Posted on 05/29/2007 2:17:17 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Readers have responded in their thousands to The Daily Telegraph's call to select the worst phrases in the English language.
Since our invitation was issued in February, more than 3,000 of you have submitted personal inventories of the damned, containing the phrases, aphorisms and clichés that irritate the most.
High on the list of grievances was the increasing use of slang, poor grammar and the incorporation of Americanisms into everyday speech.
Many of you shared frustrations over the misuse of "forensic" and "literally", while management jargon such as "downsizing", "brainstorming" and "thinking outside the box" also received plenty of nominations.
The Daily Telegraph has responded with its own compilation of annoying phrases, and She Literally Exploded: The Daily Telegraph Infuriating Phrasebook is now available on Amazon.
Here is a selection of your comments so far:
"It's not rocket science". Rocketry is engineering, not a science. - Tony
The phrase "up close and personal" was irritating to start with and has become hackneyed and meaningless e.g. I went on a river trip and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a crocodile - Margot Lang
I can't stand "to die for". Nothing's that good and even if it was, you'd be dead and wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever it was. - Vivsy
"Pushing the envelope" always conjures up for me some ridiculous scene in a mailing room or post office. - Nigel Brown
Why, when someone famous dies, do tributes always "pour" in? Also, when a plane crashes in the sea, the media is quick to remind us that the waters are always "shark-infested". - S.Winrad
Only £1,999.99. - P.H.Heilbron
"This door is alarmed". Is it really frightened? - Alan Lawrence
The infuriating rising inflections at the end of sentences that make everything sound like a question? - Steve Grant
I hate being addressed as "hallo there". My name is not "there". And why have all the cookery books and frying pans disappeared? What is a "cook" book and a "fry" pan? - Susan Byers
When the waitress plonks the plate in front of you and says, "there you go". Where do I go? Where's there? - Ken Clarke
"It will be in the last place you look". Well of course I'm not going to continue to look for it when I have found it. - Tom Batt
Any interview of an athlete who over uses the word “focus”.
That’s what I first think of, too, when I hear “cakewalk.” We did it at our elementary school Halloween carnival and I won a cake every year. Loved it. It was just like musical chairs.
But the dance itself, now that I think of it, conjures up pictures of something like the “Darktown Strutters’ Ball.” I’m picturing lots of folks dressed to the nines in Gibson Girl-era fashions, sort of promenading, doing something like a Virginia reel, but with high-stepping - something like the Mummers when they parade.
It may be incorrect, but it’s *my* imagination, lol.
And, speaks of himself in the third person!
Both terms make me think that it’s being done outside, lol. Like a drunk, just going “anywhere.” I much prefer the euphemism “go to the bathroom,” probably for that reason.
Silly, I know. I already said I’m “old school.”
How much canning can a canning company can, if a canning company can can-can?
Plain stupid saying.
I suppose it is a better euphemism than "I need to do my business," as though you're bringing your briefcase in there with you!
Maybe you’re right. That fits in more with the county fair model, and fits with what I vaguely remember from childhood. But Wiki says...
Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the US South. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk; it takes its name from competitions slaveholders sometimes held, in which they offered slices of hoecake as prizes for the best dancers.[1]
The dance was invented as a satirical parody of the formal European ballroom dances preferred by white slave owners, and featured exaggerated imitations of the dance ritual, combined with traditional African dance steps.[2] One common form of cakewalk dance involved couples linked at the elbows, lining up in a circle, dancing forward alternating a series of short hopping steps with a series of very high kicking steps. Costumes worn for the cakewalk often included large, exaggerated bow ties, suits, canes, and top hats.
Dances by slaves were a popular spectator pastime for slaveholders, evolving into regular Sunday contests held for their pleasure. Following the American Civil War, the tradition continued amongst African Americans in the South and gradually moved northward. The dance became nationally popular among whites and blacks for a time at the end of the 19th century.[1] The syncopated music of the cakewalk became a nationally popular force in American mainstream music, and with growing complexity and sophistication evolved into ragtime music in the mid 1890s. The music was adopted into the works of various white composers, including John Philip Sousa and Claude Debussy. Debussy wrote Golliwog’s Cakewalk as the final movement of the Children’s Corner suite (1908).[3]
(It does mention the walk you describe as well.)
Sure you do, so do I. But fatigue is clearly a factor; probably for all of us. When I get really tired, my spelling glands don't work quite as well. I find it very odd but most of my typos are phonetic. I guess my fingers insist on spelling correctly, and my ears insist on the right sound, but my head nods off and I type a homonym.
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