Phrases that Currently Get Up Your Nose

[Nanohedron]

Here's one for ya:

BAM!

Ha! I was at a session some years back, and six-or-sevenish-year-old girl was puttering around on the deck area while her parents chatted. Anyway, I overheard her repeating in this husky voice, "Oh yeah, baby. Oh yeah, baby." Of course I thought that she'd been up to some eavesdropping or the like and was parroting the language of love, as it were. I was mildly scandalised, and all the more so because her parents didn't seem to care.

About a year or so later I discovered Emeril Lagasse, and my bubble was burst.

[Paul Reid]

"At this point in time" -- What ever happened to "Now"?

and another:

"Personally, I ..."

[mutepointe]

most everything you folks said was right. here's my hope:

People will know the correct meaning of "ironic" and pronounce "ironic" correctly.

[fancypiper]

You know?

If I know, why are they trying to explain something?

Hackers used wrongly such as the major media use it.

Hackers write computer code and crackers are the ones that break into computers illegally.

Why can't they correctly call them crackers? Is it because they think they will offend someone from Georgia?

[Congratulations]

Here's one for ya:

BAM!

Ha! I was at a session some years back, and six-or-sevenish-year-old girl was puttering around on the deck area while her parents chatted. Anyway, I overheard her repeating in this husky voice, "Oh yeah, baby. Oh yeah, baby." Of course I thought that she'd been up to some eavesdropping or the like and was parroting the language of love, as it were. I was mildly scandalised, and all the more so because her parents didn't seem to care.

About a year or so later I discovered Emeril Lagasse, and my bubble was burst.

[carrie]

From the Department of Redundancy Department:

ATM machine
CVT transmission

I'm sure there are others in the same vein.

3 a.m. in the morning

[Tony]

You do the math...

[BrassBlower]

You do the math...

[Ostrich Caller]

Not quite a verbal phrase ... ever notice those drive-thru ATMs with Braille on the keys?

[lalit]

From the "ridiculous and frighteningly widespread malapropisms" department:

WEARY (pron. "weery"), when what is meant is WARY.

People don't seem to realize that "weary" means "tired". Arrrggggh!



Thank god for this thread.




Edited to add some clarifying punctuation -- don't want to turn into one of them misconstrued bad-talkin' types.

[Redwolf]

One that really gets me is the invention of "inclusive" terms for things that already HAVE inclusive terms. For example, saying "wait" or "waitron" instead of "waiter." A person, regardless of gender, who waits on tables is a "waiter." There's nothing inherently masculine about the term, anymore than there is about "host," "aviator," "equestrian," "director" or "jockey."

Someone saying that someone else does something "like a girl" as an insult. "Throws like a girl" for example, or "fights like a girl." As a female who knows both how to throw and how to fight, I find the use of this as an insult particularly insulting.

Redwolf

[s1m0n]

Hackers write computer code...

Specifically, a hack is computer code written for a single purpose rather than as part of an actual application.

If you have to, for instance, clean up a database full of names and you write a short piece of SQL to split first names into a seperate field and change both name fields into title case, that's a hack.

If you write a program so that everyone can do the same thing, that isn't.

[fancypiper]

Specifically, a hack is computer code written for a single purpose rather than as part of an actual application.

If you have to, for instance, clean up a database full of names and you write a short piece of SQL to split first names into a seperate field and change both name fields into title case, that's a hack.

If you write a program so that everyone can do the same thing, that isn't.

I am assuming that you are saying that that isn't a hack, rather than that isn't a hacker.

I was referring to the term "a hacker" as defined by Eric S. Raymond's article "How To Become A Hacker" and pointing out that the majority of the media misuse the term.

The media have misused it so much, even the online Merriam-Webster dictionary has the media definition as the number 4 definition.

Anyone who is interested in computers and computer software should read some or all of Eric S. Raymond's essays.

Are you a Linux user? I am currently running Fedora Core 6 and thinking about trying out Ubuntu, but I'm busy making reeds for my pipes just now. I don't think I will have my chanter reed ready this weekend (planning on attending the Loch Norman Games Fri). I have had insomnia twice this week and just can't get motivated to scrape more Arundo Donax into sawdust.

[djm]

These are mispronunciations, as opposed to verbal hairballs, but they still bug me:

foyer - it is pronounced foy-yay, not foy-yer

niche - it is pronounced neesh, not nitch

clique - it is pronounced cleek, not click

djm

[/i]

[djm]

A person, regardless of gender, who waits on tables is a "waiter."

Sorry, but I would have to disagree with you. "Waiter" is male as opposed to "waitress", which is female. I think it was instances like this that prompted the invention of unisex terms like "waitron". The other way that counter-sexists handle these situations is to simply apply the male term to both males and females, e.g. actor vs. actress, comedian vs comedienne, etc.

djm