From the second section of Strunk and White’s English usage bible The Elements Of Style:
Omit needless words.
Harold Ross, the founding editor of The New Yorker, wrote in a memo to his staff, “The next writer around here who uses ‘upcoming’ will be outgoing.”
That’s a good word to put at the top of a list of needless, overused and annoying words and phrases. Here is the first dozen.
upcoming
absent (as a preposition)
area (as an adjective)
as it were
at this point in time
case in point
if you will
like (as an interjection)
ongoing
the likes of
that said
y’know
Edwin Newman of NBC News recalled the time a man he was interviewing told him, “Well, y’know, y’never know, y’know.”
The Rifftides staff solicits your suggestions for additions to the list.
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
I detest any sentence (and those uttering same) that starts with, “Let me share with you…”
My family still laughs about a boxer we heard interviewed many years ago who said the immortal, “You know, I don’t know, you know.”
A newspaper editor once told me to never use the phrase “after all” again. “Op-Ed writers have ruined ‘after all,’” he said. “Death to ‘after all.’”
As we’re in jazz mode, may I nominate paradigm, which I’ve encountered twice in the space of two pages of a jazz biography, prefixed first by “interpretive” then suffixed by “shift”. In my opinion:
To abuse the word paradigm
Should be treated as a crime
To abuse the same word twice
Doesn’t fall that far from vice.
But there’s more! The same author writes “Danceability has a long history of underemphasis in studies of western music.”
And I’ve only just started reading it (Once I’d put it down I could not pick it up again).
“I mean…” used to mean something like “let me clarify that”, but more and more I hear people START a response with it, and drop it in at random.
Here are a couple of my pet ‘hates’.
24/7
No brainer
At the end of the day
Absolutely.
traction
robust
Throw (someone) under the bus.
impact (as a verb)
On one hand …. on the other hand
Good read
Diva, on this planet, and Breaking News
Going forward
actually – Actually becomes annoying.
experience (as a verb) – “Experience a Florida vacation.”
So is there any rational reason to dislike or avoid these words & phrases, or is it just “because I said so”?
is that, used parenthetically after “is”
the bottom line
at the end of the day
from the get go (or git go)
meterologist
hopefully
nucular
At this moment in time.
“You know what I mean.” (With a glottal stop between the “what” and “I;” this coming from the UK, sounds like ‘Wha’a mean.’
And definately “24/7.” I like to say “24/5″,because I don’t work weekends.
here’s a couple more–
fabulous (unless used regarding a fable)
I feel your pain
“Funky” is much over-used. It meant originally, I’ve just learned, foul body-related odors.
Incredible/incredibly — all purpose superlatives.
Lie vs. lay: the former when there is a direct object.
The American people — whatever was wrong with “Americans”?
For your repertoire of annoying phrases used by reporters, consider, in reference to Martin Luther King, his purported “santa clausification.”
I believe Cornell West is responsible for utilizing the name, as a verb, constructed as a noun again, to denounce how white people need to make MLK friendly and loving, and not, as the FBI called him, “The most dangerous
man in America.”
I detest overly long words which become the darlings of marketing speech for the extra syllables they have over plain English. Examples:
1. “additional” for “more” or “extra”
2. “opportunity” for “chance”, “shot,” “time”.
3. “simply” for “just”.
4. “experience” for “see”, “hear”, “feel”, “try”.
5. “absolutely” for “yes”.
6. “actually”, “literally, “exactly” and others for (heaven forbid!) a sentence with no adverb.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with these words, but that some broadcast school lecturer or other cretin sent out a memo declaring the new word to be superior and the media, marketers and others in the public speech business followed without a scintilla of independent judgment. To see how far they are taking us from plain English, look up the listed words in the King James Bible, and see how many you find–most of them appear not at all, and the rest only in a different form (e.g., “experience” as a noun, or “as well” as a conjunction, but not as an affected, sentence-ending replacement for “too”).