Saturday 18 July 2009

Most hated word?

I ws just reading a post on the Guardian Books Blog where poets at the Ledbury Festival were asked what their most hated word is.

What's best about this article are the HUGE number of comments and discussions about peoples' favourite hated word. One of the top ones was 'moist', which I definitely agree with. Especially when in conjunction with 'panties'. I can't even bear to write them down together...

And another one I hate is 'yourself' when used instead of 'you' - e.g. Insurance salesman - 'And will the car be driven by yourself?'

I could go on. And on.

Anyone else got a pet hate?

6 comments:

Teresa Stenson said...

I really cringe when people ask me, "And how's Teresa?" rather than just saying "How are you?".

There's just something about putting me into the 3rd person I don't like!

claires inner world said...

Ooo yes, that's really horrible!

Anonymous said...

OOh I could go on and on about these things! 'Moist' is definitely one of my favourite words actually, but that would certainly change when used with 'panties' I agree! Eurgh! My current pet hate wordwise is people's overuse of the word 'literally' when what they actually mean is 'actually'. It literally drives me up the wall!

claires inner world said...

I literally hate that people actually use words like verbal tics, to prop up their sentence constructions, init...

Reeblestiltskin said...

Basically. Which I am guilty of too often. And "at the end of the day". Which is a phrase admittedly rather than a word but I hope it still counts. But, mostly, and to the extent that it makes my blood boil: "can I get (a coffee/panini/glass of chardonnay/ect)". Can I get?!!! I spent weeks blaming American sitcoms for this, then in Starbucks last week, stood blood boiling while a whole queue of English people asked if they "could get" a latte or whatever, and the one American person at the end of the queue said "please may I have". I would have shared the joke but of course the irony would have been lost on her, being American. ; )

claires inner world said...

Reeblestiltskin! I am so guilty of using 'basically' and 'at the end of the day' far too much when I speak - I HATE it!! (Also so using the word so, to so emphasise what I'm saying. See above.) Aaarggh!!