Comments on: Annoying and Pretentious Terms & Figures of Speech

By: J2

J2 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:25:05 +0000

Annoying and Pretentious:
myself (me)
yourself (you)

Just annoying:
anyways (local dialect for “anyway”)
alls (local dialect for “all”)

By: twv

twv — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:47:21 +0000

must needs (used it)
unawares (often use it)
man of letters (my heroes)
cohort (if one can use “modal,” one can use “cohort”)
waldo (this is a Heinlein term for a specific type of remote-controlled robot/machine)
ballyhooed; much-ballyhooed; long-ballyhooed (use it all the time)
vaunted or much-vaunted (use it)
wag (have used it)
writ large (have used it, often try to avoid it)
shuffle off this mortal coil (it’s from Shakespeare!)
in fine, meaning, “in short” (I use it because my favorite poets and novelists use it, if in times past)
trope (it has a precise meaning in rhetoric)
re-furbish (why not this? use it all the time)
pleonastic (it’s a figure of speech – you need to read about rhetoric!)
antinomy (using this is better than witlesly misuing “irony”)
piping hot (a tea kettle “pipes” when hot – this makes perfect sense)
jejune (hilarious use in “Annie Hall”)

By: micheal

micheal — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 19:08:28 +0000

all this was crap i was looking for y speeches are annoying not 4 bloody crap words

By: Fiona M

Fiona M — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:44:50 +0000

Gaol is the historical old English spelling of the word jail. It isn’t in common use any more, except perhaps in certain street names.

By: Omar M

Omar M — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:37:32 +0000

Happenstance is a cool word

By: Todd S.

Todd S. — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:06:03 +0000

I think “gestalt” needs to be there somewhere. It’s a cool word, but pretentious at the same time.

By: Mark Fee

Mark Fee — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:29:26 +0000

An odd list of words and phrases to find annoying. Why do you keep saying “whatever that means” in reference to words? Why the pride in ignorance? Why not look them up? A blog about words that liberally uses the pathetically exhausted adjectives “cool” and “nice” so freely doesn’t strike me as particularly good.

A reasonable person would say “whatever that means” because it depends entirely on what the author intends by it. Language changes faster and faster and there is no longer one dictionary to ensure that a word (as a vessel of meaning) carries only one definition. The meaning of words changes with lightning-like quickness. If you’re going to have any sort of meaningful discussion at all, it pays to define your terms.

By: dumbhick

dumbhick — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:26:48 +0000

Dont the prefixes in and un have different meaning? such that: (write that one down Kinsella, i dont care which column, start a new one: “misplaced scientific and mathematical jargon perhaps) in connotes a deforming and un connotes and complete absence? maybe not.

By: dumbhick

dumbhick — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:22:25 +0000

Im all with Mcginnis. Why the censorship? Also,”whatup” is not “cool” its all trope, writ large. very hangdog of you.

By: Stephan Kinsella

Stephan Kinsella — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:25:51 +0000

James, loosen up, bud. You must be either a yankee, or a liberal arts major. Or both. Am I right? Amiright?

Chill, man, all in good fun.

By: James McInnis

James McInnis — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 02:17:26 +0000

Chowder is terrific when properly made with good ingredients.

By: scott

scott — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:37:48 +0000

“ruthless; ruth…ful?”

I’ve always wondered about that .

apparently so ,

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ruthful

or underwear but there’s no inderwear or innerwear ?

can unjust also be injust ?

What about this for a cool word: Idiosyncrasy meaning a quirk,an eccentricity,a strange habit.

By: Mark D. Fee

Mark D. Fee — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:48:59 +0000

I didn’t think you were allowed to do that on Stephan’s blog!

Out of curiosity, do you wipe your feet before coming inside?

By: Faldone

Faldone — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:07:28 +0000

Shakes head and slowly backs away.

By: Bill Sharpe

Bill Sharpe — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:15:42 +0000

As to the miscellaneous entries, certainly one could vamp, at least back in vaudeville days.

By: Stephan Kinsella

Stephan Kinsella — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 14:46:18 +0000

yes, maybe it should be. It is quite annoying, isn’t it? Also, “perfervid.”

By: Mark Fee

Mark Fee — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:39:17 +0000

Thank you for posting this list! I’m very surprised not to see the word “dint” not represented anywhere at all.

By: Annoying and Pretentious Terms

Annoying and Pretentious Terms — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:11:18 +0000

[...] My list is here. [...]

By: Katherine K. Olsen

Katherine K. Olsen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:14:41 +0000

Interesting list, but What up and copasetic need to go on the annoying and pretentious list, not the cool list!

By: Warner DeLaune

Warner DeLaune — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:07:37 +0000

Thank you, and please add “methinks”. And I vote for retiring “not so much”.