10 most annoying words and phrases 2023

[Tenkaykev]

“I’ll take” is even worse than “can I get”

🎶 Can I get the High Road...🎶 😉

 

[Slick]

Any corporate guff bores me to tears, especially the "So we can work out how best to support you".

Do you, aye?

 

[Sterlo]

Me too, but there was an interesting programme on Radio 4 once pointing out that a lot of them were originally English. 'Gotten' is from Shakespeare.

Can't remember Hamlet quoting it?

 

[bobzmyunkle]

or "So..."

"You know what..."

 

[Dogtrousers]

Can't remember Hamlet quoting it?

Not Hamlet but "gotten" appears once each in Richard II, the Merry Wives of Windsor, and Henry VI pt 1, and twice in Henry VI pt 2. Obviously Will had a bit of a fad for it while he was writing the histories, but then went off it.

https://www.shakespeareswords.com/Public/Searchresults.aspx?search=gotten&WholeWordSearch=true

You told not how Henry the Sixth hath lost
All that which Henry the Fifth had gotten?
Methinks these peers of France should smile at that.

 

[DaveReading]

It seems that this has led to the reinvention of plural you, in "youse" and "y'all" and repurposing of "yourself" as formal.

Scots use youse and have done for as long as I can remember.

 

[Slick]

Scots use youse and have done for as long as I can remember.

Got to be honest, nobody told me.

 

[Slick]

Scots use youse and have done for as long as I can remember.

Although I do remember trying to use it as a child, only to be told that is female sheeps.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Scots use youse and have done for as long as I can remember.

That was my point, although I actually had New York dialects in mind. Ditto y'all in the southern States.

 

[DaveReading]

"Leverage" as a verb. "We will leverage our AI tech to improve our blah.."
Another corporate Americanism, or American corporatism.

You mean "use" you numpty!

Leverage as a verb has had a much more specific meaning for at least 40 years in the finance sector.

A "leveraged lease" doesn't just mean one that's been used ...

 

[Gwylan]

Never heard this before, but I really like it . 🤔 Must remember to work it into a conversation.

Don't you'll sound an even bigger twerp than you can ever imagine.

 

[yello]

Yous / youse (plural you) was is common use in New Zealand when I was a kid. No idea if it still is.

 

[Gwylan]

Epic, curated, ground breaking, influencer, personality, at this moment in time, moving forward, reach out, customer engagement team, up for, ......

 

[Accy cyclist]

''We are where we are.'' Always seems to be used to ignore how we got into the mess in the first place. It's a way of never sorting things.

Yes, that and "it is what it is"! How bloody annoying eh!! I still cannot understand why it's used so much, as it means absolutely feck all!!🧐

Then of course we have that word 'feck' I've just used. I think it's from a tv program called Mrs Brown's Boys, but I'm not too sure.🤔

Edit...just thought of "you are what you are"!!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Never heard this before, but I really like it . 🤔 Must remember to work it into a conversation.

Then later you can add that it needs to go half mast in mourning for the idea no one else liked.