Words, Phrases, and Misspellings We Hate

[jonesy]

Now critique "my hat of d02 know no limit" ...

Seems cromulent.


Edit:

No, wait. It's supposed to be hate, not hat. He said 'hate of d02'.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

"Loosen" and "unloosen" mean the same thing (yeah, the English language needs editing).

I think a few thousand of my brain cells just unloosened themselves as a result of this revelation.

A lot like they did when I learned that 'uncavalier' is an adjective, but 'cavalier' is not.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Acronyms without same-page establishment. Whether you made it up or not, always establish what the acronym means before using it. There are enough communications issues in the world without thinking some pseudo-arcane jargon makes something sound more impressive.

Oh gods, we need less of this!

Also less letter-sharing in the engineering/science world would make me very happy. Last year a professor had the gall to criticize my previous school's engineering department, which taught me to use 'i' for 'imaginary' rather than 'j.' How silly of them!

 

[Cadence]

A lot like they did when I learned that 'uncavalier' is an adjective, but 'cavalier' is not.

Huh-what?

 

[dd.stevenson]

Most of my pet hates are flame war starters.

But I can safely declare that I dislike when people use LOL to mean they're mildly bemused. Also: any fantasy name that's a recombination of the letters 'D' 'R' 'I' 'Z' 'Z' 'T'.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Bingo, and what is with the letter C (its only use is the "Chuh" sound)?

I say we go more Germanic:

I'm so onboard with this! And while we're at it, let's scrap Q and X.

Y is not a vowel. Ever. It's a dirty changeling, as so many English letters are.

English needs to officially recognize ZH as a character, because it's ridiculous to use a sound often enough and yet not have a character for it.

Come to think of it, we need a few more vowels too. The vowel sound in 'could' is neither an O or a U, nor even an L, for starters.

(If anyone links to that corny Mark Twain joke, I swear I'll literally reach through the screen and slap the smug off your face. )

 

[Tovec]

Last year a professor had the gall to criticize my previous school's engineering department, which taught me to use 'i' for 'imaginary' rather than 'j.' How silly of them!

Huh? What? How? But.. What? 'j' is right?? Since when? Then again.. Pluto isn't a planet anymore so what do I know. Oh, Pluto is Greek, not Roman as I always thought. Completely tangential I know but it is news to me.

Huh-what?

I think..
Uncavalier is when I push an old lady into the mud.
Cavalier is when I ride a horse and am a specific DnD class.

Am I right @Tequila Sunrise ?

EDIT: I find this funny how it went from "stuff that annoys you" to "stupidity of the english language." Really quickly too.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Huh-what?

Oops, my bad.

'Cavalier' is both a noun and an adjective, and 'uncavalier' is neither. Which is strange, because it makes the perfect counterpart to the 'cavalier' adjective.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Acronyms without same-page establishment. Whether you made it up or not, always establish what the acronym means before using it. There are enough communications issues in the world without thinking some pseudo-arcane jargon makes something sound more impressive.

This is important. Even if you think your audience probably knows the term, it's worth spelling it out the first time you use it just to be clear.

In many ways, it worth avoiding jargon as a general rule. Especially jargon that is really rhetoric, such as "mother may I" or "blink elf".

 

[Cadence]

'Cavalier' is both a noun and an adjective, and 'uncavalier' is neither. Which is strange, because it makes the perfect counterpart to the 'cavalier' adjective.

Throw off the tyranny of the dictionary!

(Or check out the Wiktionary... I'd never heard it before you posted it, but they have the un- one meaning just what you think it should.)

In game terms is Uncavalier to Anti-Paladin as Cavalier is to Paladin?