typeface. Helvetica is a typeface (one that should perish from the earth, but that's another rant for another thread). 'Type style' is another term, or sometimes 'Type family,' when talking about the whole range of bold, italic, etc.

A font is a somewhat antiquated printers' term that refers to the complete set of characters of a particular typeface, (and sometimes in a particular point size) from which pages of type are constructed. Going back to the days of foundry type, this would have been a case of little metal slugs with raised letters. It is the source, the 'fount' of the printed type. So, it would be fair to refer to the file on your computer that generates a specific face as a font file. But you don't choose a font when you change something from Arial into, say, Bodoni.

It's usually difficult to trace where the courruption of these terms come from, but this one can, I believe, be placed squarely on the shoulders of Steve Jobs' smelly black turtleneck. It has now become so widespread that even older professional designers have pretty much thrown up their hands and said, "Fine, it's a font."

Some people finding certain phrases annoying in no way obligates you to agree or to drop such phrases from your own working vocabulary.

Everyone has what others (some others) consider annoying tics. BFD. You don’t have to agree. It’s not that anyone here is in a position to insist on it.

For at least a couple of decades I’ve found annoying many uses of “totally.” Because of that history I’ve come to accept that using it to mean something akin to “I agree, dude” is just the way many people use that word and will continue using that word no matter what I think of it.

We could point to a thousand other examples, if we put our collective knowledge to the task. It’s the nature of a living language. Meanings morph.

I fairly recently told an old friend, an intelligent guy, and fairly well read, that he was mistaken to think that “protesting one’s innocence” was an illogical phrase. He obviously didn’t know of that earlier definition of “protest.” Consider the etymology, I suggested. Now it makes sense, right?

 

[Benny Holiday]

My daughter has thankfully grown out of the habit of using the word 'versus' as a verb rather than a preposition. A couple of years ago, she would be constantly saying things like, "We versed Moorebank in basketball today," or "I'm going to verse my friend Elise at this game." I'd constantly be correcting her and saying, "Do you mean you're going you play against her, or that you're going to quote pieces of written literature?" It took a long time, but I finally banished it from her vocabulary!

 

[GHT]

Everyone has what others (some others) consider annoying tics. BFD. You don’t have to agree. It’s not that anyone here is in a position to insist on it.

For at least a couple of decades I’ve found annoying many uses of “totally.” Because of that history I’ve come to accept that using it to mean something akin to “I agree, dude” is just the way many people use that word and will continue using that word no matter what I think of it.

We could point to a thousand other examples, if we put our collective knowledge to the task. It’s the nature of a living language. Meanings morph.

You're right of course, just dont go annoying me by starting a sentence with: "So, basically, or absolutely."

 

[scottyrocks]

 

[ton312]

I'm annoyed by that "extend your thumb and pinky from your clenched fist and wiggle your hand" gesture that means "Call Me." It reminds me of a man I used to work for who wore an aqua sport coat with a black silk shirt, linen pants, and Bass boat shoes with no socks, traveled in a cloud of noxious Ralph Lauren cologne, drove a Miata, and always had cocaine for lunch.

I hope to God it was a convertible Miata. Blowing thinning hair in the wind whilst blasting extreme’s “ more than words” at the full volume his aftermarket Alpine car stereo (with theft prevention, of course) could support.

 

[3fingers]

My daughter has thankfully grown out of the habit of using the word 'versus' as a verb rather than a preposition.

My youngest son started using that a few years ago, drawing a reaction similar to yours from dad. I was also able to verbally beat him into choosing a different term.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I hope to God it was a convertible Miata. Blowing thinning hair in the wind whilst blasting extreme’s “ more than words” at the full volume his aftermarket Alpine car stereo (with theft prevention, of course) could support.

It's like you were there.

 

[ton312]

It's like you were there.

In my mind. I was. LOL.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It's called the internet . . .

Ah ! ....I've heard of it of course but I never go near it. They say it can turn perfectly normal people into Kim Kardashian fans. I'm not ready for such commitment yet.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It took a long time, but I finally banished it from her vocabulary!

So now she is well versed in the matter.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Haha that was well said!

 

[tonyb]

Perfectly good words get overused. In the 1970s, “mellow” fell into such overuse. In the 2010s, it sometimes seems just about any familiar thing is “iconic.”

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Perfectly good words get overused. In the 1970s, “mellow” fell into such overuse. In the 2010s, it sometimes seems just about any familiar thing is “iconic.”

Whoa! I just got finished watching "Forged in Fire". I like the show, even if one episode seems much like another, but every .. single ... week, the host challenges the finalists to "recreate this iconic weapon from history". No, Will, an obscure blade from central Africa is not possibly "an iconic weapon from history". This show doesn't have much of a budget for writers. The three judges use the same phrases every... single... week.
Oh, well, maybe I'll switch over to "What Not to Wear". I'm feeling a little schizo.

 

[tonyb]

Whoa! I just got finished watching "Forged in Fire". I like the show, even if one episode seems much like another, but every .. single ... week, the host challenges the finalists to "recreate this iconic weapon from history". No, Will, an obscure blade from central Africa is not possibly "an iconic weapon from history". This show doesn't have much of a budget for writers. The three judges use the same phrases every... single... week.
Oh, well, maybe I'll switch over to "What Not to Wear". I'm feeling a little schizo.

Just read the headline and lead paragraph of a Valerie Harper obit which called her an “iconic actor.”

I got no objection to the gender-neutral use of “actor,” but was she really “iconic”?

Gotta be a better word.