What current day words drive you up the wall?

Oh, I don't know if this one counts, but I think we are probably well off topic anyway - but 'banned' on TV talk shows.

The worst offender is Jeremy Vine - he is usually the worst offender for being annoying, to be fair. I don't know why I watch it, really, but every day they ask 'Should X be banned?'

Hosepipes, bicycles, mobile phones for under 13s, high heels, fizzy drinks, flat-faced dogs, fast food, camping holidays (ok, so I made some of those up) - the list goes on and on. Can we please be spoken to like adults? 'Let's talk about fast food?' 'Is it worth hurting your feet to wear high heels?' or whatever.

He is taking a bathroom break

‘Early doors’, which I’ve seen just recently.
What on earth is wrong with just ‘early’? I can’t help wondering who on earth thinks up these daft expressions. When I’m a dictator they will be put in the stocks outside Tesco’s and pelted with rotten tomatoes.

Actor instead of actress

That’s an odd one NanKate. I suppose we wouldn’t say doctoress in the medical profession, but we wouldn’t call a female a waiter. Mind you it’s often server now. We say author for both genders but I remember it being authoress for a female writer. It’s a bit inconsistent. Host/hostess?

Bradley Walsh says “all day long”, for “definitely”.

Bellanonna

That’s an odd one NanKate. I suppose we wouldn’t say doctoress in the medical profession, but we wouldn’t call a female a waiter. Mind you it’s often server now. We say author for both genders but I remember it being authoress for a female writer. It’s a bit inconsistent. Host/hostess?

Oddly, I don't mind 'waitress' and 'actress' so much, but really don't like most feminised descriptions of unisex activities or professions. 'Lady doctor' 'manageress' or 'barmaid' all sound different from the default male versions, as did 'policewoman' or stewardess' before they were phased out.

A friend of mine used to refer to a colleague as a 'woman engineer'. I think it was because someone had told him that saying 'lady doctor' was sexist, and he missed the point entirely, bless him . I asked him why it mattered - I knew her name, and it wasn't unisex, so he could just have said 'Linda'. There was no difference between her job and his, and she was better qualified. He had no answer, but continued to call her Linda The Woman Engineer.

Witzend

‘Early doors’, which I’ve seen just recently.
What on earth is wrong with just ‘early’? I can’t help wondering who on earth thinks up these daft expressions. When I’m a dictator they will be put in the stocks outside Tesco’s and pelted with rotten tomatoes.

Good Yorkshire phrase that

Bellanonna

Bradley Walsh says “all day long”, for “definitely”.

I do agree with ‘actor’ for a woman.

To me, insisting on that word implies that there’s something inferior about the female role. Which to my mind is anti-feminist.

Is it really, Lucca? I’d never heard it until fairly recently, and that’s despite having spent a few years in Yorkshire as a student and learned words like ‘mardy’ and ‘ginnel’.

Hun..... a term of supposed endearment, can't stand it...

Instead of How old will you be In your Birthday, my grandchildren say ' what age are they turning ' Where has that come from ??

Meant to say On your birthday

It's Scottish, Debbi58

Having read all the way through, I realise just how intolerant I have grown in my old age, I would agree with about 90% of the examples given. I am guilty of having used abut 5% and the other 5% don’t particularly bother me. I do remember my grandmother telling me that “You can have xyz, but whether you may is altogether a different matter”, and being told to mentally delete the word ‘nice’ from my vocabulary and never ever use it again. Over the years there have been various words that have crept into the language of the young, but I don’t remember such a wide range used across the generations.

Me too Lexisgranny. So many words and phrases that irritate me, many of them in these posts. I dislike intensely ‘My heart goes out to you’, which is used all the time when a tragedy occurs. Also the word ‘amazing’. There are so many alternative words that could be used.
I accept that I’m quite intolerant, but not with people using words & phrases from others parts of the country/world, but generally with the general laziness of the locals. I get called ‘hun’ regularly (as a charity shop volunteer), but could never use this word.

We say mardyin Derby.
“Mardy mardy mustard, can’t eat a custard “ No?
It was always jitty here though not ginnel
Also nesh - feel the cold easily

Gendered job titles such as usherett (not very common now admittedly) that one brings to mind leatherette ie. not the genuine article?

Doodledog ‘why oh why’ was always a favourite on the BBC Points of View.

Grannybags I had forgotten the ‘bit’ when it should be ’drop’ when referring to liquid. My mum too used to pull me up regularly about that one.

We’ve always used a ‘bit’, usually instead of saying ‘some’, whether it’s would you like a bit more milk in your tea or a bit of cheese with your crackers.
I wasn’t really aware of it till I read this thread, but it made me laugh when the server at the cafe in the park today, asked me if I needed a bit more milk for DH’s coffee.

I'm ploughing through this thread but I can see it's developing the same way as all threads in Pedants' Corner. Same old, same old.

I consider myself a pedant but as I live abroad and am not surrounded by anglophones many of the new words strike me as fresh and exciting, not annoying or "wrong".

Sometimes I wish there was a word in English to cover a concept that can be expressed succinctly in German. Sometimes it is the other way round.

Expressions such as "my bad" and "thinking outside the box" are ingenious and self-explanatory and I am quite happy to hear them and even use them myself.

Incorrect grammar, of course, is another matter (e.g. answering "I'm good" when you are asked how you are.) That, I fear, will lead to misunderstandings and even disputes if it is allowed to continue.

Using words wrongly can also be confusing and the interlocutors could walk away from a discussion taking completely opposite ideas of what was said.

So - new words: great!
Misused words: I am "not a happy bunny"

It’s not a very recent thing, but ‘raised’ (for people) instead of ‘brought up’ still makes me wince a bit.

I am driven crazy by the constant use of the euphemism ‘pass’ and ‘passed,’ instead of die / died. What on earth is wrong with everyone, suddenly talking about people passing? I’ve actually misunderstood a couple of things and been on the point of asking what people have passed ….

Goldbeater1 I don’t get the use of passed either, but if it makes the speaker more comfortable than saying died then I’ll live with it.