2015 brought us some overused, useless words and phrases. Do everyone a favor and purge your vocabulary for 2016. I have included comments from “real” people regarding a few of these words:
POLAR VORTEX
“Wasn’t it called ‘winter’ just a few years ago?”
“What happened to ‘cold snap’? Not descriptive enough?”
“Enough with the over-sensationalized words to describe weather!”
HACK
“This word is totally over-used and mis-used. What they really mean is tip or short cut, but clearly it is not a hack, as it involves no legal or ethical impropriety or breach of security.”
“I just received an e-mail for a book called Marriage Hacks. I have seen articles about life hacks, home improvement hacks, car hacks, furniture hacks, painting hacks, work hacks and pretty much any other hack you can think of. There are probably even hacking hacks.”
SKILL SET
“Why use two words when one will do? We already have a perfectly good word in ‘skills’ (ending with an s, not a z).””A skill is a skill — that is it. Phrases such as ‘I have the skill set to do that properly’ or anything resembling that phrase, shows the speaker is seriously lacking skills in the art of conversation. Please try this, ‘I have the skill… do you have the skills… this requires certain skills… he is very skilled… that was a skillful maneuver… See? No need for a skill set.”
FOODIE
“It’s ridiculous. Do we call people who like wine ‘winies’ or beer lovers ‘beeries’?”
“I crave good sleep, too, but that does not make me a sleepie. News flash: We ALL like food.”
TAKEAWAY
“It’s used all too frequently on news programs, as in, ‘What is your ‘takeaway’ on (a given situation.’ ‘What is our ‘takeaway’ on Congress’ vote?’ ‘Is there any ‘takeaway’ on the recent riots?’ I have heard Jon Stewart use it. I’ve heard Charlie Rose use it, as well as countless numbers of news talking heads, usually for all the wrong reasons. For me, a takeaway is a sports term, where one team is controlling the ball (or puck) and the other steals it, or took it away – a ‘takeaway.’ In the U.K., ‘takeaway’ food is known as ‘to go’ here in the Colonies.
CRA-CRA
“Short-form for ‘crazy’ and sometimes just one ‘cra.’ I hear kids (including my 6 yr. old) saying it all the time, e.g. ‘That snowstorm yesterday was ‘cra-cra.'”
FRIEND-RAISING
“The word suggests that we develop relationships not for the simple value of the person we call ‘friend,’ for the pleasure of being in a community of people and for the simple joys of sharing bonds of affection and common care, but that we instead develop these relationships out of some sort of expectation of a monetary reward.”
AWESOME
“Someone asked me for my name. When I told him, he commented, “Awesome!” What makes my name awesome? Is everyone’s name awesome?”
Recently, I was dining at an outdoor cafe, and the server came up to our table, and asked us if we had dined there before, and I said, “Yes, yes, we have.” And she said, “Awesome.” And I thought, “Really? Awesome or just merely good that we decided to visit your restaurant again?”
Wouldn’t it be pleasant to not hear these words/phrases in 2016?
