Wordsmithing

Two posts in my news feed got my attention recently. Both of the articles related to misuse of words and phrases.

In a house full of wordsmiths, you can imagine, that would be tantalizing copy for the blog.

The first piece, from Brainjet, deals with buzzwords. Or more specifically, it highlights some words floating through modern pop culture that are way overused. I’ve written on this topic before. Still, I couldn’t resist pointing out a few of the ones that have become like nails on a chalkboard for me.

Or a whiteboard. Chalkboards are so basic.

Put another way, literally, some of these buzzwords, are literally driving me crazy.

Ok, maybe not literally. Figuratively, perhaps. And maybe not crazy, per se. How about slightly annoyed? You get the idea.

How many of your conversations in the last few days featured someone who used literally to emphasize the scope of some thought, feeling or event. For me, the answer to that rhetorical question would be: Way too many.

Or THIS: Literally is way overused. No, I’m past making the point about literally. I’m on to THIS. To me, that is just a very lazy craze making it through the modern lexicon. I hope THIS becomes the paradigm shift of 2015.

A few of the other noteworthy selections from this list include friendly reminder, swag and et cetera, etc. etc. As I’ve said before, I think these words and phrases pop up from somewhere – if you know the origin for any of them, please answer the question below and enlighten us – and then tend to stick around until they become like last week’s loaf of bread. Then, another list of buzzwords magically appears.

Eeesh.

Shifting gears about halfway through today’s post, let’s spend a few minutes considering the other article. This one was featured this week in Inc.com and it highlights some embarrassing phrases that are frequently misused.

I’d love to hear the opinion of my favorite high school English teacher on this topic. I’d imagine she would not have much patience for these malaprops. 

“I could care less” is one of my top choices from this list because it is the big city cousin of our own regional “I wouldn’t care a bit to…”  That reminds me of a couple other regional favorites of mine “kindly flustrated” (meaning, I think,  somewhat flustered or mildly frustrated…take your pick) and “chimley” (which, I think, means chimney, but I’ve never understood why you’d substitute an ‘l’ there for an ‘n’…but…).

Back to the list.

Do diligence also piques my curiosity (ahem) because I find the phrase even when used correctly – as in due diligence – to be awkward. I mean, to make it current, don’t you always have to add a ‘do’ to the front of it. So, in other words, you are going to do your due diligence.

Wouldn’t it be better to simply say that you are going to be thorough?

Another phrase of note from this list is ‘honed in.’ I’ll admit, I hear that one frequently.  Again, one of my favorite solutions to using a phrase that is awkward is to just write around it. So, instead of ‘honing in’ (or homing in) on something, I might prefer to focus on it.

I had a similar conversation with a young writer the other day about the term “myriad.” He preferred “a myriad of” but I pointed out that, “myriad” just sounds tighter. If you can save a couple words, why not.

I could list myriad reasons for the substitution!

You may have some favorites from this list, too. I’d love to hear about them. You can answer the question below. This is a friendly reminder!

JG

Question of the Day: What buzzwords are you tired of? What are your favorite examples of misused phrases?

Originally posted 3/18/2015