Most overused/meaningless words/phrases in contemporary language

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I am guilty of using "no worries" or "no problem" instead of "you're welcome". 🙈

It's hard not to start using various expressions when one hears it all of the time--and not just from the young ones. 

My thoughts when I hear someone use it whilst conducting business is that if I am asking for assistance from someone whose products/services I use is that it shouldn't be a problem for them; if anything, it's quite often a hassle/problem for me.

Rant over. 

PD

[Cato]

A recent one I saw, although perhaps it belongs more appropriately in @Cato Grammar Grumble thread is:

Way-ment

A short version of "Wait a minute"

Oy!  I have not heard that one: it sounds as bad as the laziness now galloping through the population in mispronouncing "important" without the two "T's."

Most of the time you hear "impor-" and then something resembling a honk from a goose with the Bronx Flu! 

Very unpleasant!    

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Oy!  I have not heard that one: it sounds as bad as the laziness now galloping through the population in mispronouncing "important" without the two "T's."

Most of the time you hear "impor-" and then something resembling a honk from a goose with the Bronx Flu! 

Very unpleasant!   

Well, I suspect that most of us have certain regional dialectal "habits" that we've either grown up hearing (and perhaps succumbed to?) and or tried to change throughout our lives?  It's what makes us "charming"....or maybe "annoying"?  Just a thought. 

PD

[vandermolen]

Oh, I hate that expression!

Another one of mine:  "No prob" or "No problem" as a response from someone when someone says "Thank you" rather than replying something like "You're welcome" or "My pleasure to be of assistance".

PD

p.s.  Particularly when this person is being paid by a company to which you are paying for their services/products!

Totally agree PD!

[Holden]

I've got some favourites??? from recent times - all originally dreamed up by journalists I suspect.

MAGA - used as a term of disdain and wrongly used to denigrate anyone who the denigrators perceive to be (gasp) right wing.

Deplorables - as above

G.O.P. - why not simply call them Republicans?

Climate denier. We obviously don't have any climate based on this phrase

And my pet hate "Woke". It derives from African American vernacular English and literally means alert (awake) to racial prejudice and discrimination. That's certainly not how it's primarily used nowadays.

[Brian]

And my pet hate "Woke". It derives from African American vernacular English and literally means alert (awake) to racial prejudice and discrimination. That's certainly not how it's primarily used nowadays.

I recently learned that there is a blues song from the 1920s with the lyrics "stay woke" - in the original meaning, which was that other people out there are threatening (particularly the kind of racists who would threaten a 1920s blues musician) and that the song's listener should keep one eye open to avoid being ambushed. It was very literal!

Woke is like a term I mentioned earlier in this thread, in that it had a very specific, clear, useful meaning but was hijacked by political people who now use it to mean "anything they dislike":

Canceled has become a one-stop cover-all for all sorts of problems. You can be canceled for saying the wrong thing, or committing criminal offenses, and people lump all of it together in one basket.

[71 dB]

That's certainly not how it's primarily used nowadays.

For the better or worse, languages evolve in time. If they didn't, we'd all be speaking Egyptian.

[DaveF]

"Stunning"

[vandermolen]

I've got some favourites??? from recent times - all originally dreamed up by journalists I suspect.

MAGA - used as a term of disdain and wrongly used to denigrate anyone who the denigrators perceive to be (gasp) right wing.

Deplorables - as above

G.O.P. - why not simply call them Republicans?

Climate denier. We obviously don't have any climate based on this phrase

And my pet hate "Woke". It derives from African American vernacular English and literally means alert (awake) to racial prejudice and discrimination. That's certainly not how it's primarily used nowadays.

Agree about 'GOP'.

[Jo498]

It is indeed annoying (...and more annoying still, to be using anglicised vowels in Italian or Greek - e.g. "ei" for "a").

Says the modern Greek who pronounces almost everything as "ee" where there was a range of 5 or more different sounds from oi to ei only 2000 years ago

And since I mentioned the word "phenomenon", I often see the indiscriminate use of its plural form "phenomena" for both the singular and the plural number. Unwarranted, to say the least. 

This is almost a done deal of language change in English. It was preceded by "data" and might be followed by "millenia" being used as singular.

[Florestan]

Woke is like a term I mentioned earlier in this thread, in that it had a very specific, clear, useful meaning but was hijacked by political people who now use it to mean "anything they dislike":

"Fascist" and "Socialist" are in the same league.

[Jo498]

"Fascist" and "Socialist" are in the same league.

In being used as blanket invectives (basically "I disagree with them and don't like them, thus they are ...ists"), yes.
However, one can argue that "socialism" historically really covers a very broad range of theories, ideas and practices whereas "fascism" actually applies only to a rather narrow spectrum of movements in interwar Europe (there are seriously problems already with categorizing the German Nazi movement/part simply as "fascist").
One person I know said that calling people "fascist" in 2023 was about as plausible as calling someone a "bonapartist" in 2023.

[Florestan]

In being used as blanket invectives (basically "I disagree with them and don't like them, thus they are ...ists"), yes.
However, one can argue that "socialism" historically really covers a very broad range of theories, ideas and practices whereas "fascism" actually applies only to a rather narrow spectrum of movements in interwar Europe (there are seriously problems already with categorizing the German Nazi movement/part simply as "fascist").
One person I know said that calling people "fascist" in 2023 was about as plausible as calling someone a "bonapartist" in 2023.

The real, genuine Fascists were Mussolini and his party. Applying the term to any other movement or country is wrong, common features notwithstanding. Nazism was not fascism, although they shared a lot.

[Jo498]

The real, genuine Fascists were Mussolini and his party. Applying the term to any other movement or country is wrong, common features notwithstanding. Nazism was not fascism, although they shared a lot.

Yes, although in the cases of Nazism, Franquism... it might be justifiable to use the term, because of their historical and ideological proximity. It's totall bizarre for almost all ~2020 rightwing movements because whatever might be wrong with them, they usually have no real connection to the fascism of about 100 years ago.

[Irons]

I don't know where it has come from, the right wing press call left wing activists in high places religious leaders, civil servants and such like The Blob.

[Florestan]

Yes, although in the cases of Nazism, Franquism... it might be justifiable to use the term, because of their historical and ideological proximity.

While it's customary to lump together Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Dolfuss and Salazar under the umbrella of "Fascism", it's nevertheless wrong. The differences between them, both ideological and of actual policies, were more numerous than the commonalities. Salazar, for instance, publicly and repeteadly expressed contempt for Hitler and Nazism.

It's totall bizarre for almost all ~2020 rightwing movements because whatever might be wrong with them, they usually have no real connection to the fascism of about 100 years ago.

Yes, that's nonsense.

[Brian]

"Stunning"

I like to read reviews and imagine that everyone has been conked on the head and is wandering around truly stunned 

Agree about 'GOP'.

Journalists get tired of using the same words over and over and try to find new ones to mix things up. But often this makes their language worse rather than better!

As a food writer I have examples of that too. Particularly the word "restaurant". The "GOP" equivalent there is to try to invent new words for restaurants, like "eatery," "kitchen," or even "spot" or "joint." It is all a bit silly but nobody ever says "eatery" in real life.

[VonStupp]

Each new school year (in the US), I am suddenly introduced to a handful of new slang terms from my students. The last few years, I have taken exception to many new slang terms, as young people are reappropriating words that already have meanings.

Off the top of my head, the last year or so it has been - bussing/bussin, fire, sussy, drippy, slay, extra, zesty, swag, and I hear them all the time.

In return, my students are required to use random words such as hoosegow, defenestration, gallimaufry, peregrinate, antidisestablimentarianism, pyriform, for example, in return for wasting my time acquiring their vapid slang terms.

VS

[Brian]

Each new school year (in the US), I am suddenly introduced to a handful of new slang terms from my students. The last few years, I have taken exception to many new slang terms, as young people are reappropriating words that already have meanings.

Off the top of my head, the last year or so it has been - bussing/bussin, fire, sussy, drippy, slay, extra, zesty, swag, and I hear them all the time.

In return, my students are required to use random words such as hoosegow, defenestration, gallimaufry, peregrinate, antidisestablimentarianism, pyriform, for example, in return for wasting my time acquiring their vapid slang terms.

VS

And "cap" is a new one too.

[Spotted Horses]

I've got some favourites??? from recent times - all originally dreamed up by journalists I suspect.

MAGA - used as a term of disdain and wrongly used to denigrate anyone who the denigrators perceive to be (gasp) right wing.

Deplorables - as above

G.O.P. - why not simply call them Republicans?

Climate denier. We obviously don't have any climate based on this phrase

And my pet hate "Woke". It derives from African American vernacular English and literally means alert (awake) to racial prejudice and discrimination. That's certainly not how it's primarily used nowadays.

The Republican Party has been known as the GOP since the 1870's.