Unpleasant modern expressions

I like that expression Thistle I think of those "Little Boxes" in the song written by Malvina Reynolds, which became a hit for Pete Seeger.

Thinking outside the box...... What box?

On Question Time, polotitians...er..polititans....How do you spell that word??? always say "We have to make sure.......that.... but then they never do!!

I cannot stand texted as a past tense. It sounds so wrong. I think it should be text. My son annoys me when a waiter asks if he would like something and he says " I am good thanks". Not sure they were asking about his behaviour!

Oh I'm back in fashion, because I regularly say 'fab'.

My daughter was saying 'fab' recently so I think it came back into fashion.

Wasn't 'fab' more 1960s/early beetle era than 'modern'?

Shocking though it is that's 50+ years ago

(Have to agree though I hate 'fab')

Fab. As in a fab job, fab dress etc.

Lushus meaning lovely. A relative of mine uses this to describe her ever so perfect family.
''You look lush''. Meaning lovely.

Hun.

Me time.

You guys.

Most of these don't worry me - in fact I use rather a lot of them in everyday speech.

But I hate "I'll go with my gut" (ugh) and "I was sat/laid/stood there".

"absolutely" for just plain "yes"

"ther" for "the", as is "ther end", "ther east" etc

Ah yes the BBC. Why do they not use the adjectives for countries? It sounds so odd. Here are two examples copied today from the BBC's front page, but on any given day there are several ...

Canada inmates escape by helicopter
Two Kurds die in Turkey clashes

What happened to "Canadian" and "Turkish"??

Thank you for your kind words of welcome, jinglebells. I am beginning to feel at home and am enjoying the company of everyone here, where common sense is the order of the day.

Yeah yeah, whatever...

The lack of adverbs used by the BBC and everyone else.

Off of

You know, you know,

Goodbye, take care (by someone I have never met)

Cold caller 'hi there, now how are you today?'

By a newscaster at the end of the 10.00 News. 'Have a good evening' when I have my hottie under my arm and am making for bed.

You've got me started now.

'gutted' , 'that ticks my box', 'guys', 'cool' 'give me a bell', 'hi-five', 'no problem', just to name a few...

Let's just hang a while. I heard this in an American film recently and immediately thought, no, not possible, you will die and you can't come back a while later! Another one, let's just hang out......what?.....the washing?

I'm taking them too literally aren't I?

JackyB your post, and your profile, are very..... impressive.

I do look forward to hearing more from you.

JackyB, I too appreciate the verb 'to text' but where I would assume that the past tense is 'I texted', I can't understand why some people use 'I text' for the past as well as the present.

JackyB, hello. I don't think we've met, but we are of one mind. Thank you for a nicely balanced post. Not all neologisms are evil!

Yes, mrsmopp, i agree about "chalkboard", particularly when they now have "whiteboards" in schools!

Also "X impacts people". No it doesn't, it has an impact on people!!

Also, certain expressions only work with certain accents. Eg. 'Rock On' in an American accent works but sounds ridiculous in a British accent. Same goes for Hey Man!

"U.S. of A." Ugh!

Trouble is when you hear these sayings and your're with younger people they tend to stick and I'm finding myself saying some of them - I've slapped my wrist!!

Ooh - goody, a chance to be pedantic!

Right, well, there are several things here being discussed at once.

- Modern expressions which grate because they sound unnatural to us and there were perfectly good expressions already in use. e.g. "What's occurring?"

However, some new expressions are for concepts we just didn't have before, so they had to be invented .. To "text" as a verb is a good example. Much neater than saying "To send an SMS/text message" A couple of nifty new things like "Twenty-four-seven" are really useful.

- Very old expressions which bother some of us. "He turned round and said.." I was always led to believe dates back to the plague years. Although I am rather wary of that theory, this expression is certainly not new! Actually, I would have said that "up for grabs" has been around for a few decades, too.

- Expressions that are grammatically wrong. . "I am good" - In my world, that means that "I am well-behaved"!!! And this misuse of the reflexive pronouns "myself" and "yourself" that has been mentioned. It's all down to people not learning grammar at school. Same thing with confusing "me" and "I". Don't get me started on that!

I am sure we all had expressions that our parents found annoying; the way language moves on continually is just exciting. Some new expressions will stick, others will die out, some need renewing.

"You know", "I mean" and "You know what I mean" were already annoying back in the 60s 70s. In my observation, these days they are mainly used by men who were in their prime around that time.

"Pushing the envelope" and "Thinking outside the box" are beautifully expressive and congratulations to whoever coined them.

A Cappucino is originally from Vienna, a "Kapuziner" - meaning a "hooded monk". This is a cup of coffee, which a huge hood of froth (frothed milk or whipped cream) sitting on the top.
A Latte Macchiato means "maculate milk" - i.e. the opposite of immaculate milk. You froth up the milk and then "stain" it by pouring a shot of espresso on to the foam.
And I have no idea what "blue sky thinking" is, either. But, as an expat, I don't get bombarded with this Newspeak quite so much.

I did a lot of 'blue sky thinking' when I went walking early this morning. Nothing better.