Words or phrases that annoy you (even if you can't explain why) . . .

[usagora]

Growing up, there was a restaurant/coffee shop where the rules were you served yourself for most things. Many people were even allowed to ring and cash out their own purchases. It was a cool idea that would never work today, but the owners kept doing it until one of the great economic collapses that were infamous around there.

People really liked the idea of getting your own coffee, and picking up your own order from the kitchen, and ringing yourself out. The 'good old daze'? Starbucks seems to have created their concoctions deliberately to make it impossible for people to get their own 'coffee'.

I know it's not quite the same thing since you're not making anything, but I'm a big fan of self-checkouts at stores and will always prefer to use those over having cashiers comment on my purchases. And plus they are usually faster, and for some reason I enjoy scanning and bagging my own items, though I can't explain why, lol!

 

[Mousse]

"Are you a team player?" or any of those ghastly (fake happy) "teamwork" slogans,

Oh, I hate it when managers go on about teamwork and "There is no 'i' in team."

I sarcastically say, "Yeah, 'there's no "i" in team', but there is always an ******."😁 I stole this from the Ryan Reynolds.🤩🤩

Spoiler: VancityReynolds

Upper case A, lower case a, it doesn't matter. There is a hole in the a.😉

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I know it's not quite the same thing since you're not making anything, but I'm a big fan of self-checkouts at stores and will always prefer to use those over having cashiers comment on my purchases. And plus they are usually faster, and for some reason I enjoy scanning bagging my own items, though I can't explain why, lol!

Depending on the store, I won't use them. OR at Krogers, because they never have paper bags at the self-checkouts.

Story from years ago: Woman standing at register, it's just past 2am. I walk up with a shopping cart of essentials, not that it adds to the story, but... So she looks at me, and in a dazed and obviously lazy attitude says 'You could just go to the self-checkout.'. I said 'But if I did, you wouldn't have a job.' Well she thought on that for a second or two and hopped right up and started ringing my stuff up. I thanked her and walked out. I was stunned that she could say that, and not realize that the store really COULD eliminate cashier jobs at 2am, and where would she be? Heck, Home Despot doesn't have real human cashiers at all anymore. That's why I hate Home Despot. Bringing up some obscure (to the supervisor) plumbing part and waiting for them to identify it and key in the SKU is a PITA, and I have specifically not shopped there because dealing with items without SKU's is not worth my time. Menard's at least has real authentic people running their cash registers. For how long, who knows...

 

[dotnet]

Oh, I hate it when managers go on about teamwork and "There is no 'i' in team."

“There is no ‘u’, either.”

 

[usagora]

Home Despot doesn't have real human cashiers at all anymore.

They do at every one I go to around here (along with the self-checkouts, which, again, I always use). And I rarely find a part without a bar code on it. My only gripe about Home Depot is when you try to buy power tools, power tool batteries, etc. they keep them all locked up and even when an associate unlocks the cage and hands you what you wanted, they won't let you put it in your cart--they literally have to take it up to the register with you (so you better not need anything else in the store)! So I only buy things like that on their website so they're ready for pickup when I get there.

 

[Clix Pix]

Haven't been at Home Depot in a while, but Microcenter does something similar, in that they lock up certain items and then when the customer requests one, the sales person removes it from the locked case, prints out a page with all the necessary details describing the item, which they hand to the customer, and takes the actual packaged item up to a locked cage near the registers that is accessible only to employees. That way a customer can continue shopping and put other readily-available, right-off-the-shelf items into his or her cart. When the customer is finally at the register, they simply hand the cashier that print-out with the details about the item in the cage, the cashier fetches it and everything gets rung up together. It's a pretty slick system, although I will admit the first time I experienced it I was a little disconcerted.

 

[usmaak]

Oh, I hate it when managers go on about teamwork and "There is no 'i' in team."

I sarcastically say, "Yeah, 'there's no "i" in team', but there is always an ******."😁 I stole this from the Ryan Reynolds.🤩🤩

Spoiler: VancityReynolds

Upper case A, lower case a, it doesn't matter. There is a hole in the a.😉

Hey now. Teamwork makes the dream work! 😂

 

[Clix Pix]

Something which annoys me that isn't a word or a phrase is those stupid Memojis.... I find it curious that people using one of them as their avatar must not realize how much the things make many users look the same. I think the original concept behind an avatar was to create something unique and special to the member, wasn't it?

 

[chown33]

Something which annoys me that isn't a word or a phrase is those stupid Memojis.... I find it curious that people using one of them as their avatar must not realize how much the things make many users look the same. I think the original concept behind an avatar was to create something unique and special to the member, wasn't it?

I went to a lot of work to make my avatar look as nondescript as possible.

Except during October, when I become a Joker-lantern:

 

[Clix Pix]

Here on MR I'm still using an avatar which was graciously given to me way, way back in my early days as a participant by a member who is now no longer around these parts, and I've loved it since Day One.... True, I don't exactly look like a sparkly apple....

Come to think of it, I also don't look like my current avatar on a couple of other forums, an image I shot of a female Belted Kingfisher with a fish in her mouth, either.... On other forums I do change my avatar around from time to time but here on MR I always keep my sparkly apple.

 

[usagora]

True, I don't exactly look like a sparkly apple....

Wait, what?!?! My whole life has been a lie 😟

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

They do at every one I go to around here (along with the self-checkouts, which, again, I always use). And I rarely find a part without a bar code on it. My only gripe about Home Depot is when you try to buy power tools, power tool batteries, etc. they keep them all locked up and even when an associate unlocks the cage and hands you what you wanted, they won't let you put it in your cart--they literally have to take it up to the register with you (so you better not need anything else in the store)! So I only buy things like that on their website so they're ready for pickup when I get there.

And yet at Dunham's Sporting Goods you can pickup your own high power ammo and walk through the store with it, and take rounds out and return the adulterated boxes back to the shelve.

But I get involved in a lot of heavier remodel tasks and the number of items that do not have either a bar code, or a readable bar code is astounding. And inventory levels too. 'Do you have these? The website says you have 12.' Furiously tapping on a handheld: 'Yeah, the system says we should have 10, and they should be right here. Maybe someone bought them just now.' The next day, still shows 12.

But plumbing parts, some fasteners, H&G items occasionally. Heck, one whole box of QO circuit breakers did not have barcodes printed on the sides of the breakers. I end up going to the local electrical distributor to get things because they usually have everything in stock, and surprisingly, their prices are not that much greater than those at Home Despot, AND they don't rely on bar codes.

At Dunham's, a box of 44 mags was missing a few rounds. Incredible...

Oh, Worst Try is notorious for having things locked up in cases but they have made a huge change. It used to be trying, largely in vain, to find someone with THE KEY, and now the cashiers have the keys and all of the goodies are locked up in a room very near the registers. Problem solved, and Worst Try deserves an attaboy for that. Genius...

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And yet at Dunham's Sporting Goods you can pickup your own high power ammo and walk through the store with it, and take rounds out and return the adulterated boxes back to the shelve.

But I get involved in a lot of heavier remodel tasks and the number of items that do not have either a bar code, or a readable bar code is astounding. And inventory levels too. 'Do you have these? The website says you have 12.' Furiously tapping on a handheld: 'Yeah, the system says we should have 10, and they should be right here. Maybe someone bought them just now.' The next day, still shows 12.

But plumbing parts, some fasteners, H&G items occasionally. Heck, one whole box of QO circuit breakers did not have barcodes printed on the sides of the breakers. I end up going to the local electrical distributor to get things because they usually have everything in stock, and surprisingly, their prices are not that much greater than those at Home Despot, AND they don't rely on bar codes.

At Dunham's, a box of 44 mags was missing a few rounds. Incredible...

Oh, Worst Try is notorious for having things locked up in cases but they have made a huge change. It used to be trying, largely in vain, to find someone with THE KEY, and now the cashiers have the keys and all of the goodies are locked up in a room very near the registers. Problem solved, and Worst Try deserves an attaboy for that. Genius...

Reading this, I am lost for words.

Even the words that annoy me.

 

[usagora]

Two more:

1. "the marketplace of ideas," the concept that philosophies/ideas should be weighed in competition to each other vs. decided to be true by fiat. I just think the phrase gets overused and thus sounds trite.

2. "doing life with (someone)," normally used by couples making social media "PDA's." The meaning is "living/sharing my life with you."
"Happy anniversary, honey! I'm so happy to be doing life with you!" . . . Just gag me.

 

[dotnet]

"Happy anniversary, honey! I'm so happy to be doing life with you!"

That sounds like a scene from a prison cell.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Two more:

1. "the marketplace of ideas," the concept that philosophies/ideas should be weighed in competition to each other vs. decided to be true by fiat. I just think the phrase gets overused and thus sounds trite.

2. "doing life with (someone)," normally used by couples making social media "PDA's." The meaning is "living/sharing my life with you."
"Happy anniversary, honey! I'm so happy to be doing life with you!" . . . Just gag me.

I hadn't really heard of "the marketplace of ideas". It truly scares me. The concept that things like gravity, charity to the poor, age of the earth, superiority of one [race | cultural | ethnic group] over another, etc, etc, should be open to discussion just boggles my mind...

 

[rm5]

Two more:

1. "the marketplace of ideas," the concept that philosophies/ideas should be weighed in competition to each other vs. decided to be true by fiat. I just think the phrase gets overused and thus sounds trite.

2. "doing life with (someone)," normally used by couples making social media "PDA's." The meaning is "living/sharing my life with you."
"Happy anniversary, honey! I'm so happy to be doing life with you!" . . . Just gag me.

"Doing life with..." AAAAAAAHHH!!!

"Doing [insert word] with" in general is just bad!

Good point, @usagora!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Turning nouns and other words into verbs:

Such as, grrr...

"How did this impact your business?"

What is wrong with saying (or writing): "This had a considerable impact on me...?"

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Turning nouns and other words into verbs:

Such as, grrr...

"How did this impact your business?"

What is wrong with saying (or writing): "This had a considerable impact on me...?"

While I agree with you in general, 'impact' is already both a noun and a verb.* As in "The impact to my head caused by his impacting it with a brick caused serious bleeding".

* apologies, you woke up my early-morning pedant...

 

[usagora]

I hadn't really heard of "the marketplace of ideas". It truly scares me. The concept that things like gravity, charity to the poor, age of the earth, superiority of one [race | cultural | ethnic group] over another, etc, etc, should be open to discussion just boggles my mind...

Well, I don't think those things are all in quite the same category, but it's not really that scary. It's basically the same concept of peer review when it comes to publishing research papers, which is a good thing.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Two more:

1. "the marketplace of ideas," the concept that philosophies/ideas should be weighed in competition to each other vs. decided to be true by fiat. I just think the phrase gets overused and thus sounds trite.

2. "doing life with (someone)," normally used by couples making social media "PDA's." The meaning is "living/sharing my life with you."
"Happy anniversary, honey! I'm so happy to be doing life with you!" . . . Just gag me.

Oh, yes; a profound and heartfelt amen for reminding us of these egregious examples.

"Marketplace of ideas..."

Reading such a sentence, I just know that whatever comes next will qualify as pure drivel, intellectually as well as linguistically.

"Doing life with (someone)"....is this a prison sentence?

 

[rm5]

Something which annoys me that isn't a word or a phrase is those stupid Memojis.... I find it curious that people using one of them as their avatar must not realize how much the things make many users look the same. I think the original concept behind an avatar was to create something unique and special to the member, wasn't it?

Well... for me, at least it's better than a stupid purple "R" profile picture I used to have, but I get it, they do all look the same. I should try and design another, more interesting one for myself!

 

[usagora]

Turning nouns and other words into verbs:

Such as, grrr...

"How did this impact your business?"

What is wrong with saying (or writing): "This had a considerable impact on me...?"

I must admit this is surprising one to me. There are a ton of words this is true for, so your annoyance encompasses a whole lot of standard English usage! Here's just one non-exhaustive list I found online for nouns that are also verbs:

act, address, aim, answer, arrest, attack, auction, back, balance, balloon, ban, beam, bend, cake, call, can, chant, cheat, dance, drink, drive, dye, echo, experience, eye, face, fear, guess, glue, head, hope, increase, ink, jam, kiss, label, love, lock, make, match, oil, parcel, peel, phone, pick, quiz, race, run, reign, scare, search, smile, smoke, sound, shape, tear, trace, track, use, vote, wake, waltz, wear, whisper, yawn, yield

Now, granted, many of those have a different meaning as a noun than they do as a verb, but many also have the same meaning (like "impact" in your example).

 

[Scepticalscribe]

While I agree with you in general, 'impact' is already both a noun and a verb.* As in "The impact to my head caused by his impacting it with a brick caused serious bleeding".

* apologies, you woke up my early-morning pedant...

"Impacting it with a brick"?

What is wrong with "hitting it with brick?"

Or, "the impact (of the brick) to my head caused an injury"..

Using "impact" in such a sentence really irks me (and it is appropriate in the context of the thread title); to me, it sounds not just both contrived, and clumsy, but also strikes me as a feeble (and futile, because it annoys me) attempt to sound as though what is described is exciting and dramatic.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I must admit this is surprising one to me. There are a ton of words this is true for, so your annoyance encompasses a whole lot of standard English usage! Here's just one non-exhaustive list I found online for nouns that are also verbs:

act, address, aim, answer, arrest, attack, auction, back, balance, balloon, ban, beam, bend, cake, call, can, chant, cheat, dance, drink, drive, dye, echo, experience, eye, face, fear, guess, glue, head, hope, increase, ink, jam, kiss, label, love, lock, make, match, oil, parcel, peel, phone, pick, quiz, race, run, reign, scare, search, smile, smoke, sound, shape, tear, trace, track, use, vote, wake, waltz, wear, whisper, yawn, yield

Now, granted, many of those have a different meaning as a noun than they do as a verb, but many also have the same meaning (like "impact" in your example).

Usage, and how language changes over time means that many of those terms - nouns as verbs - have been assimilated into the way the language is used.

"Impact" is a recent change, or seems to me to be recent; in any case, it annoys me and - worse - it calls my inner curmudgeon to the linguistic fray.