Around 1700 of our common, everyday words were created by Shakespeare, with around 2200 actually attributed to him. I think I could make a mysterious play when I made every damned word up.
Manner of speaking count? That 'vocal fry' upspeak pattern affected by so many young (and not-so-young) women is like fingernails down a chalkboard to me.
"Bestie" and "my ride or die." I swear, just hearing those two phases drops my IQ a few points. Makes me want to cut anyone who says them.
From CW I would ban 'tendrils' and 'marionette...' he danced like a marionette. Also I pretty much detest 'like' - at the moment. I love my crit forums but opening paragraphs where the shadows spread over forest, the light glints through trees, and the monkeys screamed LIKE teapots with that archaic attachment whistle thing...I don't like that. This is not very convincing, I have to leave the house, back in ten. I do admire 'literally,' and all the classics. The worm has turned. IBM speak also...is to be admired. 'Oh my gosh' used to rile, but I don't mind it any more. One of my favourite subjects. I've gone.
I agree so much with this that I once started a thread on the very topic, and what I mostly got were responses that made me feel that I had offended people and there was quite a bit of shoe-looking and shifting about.
'I hate the book - not read a page of the thing' - or 'I love the book so much! I should read it'. Basically I would ban people saying they like-dislike a book they haven't yet read. It drives me crazy.
Randomly inserted, completely preemptive advisement follows: So far, so good as regards keeping this topic light and in good spirits. Let's keep it that way. Posts that are matches thrown into the chaparral will be extinguished with insouciant abandon. Attempts to divert the course of the thread for the personal grinding of axes with be treated to the rack or the guillotine at mod discretion. Thank you for flying Writing Forums Dot Air. We know you have a choice when booking your flight, and.....
I liked your post @Wreybies. I play on two forums: this forum and there is an old folks' forum for boring novelists - I'm up and coming on that scene. One of my favourite fellas writes these lovely colourful paragraphs, says the same thing three or four times and then skips, encapsulates the whole scene with a nice little simile. He does this with four, five paragraphs in a row. Sometimes there are two similes in a paragraph. I like him a lot, and I tell him, 'you know, you have a condition with your similes,' he doesn't listen. I just appear nasty so I've let it lie. The dullest expressions offer room for entertainment: you can also 'think inside the box,' 'tickle all the boxes,' - I did that once, a roomful of shoes, shoe boxes. My wife is my source for techspeak, that is the cream, really. The other goldmine for language is the 'inspirational' stuff - you can achieve anything if you set your heart on fire kind of chat - the athletes and Olympians, bless their tiny minds.
The 'word' guesstimate and those that employ its usage. People that say/write upmost rather than utmost. Per say - it's Latin, genius! Per se, if you please. Indefatigabilty - see George Galloway. Those that persist in starting every sentence with the word 'basically'. Someone once said to me 'It's like I'm illiterate with numbers.' Em, so you're innumerate. (I want that guy banned from speaking.) All text speak. That's all I can think of for now.
Oh, oh, one I have to edit out a lot at work: "revert back", as in "I'll revert back to you with the information." Or, more bloody likely, "next time we touch base I'll revert back, maybe ping you an email with the info."
I do that a lot in writing (status updates, forum posts, not fiction) but I'm actively trying to stop myself. My colleagues do this a lot and I'm actively trying to stop them.
