Words we hate

[Jim Thomsen]

I loathe the word "gubenatorial" and rewrite around it every time I see it.

Do you have any words like that ... like fingernails on a chalkboard for you?

[Gerri Berendzen]

Utilize.
Three little letters will do.
To me it always sounds like a word pro athletes and coaches use to sound smarter. (Because I hear them use it all the time.)

[LisaMc]

Spearhead (n.) -- the pointy end of a spear. Not a verb.

[Jim Thomsen]

I've never cared for "brandish" ... as in "the man brandished a knife at partygoers."

Is "brandish" a conversational word in your experience? How about just "waved" or "pointed"?

[dfisher]

Of course, it could be fun to come up with some alternative meanings for some of these, too, as do Washington Post readers.

Brandish: (n) 1) After a few drinks, what an ad exec calls the company whose account he or she manages. 2) Something close to a brand, but not quite there yet (ex.: Google in its early years). Brandishing (v) the process of turning a company name into a verb.

8)
Fish

[Deadline Dame]

I hate the word "fruition."

[Renee]

"transported" = copspeak. The person was taken to the hospital.

and this is a phrase, but "fled on foot" = ran away.

[Jim Thomsen]

"Curb" as a verb.

[LisaMc]

Gosh, the "as-a-verb" list is a biggie, and every time I think it's complete some biz reporter or quotee comes up with a new one. "Under-retailed" was the most recent (as in "The area is under-retailed, Smith said.").

[JerseyJoe]

In sports, the word "different" can drive me crazy at times.
If I see a sentence like: Five different players scored for the Bears in the quarter, I automatically take out the word different. It's not needed.

[Jim Thomsen]

As stated elsewhere, "apprehend."

[Neil Holdway]

Renee took mine: "transported."

[thegel13]

Utilize.
Three little letters will do.
To me it always sounds like a word pro athletes and coaches use to sound smarter. (Because I hear them use it all the time.)

I totally agree on that one. I always change it to use.

[JillLReed]

I really do not like to see "shuttered" instead of "closed."
I mean, maybe the place had shutters, maybe not. How can we be sure?

I also loathe "nix" and "mull" in headlines. I know they can be useful in tight counts. But I try to avoid those.

Why? Because they really draw my ire.

[HCFeldman]

"Veritable." Not in every instance, but it seems like 85% of the time, it's just a filler word to make the writer feel more clever.

[Chris Wienandt]

"Specifically."

As in:

Prosecutors charged Joe Blow with six counts of hooliganism.

Specifically, they allege that ...

[Jim Thomsen]

"Imprimatur"

It's a pretentious word that nobody uses conversationally.

[Leslie]

Ditto "shuttered." It's amazing how many writers are in love with it. And "utilize."

Right beind that, "scuttled," to mean abandoned. "The plan was scuttled." Nobody that I know of uses it, or versions of it, except when quoting T.S. Eliot.

"Natch." Ick all over. Too hip by far.

As I've said somewhere else, "purchase/d" for simply "buy/bought."

One huge pet peeve is also the often unnecessarily awkward placement of the word "yesterday," especially in ledes. "President Bush yesterday said that Iraq blah blah blah."

[thegel13]

I hate when officials talk about "growing" their business.

[Chris Wienandt]

"Imprimatur"

It's a pretentious word that nobody uses conversationally.

Why, just the other day, I was saying, "Perhaps I'm primatur in thinking Hillary has the nomination sewn up."

Oh, OK, maybe I didn't ...

[Jim Thomsen]

OK, I laughed.

[thegel13]

I just discovered today that I dislike the term "brick and mortar" to distinguish between, for example, a cyber school and the brick and mortar one.

It seems kind of cliched. Plus, what if the buildings they're talking about are made of vinyl siding or, I don't know, glass.

[Jim Thomsen]

Another term that rankles along those lines is "behind bars." Most modern jails and prisons have no bars.

[cmcshane]

Located is utterly useless. The store isn't located at 1452 W. Main St.; it's at 1452 W. Main St. You don't relocate; you move. You don't locate something; you find it.

[Jim Thomsen]

"Currently" is almost always unnecessary.

[Chris Wienandt]

Is anyone else sick and tired of "by the numbers"? Am I right in thinking it's almost always misused these days?

I may be off base here, but I think some clever cuss way back when stuck it on top of a stats box to be clever and now everyone thinks it means "these are the stats." My recollection out of the dim, dark past is that it's supposed to mean "according to the rules" or "by following the instructions" ... as in "You'd better handle this by the numbers."

Or am I crazy?

Or are these separate issues?

[Jim Thomsen]

You may be crazy. But that's a separate issue.

[rich]

I don't know when it originated, but if you are want to spend the time researching it, I think you will find two inch ads in dozens of World War II pulp magazines, some newspapers and even some slick magazines, that were continuously reprinted for several years. These ads offered budding artists the opportunity to paint great works of art by using a kit that correlated colors with numbered spaces on a canvas, paper, art board or other surface to which paint could be applied. The ads said that purchasers would be sent an artist's kit containing (oil or water) colors and several such surfaces upon which line-drawing outlines were divided and subdivided into numbered segments. If the artist applied the color that corresponded with its number in every appropriate place, a marvelous work of art was supposed to result.

Some people who painted by the numbers allegedly displayed their work with great pride. Perhaps that is what provoked a standard form of denigration in art classes: “That person paints by the numbers.”

But, I think the number-identification system was used, also in those days, by makers of the kits builders of model airplanes and the like used, too. I don’t know.

I do know that the expression has been around for at least that long.

Richard

[dfisher]

By the numbers is long-established idiom for doing something mechanically, step-by-step. I recall dimly reading that the origin was the military or military-related, but I can't find the cite.
Doug

[Chris Wienandt]

I had a couple of those paint-by-numbers kits myself when I was maybe 7 or 8 (the results were awful), and I built model cars and airplanes, too. Those were definitely by-the-numbers activities, but I have a feeling the expression predates them. Of course, it's only a feeling, and we know how reliable those are.

I'll look into the OED this afternoon when I get to work and see if there's anything in there about this.

In any case, I still hate "by the numbers" as a one-size-fits-lots graphics headline, and I change it whenever I see it.