Posted on 10/14/2026 5:07:27 PM PDT by DoodleBob
I love this. I hate that. Really? Is it necessary to exaggerate? If everything is huge or outrageous or unprecedented, then how will we express things that are truly out of the ordinary? Florid language is the enemy of clear, concise speech. Like putting exclamation points and emojis after every sentence, it pervades modern media and makes everyone sound like adolescent twits. I don't dislike the following expressions, nor do I hate them. I detest them with a burning rage that disrupts the very fabric of space and time.
- Amazing/Amazed: People say this when they really like something, but it seems to imply low expectations. Did you expect your $30 hamburger to suck? Did you expect the roller-coaster to be boring? Who do you think you are, James Bond? And finally, 'Amaze-Balls'? What does that even mean?
- Decimated: Used in journalism and elsewhere to mean drastically reduced. The literal meaning is to be reduced by 10%. Well that all depends don't it? If Jeff Bezos' finances were 'decimated', he would go from $140 billion to just $126 billion... Wow, decimated! How about this; "At the barber shop, my hair was decimated".
- Devastated: To be destroyed. I was devastated when Netflicks stopped streaming Buffy Vampire Slayer. Now you can only rent it on disk.
- Eviscerated/Gutted: Gutted, like a fish. Currently used to say that something has been rendered ineffective somehow. I think a term this disgusting and extreme should refer to extreme cases. For ordinary things it seems quite stupid; "my dinner plans were EVISCERATED", "The yard-debris pickup schedule was GUTTED". Oooooh!
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Feel free to add your “favorite” hyperbolic word or phrase.
My “favorites” include:
Decimate
Destroy
Annihilate
Possibly ping of interest.
This is gonna be massive!
Alleged...
Even when there is video evidence!!
decombobulated
smartilicious
Gnarly
I’m getting annoyed by waitresses, people taking information, or someone otherwise ‘helping’ you in some way referring to every other response as “Perfect.”
Bombshell!
forgot “Unhoused”
“iconic”
“beloved”
Iconic is a word I am so sick of hearing.
If everything is iconic then nothing is.
Literally.
Literally. This is, literally, one of the most misused/mis-applied words in today’s communication.
19 seconds.
While watching police videos I have discovered that many people do not understand the difference between the floor and the ground.
Exponentially
People who use,”electrocuted,” when they mean, “shocked.” In my professional life I’ve had to explain to people who should have known better that, “electrocution,” is a portmanteau for electrical + execution. If somebody is still alive, they haven’t been electrocuted...although I see that Merriam-Webster now also allows for severely injured as well.
People who use,”electrocuted,” when they mean, “shocked.” In my professional life I’ve had to explain to people who should have known better that, “electrocution,” is a portmanteau for electrical + execution. If somebody is still alive, they haven’t been electrocuted...although I see that Merriam-Webster now also allows for severely injured as well.
Listen to an conversation and you will hear it at least every third or fourth word.Sean Hannity cannot say a sentence without using it. One reason I stopped listening to him.
1) hot almost nobody is as “hot” as they are described.
I’ll agree with that list. I learned about the meaning of “decimated” years ago when William F. Buckley pointed out the word’s misuse. I figured if anyone would know, he would.
I’ll third the sentiment on the incorrect overuse of “literally”.
I once heard a dental hygienist say, “I literally exploded!”
Really? Then please stop working on my teeth. You shouldn’t even be here. Or maybe that word doesn’t mean what you think it means.
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