Noble Ox ? @Lea`Brooks Then wear the fox hat by far kinnel. That's interesting, do you mean swearing in general or expli specifically references to 'no go' bits of the anatomy? The former has a very relevant place I'd say. With it being a bit taboo, uttering/shouting a vulgarity in context can alleviate pain or stave off violence. It's an outlet surely? I get it when writing it out maybe, in story mode, when one's mood doesn't fit a scene. By the son of god I've just closed this laptop on my thumb. Damn and blast.
This conspiracy extends to the spell-checker; I typed cliche and it came out cliché . At least it recognises the ambiguity of resume/résumé and doesn't accent it. But you can avoid that whole shebang by referring to a CV; at least we don't have to use the Latin accents!
Curse words, I can handle. It's the no go bits words I don't like. Pretty much, anything you'd hear in a porno.
Course not—an aversion to vulgarity's a rare asset in this day and age Lea. It's just really hard to avoid it alas.
"Chuckled," as in: "Basically," he chuckled, "it was long, irksome chronicle that Danny told me was awesome."
I'm so guilty on both counts. I always need to go through my writing and edit these words out. WHY do I use them in the first place? Aargh.
In that same family, I detest the word 'Fact,' placed in a conversation, indicating that there is no more to be said on the subject. Usually the so-called 'Fact,' is nothing more than an opinion—and a bat-headed one at that. It's a fact that you think it's a fact, but that doesn't make it Fact.
Words don't get me, every word has its places. Its phrases, used constanty, that get under my skin. If an author uses, "as if it were [blank]" more than twice, I get irritated. Use 'I do declare' more than 3 times and I'm fuming. God forbid the author brings up the word 'said' 10 times in a paragraph.
... and the above is exactly the reason I dislike IT My skin is crawling with this sentence - IT holds a blank space here. In this case instead of IT, Wrey could as easily have said "Yep. Always that little escape door of vagueness left open in case people can't deal with disagreement. IT comes at a par with SEEMS, but - as IT is so small and easily overlooked - I dislike this little word of two characters a whole lot more. At least SEEMS stands out in writing, but IT is a sneaky son of a bastard.
How has nobody mentioned literally yet? It used to be a great word, but (arguably...) now that it has a second definition at complete odds with its original, we've got the summation of a positive and a negative to completely zero meaning. You could argue that context usually makes it clear, but the word only existed in the first place for situations where the context wasn't clear! Deceptively is another tricky one. If the water is deceptively shallow, is that shallowness the deception or the true nature?
IT, as in, not saying what you mean and leaving the reader to derive the exact content of IT. The first sentence (Peachulu): 'It's like people have become afraid of making a concrete statement so waffling starts.' The second sentence (Wreybies): 'Yep. Always that little escape door of vagueness left open in case IT doesn't go over well... ' I am asking myself here: What exactly doesn't go over well? The exact content? The vagueness? I admit, in the above example the meaning of 'IT' is more or less implied - but the gap between implied meaning of IT and actual meaning as the author intended can be much wider. On and off I find examples in my own writing where I write IT and let the reader make a mental jump which is much wider - and when I notice such a thing I get huffed with myself. I am not saying that eliminating all instances of IT is a good thing (or even possible), but I myself use this little word with caution. But that's the fault of my MC *snickers* who is an extremely methodical guy. Writing him I have to think like he does and put words down that he'd use, and that's an education in writing Imagine learning writing from a made-up character, a voice in my head. *snickers harder*
Ah, I get it. "It" isn't a word I dislike, probably because 'it' is so ingrained in the way we speak. 'It' is a pronoun. He, she, it. So it doesn't make too much sense to dislike 'it' all the time, unless you're prepared to dislike 'he, she, they, them,' etc, and insist the pronoun is always substituted with the noun. Here's the online definition: ...................................... it1 ɪt/ pronoun pronoun: it 1. used to refer to a thing previously mentioned or easily identified. "a room with two beds in it" referring to an animal or child of unspecified sex. "she was holding the baby, cradling it and smiling into its face" referring to a fact or situation previously mentioned, known, or happening. "stop it, you're hurting me" 2. used to identify a person. "it's me" 3. used in the normal subject position in statements about time, distance, or weather. "it's half past five" 4. used in the normal subject or object position when a more specific subject or object is given later in the sentence. "it is impossible to assess the problem" 5. used to emphasize a following part of a sentence. "it is the child who is the victim" 6. the situation or circumstances; things in general. "no one can stay here—it's too dangerous now" 7. exactly what is needed or desired. "they thought they were it" 8. informal sexual intercourse or sex appeal. "the only thing I knew nothing about was ‘it’" 9. informal denoting a person or thing that is exceptionally fashionable, popular, or successful at a particular time. "they were Hollywood's It couple" 10. (in children's games) the player who has to catch the others. Origin Old English hit, neuter of he, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch het . ......................... 'It' is a useful word, because it avoids repetition and wordiness. If we eliminated the second 'it' in that sentence, it would read something like: 'It' is a useful word because re-stating an entire concept which has been previously established creates wordiness and is best avoided. A sledgehammer to crack a nut? How do you feel about 'that'? As in "That's okay." Or "That's a matter of opinion." Another word used to avoid having to re-describe something which is understood already?
Your examples are real good. For the record: I am not against using 'it' - but I am careful when I use 'it' and examine if there isn't a better, more exact way to say what I want to say. If wordiness results, then either a) I haven't used the right words in being precise, or b) 'it' is useful in this instance Same with 'that'. But 'that' is not as irksome as 'it', maybe because it has two characters more. 'That' tends to be more noticeable, and I automatically think if each usage of 'that' is correct (grammar *sigh*). But 'it' slips easily through - at least for me.
I really dislike the word: Cunt. Though I have used it once in my first novel as a derogatory term. Granted the MC was pissed off already, so it works. I just find it to be worse than the F-bomb. It just sounds vulgar and blunt, also a little insensitive to women in a derogatory context. I know that it is the alt. to pussy, but there are lists of slang for the female anatomy to play around with. Perhaps it is just one of those words that is not common slang in the American vocab.
Business buzzwords. This includes phrases. Working in the business world and especially technology has given me very low tolerance for any of the following: Boilerplate Synergy At the end of the day Back of the envelope Action items Deliverables Boil the ocean Lipstick on a pig Out of the box / outside the box Wheelhouse Best practices Drill down Granular Low-hanging fruit Touch base Take offline Check all the boxes Not to mention blurbs that don't actually say anything even though they're filled with words...it's not any particular word that irks me, just the whole practice: Acme Widget Corp provides cutting-edge solutions, leveraging a wide network of technology-driven core competencies to streamline process management across the board. Our strategic initiatives facilitate growth and foster innovation among business-critical blah blah blah but what the fuck do you actually DO??? And with that, I shall now return to work. I have a few mission-critical action items to deliver.
Most of these I'm fine with, it's just people who put the circumflex over the "o" in "role" that get to me. Oh, and even worse are people who do that and then italicize it, to make damn sure you know they're using the snooty French meaning when the English word of almost the same spelling will usually do.
Yes, I don't like that one myself. I am not at all prissy either. It's just that most of the time when I hear 'cunt' it's being applied in a derrogatory way to describe a person who isn't likeable. To females, AND to males as well. I don't really mind it being used that way—to mean shithead, jerk, what have you—oddly enough. But what I do mind is when it is then also used to refer to a female's vagina. It makes that body part sound contemptible, which, of course it's not.
Hate I do not like this word at all, and I have deleted it out of all conversations, except on subjects such as this.
Utilise. There is no occasion in which you can't say the simpler 'use' instead. Often UTILISED by people wanting to sound intelligent. Fruits. "There are fruits in the bowl." Don't care if it's correct, UTILISE 'fruit' which works fine as a plural, thanks. Pretty much any non-medical term for female genitals. Yourself and myself instead of you and me. "I'll get an email over to yourself." Again, used by people wanting to sound intelligent. Has the opposite effect. I'm surprised 'moist' hasn't come up yet, unless I missed it. That usually tops these discussions.
I wonder if that one's like the fish vs fishes thing, where the former refers to several belonging to one species while the latter refers to several belonging to a variety of species?
