Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

telegraph UK ^ | 10/7/2008 | Charlotte Bailey

[redrunner]

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.

The tautological statement "I personally" made third place – an expression that BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice."

Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have".

The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework.

The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the internet and other sources.

The database alerts them to new words and phrases and can tell them which expressions are disappearing. It also shows how words are being misused.

....

The top ten most irritating phrases:

1 - At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science

[redrunner]

My number 1 most irritating phrase: "CHANGE"

[George Smiley]

11. “It is what it is.”

[SolidWood]

#1 Change
#2 Hope
#3 Yes we can
#4 Obama

[the_devils_advocate_666]

11. Oh really?

[redrunner]

how bout “Bush’s Fault”

[NetSurfer]

“At the end of the day” IS all-time annoying! It should be banned from the English language.

[eleni121]

Add “My friends” every time he opened his mouth-— what an irritating McCainism.

[Verginius Rufus]

"My friends"
"Neo-cons"
"Failed Bush administration policies"

[CE2949BB]

“Touch base.”

[Robert A Cook PE]

12 But the truth of the matter is ....

[DannyTN]

At the end of the day, I personally, don’t think this list is even fairly unique. With all due respect, at this moment in time, they absolutely could have come up with a more irritating list than this. This list is a nightmare, NOT. It’s not rocket science, and it’s obvious they didn’t work on this 24/7. This list was quite boring and shoundn’t of been published.

[redrunner]

“quality time”... I really hate that one...

[davisfh]

prevenTAtive as opposed to preventive. Yes, I know that prevenTAtive is in the dictionary, sad to say. There are many, many more just like that. But then, it's progressive language, you understand.

[cgbg]

My most hated word:

"Stakeholders"

Usually whoever says the word is trying to &^%$ you over.

[Revolting cat!]

The most irritating: duplicate post (such as this one!)

[21twelve]

President Obama will...

[GOPJ]

Correct Pronounced as: CO-rect!

[mysto]

"Change you can believe in" is definitely #1. Also on my list of irritating words and phrases:

"Politically incorrect"

"Progressive" (to describe liberals)

"Spread the wealth around"

"My friends"

"Bailout"

And the newest addition to the list:

"Office of the President-Elect"

[redrunner]

I looked... didn’t find it... sorry...

[mollynme]

I would like to add “I mean” to that list. People starting a sentence with “I mean” when they haven’t said anything yet that needs to be clarified are very annoying and usually sports figures.