Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[kernelbogey]

'Incredibly' - to mean 'very'.

It's everywhere.

[french frank]

It doesn't exactly set my teeth on edge, but it does make me wonder whether it has much meaning these days in all the contexts in which it's used: 'integrity'?

[Padraig]

It doesn't exactly set my teeth on edge, but it does make me wonder whether it has much meaning these days in all the contexts in which it's used: 'integrity'?

Somebody said, quite wisely I think: It means what I want it to mean.

[Sir Velo]

Have you noticed how in the meejah and advertising everything is stunning these days? Pictures are stunning; views are stunning; houses are stunning; food is stunning; Christmas deals are stunning; hair is stunning; holidays are stunning.

How one would love to hit these people over the head with a 20 pound club so that they could truly understand the meaning of the verb to stun.

[Serial_Apologist]

Have you noticed how in the meejah and advertising everything is stunning these days? Pictures are stunning; views are stunning; houses are stunning; food is stunning; Christmas deals are stunning; hair is stunning; holidays are stunning.

How one would love to hit these people over the head with a 20 pound club so that they could truly understand the meaning of the verb to stun.

Hmmm. Would I be right in thinking that the term "a stunner" to describe a physically highly attractive woman was first deployed as long ago as in the 1920s?

[jean]

You'd be wrong - it's even earlier:

Elizabeth Siddal...was the blueprint of the 'Stunner’ (a term invented by Rossetti), the kind of woman who, from the 1860s to the 1890s, replaced the sentimental child-woman role model exemplified by tiny Queen Victoria...

And as for the verb, the OED has citations for the sense To daze or astound with some strong emotion or impression as far back as 1400.

[Lat-Literal]

"You know" was at one time a predominantly adolescent affliction on our humdrum streets but it has become a part of the tsunami (!!!) of verbal nonsense among the professional classes. While as with other tics of theirs, it is a breathing space for thinking (a variation on Harold Wilson's pipe) there is more to it. An implication of "we know" as in "we are a club of clever people, aren't we" while ironically the sloppiness conveys to thoughtful outsiders the opposite. In a short interview tonight on Channel 4, the Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said "you know" five times and "actually" eleven times when describing how parents in the north should push their offspring to attain good grades.

https://www.channel4.com/news/anne-longfield-interview

[french frank]

Hmmm. Would I be right in thinking that the term "a stunner" to describe a physically highly attractive woman was first deployed as long ago as in the 1920s?

And then there's 'smashing' (poss early 20thc.) and a 'smasher' (1940s).

Also:
1847 A. Smith Christopher Tadpole (1848) xxix. 263 Watch the girl, Sir Frederick. Isn't she a stunner?
Also:
1856 F. E. Paget Owlet of Owlstone Edge 193 Laura Wydawake is the most stunning girl I ever set my eyes on.

But in those days they would probably have seemed quite original

[teamsaint]

"follow us on......."

EG SW Trains.
I mean really, why on earth ?

[Serial_Apologist]

"follow us on......."

EG SW Trains.
I mean really, why on earth ?

Twitter would probably be faster!

[Serial_Apologist]

"You know" was at one time a predominantly adolescent affliction on our humdrum streets but it has become a part of the tsunami (!!!) of verbal nonsense among the professional classes. While as with other tics of theirs, it is a breathing space for thinking (a variation on Harold Wilson's pipe) there is more to it. An implication of "we know" as in "we are a club of clever people, aren't we" while ironically the sloppiness conveys to thoughtful outsiders the opposite. In a short interview tonight on Channel 4, the Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, said "you know" five times and "actually" eleven times when describing how parents in the north should push their offspring to attain good grades.

https://www.channel4.com/news/anne-longfield-interview

Something else should be added here, I feel, and that is the way in which the most disastrous news about forthcoming prospects, as in, for example, nothing apparently to be done about worsening figures for attending patients admitted to A&Es, is delivered by spokespersons in a reassuring tone of voice that is totally at variance with the seriousness of the message, whether the messenger be a politician or a reporter. I suppose this is understandable in the case of the politician wanting to reassure the public that what is in the offing isn't really as bad as what he or she is actually telling us; and maybe too in that of the reporter not wishing to betray his or her impartiality by appearing necessarily gloomy. There aren't many Michael Buerks around, any more.

[Lat-Literal]

Something else should be added here, I feel, and that is the way in which the most disastrous news about forthcoming prospects, as in, for example, nothing apparently to be done about worsening figures for attending patients admitted to A&Es, is delivered by spokespersons in a reassuring tone of voice that is totally at variance with the seriousness of the message, whether the messenger be a politician or a reporter. I suppose this is understandable in the case of the politician wanting to reassure the public that what is in the offing isn't really as bad as what he or she is actually telling us; and maybe too in that of the reporter not wishing to betray his or her impartiality by appearing necessarily gloomy. There aren't many Michael Buerks around, any more.

I am in two minds on your post. Mostly I rue the day when everything was turned into drama Daily Mail style and would have a preference for any announcement of the onset of nuclear war to be presented to me in the comparatively measured tones of Radio 4. However, I do take the point re many things that matter in the day-to-day. Brexit, the problems especially facing the young and other significant dividing lines are such that what matters to everyone - the health service, pensions, the environment etc etc - often appear to be relegated to casual afterthought. I regard that as somewhat shadowy. For example, no one really knows if the NHS would be better off with or without Brexit and few seem to care.

[Lat-Literal]

Push back - awful phrase from America being used everywhere.

[Pulcinella]

Push back - awful phrase from America being used everywhere.

I wouldn't mind if we could push back the clock to pre-referendum days and consequently have better legislation and thought about the consequences, though!

[Beef Oven!]

Push back - awful phrase from America being used everywhere.

I think it’s a good phrase - I don’t understand why it’s getting so much pushback.