Trendy Words I Do Not Like

[histchick]

Not trendy, but just an incorrect word choice that has annoyed me recently and that I just read in the NYTimes:

The President is charging into unchartered territory.

Nope. "Uncharted," not "unchartered." Into an unmapped territory, not into a territory without a constitution, although ... hmmm..... now that I think about it, maybe that was some kind of Freudian slip on the part of the NYTimes.

The folks on CNN were saying "unchartered" as well.  I adore Dr. Sanjay Gupta, but I was yelling at him last night.  "IT'S FREAKING 'UNCHARTED' TERRITORY!"

[ciao_yall]

Since this thread is heading toward misused words...

It's "spit and image" or "spit 'n image."

Not "spitting image." Images don't spit. For Pete's sake.

[little bongo]

I don't think that one originally had to do with spit--I seem to remember that particular phrase as originally a regionalism for "spirit and image." So once we get to "spitting image" (which gets used pretty frequently), we're just xeroxing a xerox, so to speak.

[Hibush]

Not trendy, but just an incorrect word choice that has annoyed me recently and that I just read in the NYTimes:

The President is charging into unchartered territory.

Nope. "Uncharted," not "unchartered." Into an unmapped territory, not into a territory without a constitution, although ... hmmm..... now that I think about it, maybe that was some kind of Freudian slip on the part of the NYTimes.

The folks on CNN were saying "unchartered" as well.  I adore Dr. Sanjay Gupta, but I was yelling at him last night.  "IT'S FREAKING 'UNCHARTED' TERRITORY!"

Does the NY Times and CNN have joined in the attack on the Constitution? Strange bedfellows in this conspiracy!

[ergative]

"Moreish". Used with food that tastes so good you want more. I only see it in UK publications, and I hate it.

[FishProf]

Moorish food is Ok, however.

[Hibush]

Department of Literatures In English

If your literature faculty are so divisive they can't unify around literature, and their effort to throw off the yokes of the grammarians' hegemony succeeds. Not to mention the Communications people who are so far removed from the Ivory Tower that they consider the reader's interpretation of what you write.

The comments in the link are informative, BTW.

[Cheerful]

narrative

[Langue_doc]

On Canvas, deliverables as a synonym for assignments.

[dismalist]

This one has bugged me for years, and I still don't quite know what to make of it:

Competitive

I used to be asked occasionally "Is your program competitive?" That could have meant we took very few applicants. Or, it could mean we took many, but were so good that we easily competed with, well, competing programs.

I understand when a sport is competitive. Thus, in analogy, elections are competitive. But I just read somewhere "If you're in a competitive district in a competitive election, the chances that your vote will flip a national election ... [are some small number]".

Does "competitive" mean "easily changeable" or some such? Or is it just ambiguous or vague or merely multivalenced?

[Parasaurolophus]

Polarized (as in: discourse).

[Hibush]

This one has bugged me for years, and I still don't quite know what to make of it:

Competitive

I used to be asked occasionally "Is your program competitive?" That could have meant we took very few applicants. Or, it could mean we took many, but were so good that we easily competed with, well, competing programs.

I understand when a sport is competitive. Thus, in analogy, elections are competitive. But I just read somewhere "If you're in a competitive district in a competitive election, the chances that your vote will flip a national election ... [are some small number]".

Does "competitive" mean "easily changeable" or some such? Or is it just ambiguous or vague or merely multivalenced?

As opposed to "recreational"?    A competitive college program might be one in which the students compete with one another (rather than cooperating).

[marshwiggle]

Polarized (as in: discourse).

From  a physics/chemistry point of view, "polarized" seems to describe being directly opposed, i.e. the antithesis of "cooperative" or "collaborative" where people look for common ground.


I've been trying to think of alternatives.
disrespectful?
confrontational?
inflammatory?

None of these work as well, in my opinion.

[dismalist]

Polarized (as in: discourse).

From  a physics/chemistry point of view, "polarized" seems to describe being directly opposed, i.e. the antithesis of "cooperative" or "collaborative" where people look for common ground.


I've been trying to think of alternatives.
disrespectful?
confrontational?
inflammatory?

None of these work as well, in my opinion.

divided sounds better to me.

[mahagonny]

Majorly
Wholesale
'I can't buy into the argument wholesale.'  (Well, at least the metaphor is maintained.)