English language - where is it going to? AIBU

Coworker vs colleague:
The key difference between colleague and coworker is that the colleague can either refer to someone who is in the same rank or state as you or who work with you while the coworker typically refers to someone with whom you work with.

I unconsciously associated colleagues being of more professional nature, and coworkers at a lower level. For instance teachers or accountants would be colleagues and clerks coworkers. So both are correct in my eyes. when referring to two mechanics at a garage, I would use coworkers.

Clear as......?

I hate ‘gifting’ too, especially when in the context, ‘giving’ would be fine.
Even John Lewis has signs in our local store about ‘gifting’. I would expect JL to know better!

I don’t even use ‘gift’ - it’s always ‘present’ here, which maybe make me weird, not that I care.

I don't like the expression 'turning' when it's someone's birthday. Just me.

Re colleague/s - a ‘prize’ should probably have gone to my local Asda, where there used to be signs saying, ‘If you can’t find what you want, please ask a colleague.’

I was frequently so tempted to ask customer services, with a suitably puzzled expression, how my colleagues at work would know where to find e.g. gluten free pasta.
But I restrained myself.
I don’t see those signs any more - someone must have had a little word.

Actually IIRC it was even ‘better’:

‘If you can’t find what you want. Please ask a colleague.’

HillyN

I can't understand why people on radio or T.V. who describe a sport event are said to 'commentate'. Surely the verb is to comment?

Hardly.
The late Bill McLaren was a rugby commentator not a commenter

The two verbs do indeed have different meanings.

Oh that’s interesting welbeckthank you.

That would probably explain it as I have lived in the south all my life!

I swear... when people kill adverbs !

Wrap up warm..... aaarrrrgh !!

Please can we find a new word for unprecedented? It's being so overused these days that, for me, it's lost the impact.

JenniferEccles

I have noticed the habit lately of people saying “I am sat here” instead of sitting.

To me I am sat seems to indicate someone picked them up and plonked them down on the seat !

Maybe it is correct but it just sounds wrong to me.

Agree! One of my pet hates too. "I am sitting" IS correct, as is "I was sitting". Not sat. I have seen this mistake in a number of published novels too.

not so much words as

I so hate..

me and him,, where we were taught to put the other person first!! ie..

John and me! for example...

perhaps that is part of the problems now.. we always put ourselves before others?

My particular hate is hearing something described as ‘very fun’ or ‘so fun’. When I pointed out that fun is a noun not an adjective, my DGD said, “But that was when you were at school Grandma!”

When requesting applause for someone, why do ‘they’ now to ‘give it up for...’. What exactly are we to give up?

Sentences seem to start with 'so' these days! Why? e.g 'What do you do for a living?' 'So I'm a nurse' !!! Argghh!
I too am irritated when people use the word myself when they shouldn't.
And what about 'literally'? We keep hearing people say things like 'I literally laughed my head off'!! No, you didn't!!
'I give 110%' ?? That's not possible!!
And don't even get me started on 'My bad'!
But that's language for you, I suppose!

Many 'new' words are simply americanisms. Competence to competency! They dont necessarily expand available vocabulary, they also limit and confuse. Evolve, yes, anything goes, no. My current pet hates are ' alternate' instead of 'alternative '- its plain wrong, the words have different meanings - and the overuse of superlatives. There is no room for degrees any more everything and everyone is amazing. Really?

What about "Woke".

Back story instead of ‘your past’ yesterday evening instead of ‘last night’ most annoying. Starting a sentence with ‘So’ what’s the point of that?

I hate "almost exactly". Something is either almost the same or exactly the same, but it can't be both!

I don’t like ‘hysterical’ used to mean ‘hilarious’, but I wonder if it has evolved into correct usage now. ‘ John slipped on a banana skin, and it was hysterical’.

Some of the problem is getting old, of course . We were taught that ‘hopefully’ meant ‘with hope’, not ‘with any luck’, but the meaning has changed now. I also think that it is now acceptable to say ‘different to’ instead of ‘different from’, when it used to be considered American usage (and therefore the work of the Devil, according to my English teacher). Both sound wrong to me, but life moves on.

‘Should of’ or ‘could of’ seems to be sidling into everyday parlance. It makes me cringe!

Generally I can just laugh and move on, knowing that I speak a variation no longer current. BUT 'Scarey' does annoy me.

It’s perfectly acceptable to say ‘wrap up warm’. ‘Warm’ can be used as an adverb in this context. Compare ‘hold tight/sleep tight’, or ‘receiving you loud and clear’ (not ‘loudly and clearly’). English is a flexible language.

My pet hate is 'season'. There's a new series of Doctor Who/whatever, not a new season. The latter is Spring and Winter etc.
Plus lieutenant/lootenant. Pronunciation!

My GD used to speak so quickly that her brain couldn’t keep up with her mouth. Every sentence was punctuated with ‘like’. I think that it was used as a thinking pause, instead of the usual ‘um’ or ‘er’. She is studying law at university (not uni!) One day I pointed out to her that she would not get very far as a solicitor or lawyer if she rattled away at her clients, or in court, in her usual manner. She has taken it on board, and now speaks much more slowly, and the ‘likes’ have vanished.

My pet hate is when people loose something, instead of losing it. It seems to be quite commonplace now, and I just don’t understand how the mistake has crept into common usage.

I don't like " bored of " instead of " bored with ". And "tearing up " instead of crying.