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Most disliked words of phrases

(227 Posts)
lizzypopbottle Sat 16-Dec-23 20:56:40

I just saw a headline about Anthony Armstrong Jones and his regular affairs. It said he had a secret 'love child' while married to Princess Margaret.

All three of my children were 'love children' but I was married to their father i.e. my husband. I really dislike the accepted idea of a 'love child' as the product of an illicit affair. What does that say about the child or children conceived and born within the marriage?

Do you have word of phrase you dislike?

CoolCoco Tue 19-Dec-23 06:53:48

Any government minister saying “we are delivering for the British people”. - please don’t include me in that.

nanna8 Tue 19-Dec-23 06:56:48

Oh yes, fur babies. Ghastly.

Curtaintwitcher Tue 19-Dec-23 07:12:28

All American words and spellings. British English is perfectly adequate, thank you very much.

Greta Tue 19-Dec-23 08:06:44

"We take the safety/wellbeing/concerns etc of our customers/insert any group of people very seriously."
NO, you DO NOT.

Goldieoldie15 Tue 19-Dec-23 09:11:27

Do (whatever) for me. No I will not do it for you. I am going to do it for myself.

Dickens Tue 19-Dec-23 09:26:26

Greta

"We take the safety/wellbeing/concerns etc of our customers/insert any group of people very seriously."
NO, you DO NOT.

Oh, but they do Greta... I just heard some managerial bod say that they took "these matters" incredibly seriously and will not tolerate blah, blah, blah... angry

yellowfox Tue 19-Dec-23 11:04:59

no, yeah Which do they mean?

I won't lie Do they usually?

Granmarderby10 Tue 19-Dec-23 11:29:24

lickle, hospickul, fing, fought, (number) free

For free
“Can you borrow me such and such”?
To be pacific
Nucular

Musicgirl Tue 19-Dec-23 13:25:00

@Grandmaderby10, when we were first married, we lived on the outskirts of London and, not being from there, I was very amused when people would ask if they could borrow the toilet. I always wanted to say yes, as long as they put it back again.

Pixieboots Tue 19-Dec-23 18:41:38

Defo
Of instead of have
My bad
Im sure there are more. Im becoming a grumpy old woman 🙄

JCK1943 Thu 21-Dec-23 19:11:01

Yes, people used to say gay to mean something bright and colourful. Now the word has a completely different meaning.

Wheniwasyourage Thu 21-Dec-23 20:57:20

Incredible/incredibly used by politicians, as in “We’ve done X incredibly well”. If you don’t believe whatever achievement you’re talking about, why should we?

Wheniwasyourage Thu 21-Dec-23 20:59:53

Also hubby, panties, holibobs, fur babies, loose instead of lose and less when it should be fewer. And many more!

Greyisnotmycolour Thu 21-Dec-23 21:30:36

Oh there's so many recent expressions that set my teeth on edge:

Pre-owned/pre-loved - what's wrong with second-hand?
Pre-order/pre-book - I thought booking or ordering implied you were doing it in advance
My bad - didn't we used to say "my mistake" ?

Mom3 Fri 22-Dec-23 04:19:05

"Strong woman". People don't describe a man that way. It implies that most women are weak and it's unusual for a woman to be strong. The women I have known who were described as " strong " were overbearing pains in the ass.

Wheniwasyourage Fri 22-Dec-23 09:31:15

Sneak peeks

Potty-mouthed

maytime2 Fri 22-Dec-23 09:37:13

Another Americanism that has crept over here. To "throw shade" at someone. What exactly does this mean? I think it means snubbed but I'm not sure.

Doodledog Fri 22-Dec-23 09:48:49

Verily it occurreth to me that the words of yore were greater in beauty and elegance than those that hath been employed by those currently enjoying their salad days. The grapevine telleth me that the young whipper-snapper Mr Shakespeare planneth the invention of new ways of speaking. 'May his endeavours come to nought', sayth I.

vintage1950 Fri 22-Dec-23 09:50:39

'Prescribed' when 'proscribed' seems to be meant. It's quite the opposite.

Dickens Fri 22-Dec-23 09:56:12

Wheniwasyourage

Incredible/incredibly used by politicians, as in “We’ve done X incredibly well”. If you don’t believe whatever achievement you’re talking about, why should we?

Oh, yes - incredible

Once our politicians and company spokesmen got hold of the word it was inevitably going to lose its meaning.

"We take the safety of our staff incredibly seriously" (after report of one who's just died accidentally at work).

"We are incredibly focused on delivering (another dislike) xxx for the British people." To me that translates as "we are incredibly focused on not losing our seats at the next election and will attempt to persuade you that the welfare of the nation is our priority."

I suppose cynicism is inevitable as you age.

biglouis Fri 22-Dec-23 09:57:11

Pseudo psychological expressions like "passive aggressive" and "narcissistic" (mis)used by lay people who have no qualifications whatever in psychology.

Wind your neck in

Punching down

Doodledog Fri 22-Dec-23 09:59:55

You don't need a degree in psychology to recognise passive aggression when you see it smile). I'm inclined to agree when it comes to dated and misused psychological terms such as 'obsessed' or '(a) complex', but passive aggression is so classically British that we all need to be able to spot it, IMO.

Doodledog Fri 22-Dec-23 10:00:59

That passive aggressive-looking smile was meant to be a grin! The code for grin is different on another forum I use, and I got them mixed up.

Dickens Fri 22-Dec-23 10:03:39

biglouis

Pseudo psychological expressions like "passive aggressive" and "narcissistic" (mis)used by lay people who have no qualifications whatever in psychology.

Wind your neck in

Punching down

Agreed.

However I don't think you necessarily need to be a professional to recognise glaring narcissism!

Doodledog Fri 22-Dec-23 10:34:58

Dickens

biglouis

Pseudo psychological expressions like "passive aggressive" and "narcissistic" (mis)used by lay people who have no qualifications whatever in psychology.

Wind your neck in

Punching down

Agreed.

However I don't think you necessarily need to be a professional to recognise glaring narcissism!

You really don't. Whilst I understand actual psychologists getting annoyed when people misuse terms (as they do with 'obsessed'), I don't necessarily think that professionals wanting exclusive use of jargon is healthy.

It's a bit like not wanting the Bible translated into English - if the plebs can understand it there is no mystique, and no need to pay to be told things by the experts.