Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Not So Good Words

Our friend John from Ideal Corners often lets me know about the words and phrasings that drive him crazy. First and foremost on his list are redundacies.

Redunancy

a: the quality or state of being redundant : superfluity b: the use of redundant components; also : such components cchiefly British : dismissal from a job especially by layoff 2: profusion, abundance 3 a: superfluous repetition : prolixity b: an act or instance of needless repetition 4: the part of a message that can be eliminated without loss of essential information


That being said, here are the redundancies that irk him the most:
COMMON REDUNDANCIES
- I've got ..... - I've is short for I have. To say I have got is redundant, why not just I have?
- it's a true fact....
-immediate vicinity.....
- my personal opinion....
- continue on.....
- first and foremost.....
- I hope and trust.....
- make a full and complete......
- any and all
- at this point in time
And many more.

John also sent us these
WORDS OR PHRASES I JUST DON'T LIKE
I also have a list of words, or usages, that I don't like. I call them ugly words.

Dove - as in the past tense of dive.
Gotten - it really grates.
Pretty - used to mean somewhat - how often do you hear the phrase pretty much・ That
doesn't mean anything.
Gone missing or went missing - commonly used in news stories.
Female - when referring to a woman. Female is non-specific - female what?
Sex - when referring to gender. Sex is something you do, not something you are.
Whether or not - whether implies ・or not・
For that matter - doesn't really mean anything.
Quite a little bit - ditto
Persons - as in persons of color.
Dreamt - past tense of dream is dreamed.
Lit - Lighted sounds so much better.
By and large - what does that mean?
Woken up - awakened is smoother.
Snuck - why not sneaked.

I haven't even touched on my wife's description of me as an apostrophe Nazi. Drive around any lake and count the signs by mail boxes that say. The Nelson's or what ever name. My daily nemesis is the sign along Crow Wing County Highway 16 that says. Veteran's Walking Trail・ I wonder which veteran - I'm a veteran, maybe it's my walking trail. Can I kick people off of my trail?
What words irk you? Post them here!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When I moved into this community, I heard a phrase I'd never heard before.... "these ones", as "I really like these ones". It must be a thing here, but it sends a chill down my back. I know my home community things particular to their region too. We are the people that are guilty of saying... "do you want to go with?" I remember cousins asking me..."with who?" Another overused word was "good". We never used the word "well", just the word good! I'm trying to break the habit, but it's tough!