Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[gurnemanz]

'Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten / Dass ich so traurig bin ....'

More Heine:

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht,
Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht

[Serial_Apologist]

More Heine:

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht,
Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht

And so the devil took to the Heine most....

[LMcD]

And so the devil took to the Heine most....

[Serial_Apologist]

One of the most irritating notions that does the rounds is the oft-made assertion, usually it has to be admitted by those of right wing persuasion, that because "a lot of people" believe such-and-such, it therefore must be valid. We had it earlier on from that arch-reactionary Angela Epstein, unsurprisingly. (Not EpSTEEN, by the way!) A lot of Germans thought Hitler was doing a good job in the 1930s; presumably that means it must have been OK, even if only to some understandable degree. And before people say, "but that was a quite different order of issue to arguing that (for instance) all migrants should be stopped entering the country 'illegally'" (sic) No it isn't, because there is a sliding scale between contentious issues, not a series of measurable steps judgable accordingly. The principle remains the same, irrespective.

Surely the viewing public deserve TV hosts prepared to stand up to these mealy-mouthed guests brought onto topical peak viewing "shows" in order to shore up self-evidently shaky reasoning, and interrogating the perpetuative, reinforcing toxic myths of the kind all too frequently wrapped up in this and other commonplace clichés to bouster populist political agendas.

[french frank]

because "a lot of people" believe such-and-such, it therefore must be valid.

I give you ... the internet. Say it once and it gets repeated hundreds of times by those who agree with it, and ignored billions of times by those who don't.

[Serial_Apologist]

Another "new" but in fact misused word-cliché to add to our list:

Inflexion

As used by the diabolical Rachel Reeves in her new Thatcher-advocating speech to some business lobby the other day, just to signal any associations to suit current "optics", or alcohol portion dispensations (to re-cite another word which has come up on here recently). Nowadays "inflexion" or "inflection" if you prefer) is used to signal a tipping point that demands changing the parameters of how we think about and deal with something, when its commonly used meaning simply indicates a grammatical stress point?

[Pulcinella]

Another "new" but in fact misused word-cliché to add to our list:

Inflexion

As used by the diabolical Rachel Reeves in her new Thatcher-advocating speech to some business lobby the other day, just to signal any associations to suit current "optics", or alcohol portion dispensations (to re-cite another word which has come up on here recently). Nowadays "inflexion" or "inflection" if you prefer) is used to signal a tipping point that demands changing the parameters of how we think about and deal with something, when its commonly used meaning simply indicates a grammatical stress point?

Not just nowadays, SA.
The parameters (e.g., slope) do indeed change at a point of inflection.

In differential calculus and differential geometry, an inflection point, point of inflection, flex, or inflection (rarely inflexion) is a point on a smooth plane curve at which the curvature changes sign. In particular, in the case of the graph of a function, it is a point where the function changes from being concave (concave downward) to convex (concave upward), or vice versa.

[smittims]

What irritates me about these words is not the word itself but the feeling that it's being repeated as a fashion accessory by people who neither know nor care what it really means. I have two recent examples:

'unhealed' (I thought they were saying 'unheeled' at first : that's the trouble with radio ) : it means simply something that has not healed , and has had a respectable history of several centuries. But suddenly it's cool to say it, as if to suggest that 'my trauma was special '. And

'Side-hustle' . You must not only have a side-hustle these days, but must keep repeating it to show that you're up-to-date . It means a second job you take to pay the bills while you're waiting for your new business to be 'up to speed'. Again,this is something people have done for centuries (it used to be called 'taking in washing') ; suddenly it's the smart thing to blog about.

[Serial_Apologist]

'Side-hustle' . You must not only have a side-hustle these days, but must keep repeating it to show that you're up-to-date . It means a second job you take to pay the bills while you're waiting for your new business to be 'up to speed'. Again,this is something people have done for centuries (it used to be called 'taking in washing') ; suddenly it's the smart thing to blog about.

You won't get far with the new business if you don't manage to upscale!

[smittims]

An advert on You Tube; 'Stunning Retirement Villages!'

Oh well, I suppose it's one way to stop them complaining.

[Serial_Apologist]

An advert on You Tube; 'Stunning Retirement Villages!'

Oh well, I suppose it's one way to stop them complaining.

Enormous unexplained service charge increases have recently been reported on at least one of such sites, to make matters worse. What do people do when they've already downsized to living in prtacabins or immobilized mobile homes, and then find they can't afford even to live there?

[vinteuil]

What do people do when they've already downsized to living in portacabins or immobilized mobile homes, and then find they can't afford even to live there?

... well, as smittims points out, the answer is 'stunning' -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunning

.

[Pulcinella]

Enormous unexplained service charge increases have recently been reported on at least one of such sites, to make matters worse. What do people do when they've already downsized to living in prtacabins or immobilized mobile homes, and then find they can't afford even to live there?

This tale of life in Bristol might provide some clues:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7a976fda-cac6-4333-891d-3ed124091179?shareToken=23502205683c9a8f68fe8af9f382cb8f

[anorak]

So, what really annoys me is people who keep starting their spoken sentences with the word "so". And like another thing that like really annoys me is hearing Americans and like young people in general like who keeping saying the word "like" time after time. So, that can be so totally annoying, like I'm sitting there and they're like saying "like" again and again. So, yeah, that's what I think.

[smittims]

I often think Woman's Hour could contain twice the material if they cut out all the ' so, like, y'know, kine of ...'

Another one is people who begin every sentence with 'Listen...' . I want to ask 'were you afraid we were ignoring you?'