Posted on 11/07/2008 12:52:42 PM PST by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“team player”
#1 most irritating (and overused)....Win-Win. Or Win-Win-Win.
#2. Out of the box.
My two most hated words: ‘fairness’ and ‘diversity’
“Quite frankly...”
I agree that many of the above phrases, but “you need to” tops the irritant list for me. It drives me nuts when, instead of “have to”, “must”, “should”, “ought”, or whatever it is they really mean, people use the imprecise and bossy-sounding “need to” in a misguided attempt to give more weight and authority to their words. As in, “You need to come with me, Sir”. Why not just say “Please come with me, Sir.”? Not only more courteous and professional-sounding, but it has the incidental advantage of being precisely what is meant.
See now, you shouldn’t have got me going...
Search on ‘compiles’ as a word in the Title. That’s the best kind of search I’ve found.
Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgh!!!
I have noticed an interesting affectation, especially among academics. They begin their sentences with the word So.
Please explain your project.
So my project involves.........
I was listening to Science Friday on People’s radio and it was so many of the guests do it I had to laugh.
“These types of things....”
At his juncture, at this particular point in time...
I, for one, think this list has jumped the shark.
State of the art.
What about: “on the same page”!!!
Employees are our most important asset!
I searched Oxford... actually I just did it again and came up empty again... I actually hate to be the duplicate thread and try to avoid it.. anywho... thanks “My FRiend” (I couldn’t resist...)
My pet peeve is when these so called political experts begin their sentences with “The fact of the matter is—”.
My two most hated words: fairness and diversity
Great job, Bob.
(note the comma)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.