Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education, loves to use the word incent, and for reasons I don't understand it drives me crazy. Up until now I've always heard incentivize. Maybe it's the frequency with which Duncan uses the word that bothers me, as well as the policies implied by it. I'm getting tired of hearing for decades that the way to fix the problems with education is to incent teachers, principals, students, and parents, and the way to do that is with money. I heard Duncan say that even the school janitors need to be incented. Why? Do clean restrooms make better students?

I suppose the logic is that when teachers are rewarded for good results that provides some extra incentive to do the extra work in order to get good results. But I still hate the word incent, while I don't have a problem with the word reward, even though in the example provided they pretty much mean the same thing. I didn't really mean to stir up issues about education!

I think that my top two current most-hated words are "excetera" and "anywho."

Etymology, you didn't say why you hated etcetera and anywho. Just curious! Personally, I enjoy hearing anywho, because it is almost always done with a dramatic flourish. But it's rare that I hear it. Maybe I'd feel differently if I heard it all the time.

Stephanie (and hoppy), for whatever it's worth, some people say irregardless to add emphasis to the relatively diminutive regardless. The ir, especially if prolonged and done with a slight growl, is audibly engaging. Those who won't learn to appreciate the effect will continue to wince, I suspect.

Post edited 2:17AM – Mar-25-09 by Etymology Fan

Samaphore, the word that I hate isn’t “et cetera,” (which is two words) it’s “excetera.” There’s something about people mangling Latin phrases that bugs me a little bit (I’ll admit that I’m probably being inconsistent by overlooking other manglings of Latin in the English language). I think my dislike for “excetera” was stoked by repeatedly hearing a radio ad for a business called “Brakes Etc.” in which people keep saying “excetera.” One reason that I hate “excetera” may be that it reminds me of “excrement.”

As for my hatred of “anywho,” I don’t really know what to say about that other than that it seems like a somewhat forced attempt to be clever. When I was in a public speaking class in college, I had a classmate who kept saying “anywho” during his presentations, and it definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

Now that dmonfils mentions it, I’m not crazy about “panties” either. It seems slightly strange that womens’ underwear has this somewhat infantile, childish name when mens’ underwear doesn’t. Well, maybe it's not that unexpected when you consider our society's history of patriarchy and all that, but it still seems a little strange to me.

I'm going to offer "integrite". Had a boss about ten years ago who had convinced himself that this word existed and would use it in every memo: "We must always be integrite in our dealings with customers". Sent him an anonymous photocopy of a page from the OED showing no such word–and incidentally displaying a few synonyms for what he seemed to be trying to say–but it never did any good.

This next is not exactly an objection, but I have a peculiar blind spot when I see the word "excitement" in print; I always try to read it as "excrement". Assuming I'm not the only one, advertising people would be well advised to take this phenomenon into account.

lux rationis said:

In general, I hate it when people take nouns and verb them. “Gift” is a case in point: “Our suggested minimum pledge level is thirty-five dollars, but several callers have gifted [sic] in excess of one-hundred dollars…”
The verb is “to give.” “Gift” is the nominal form. There isn’t any reason to use one in place of the other. I have a feeling that those who use “gift” as a verb think that implies an act of greater generosity than does the verb “to give”, but who really know what they think?

So you don't like it when people verb nouns?

lux rationis in my world nouns and verbs have always been interchangeable. In the Navy we would take phrases, titles, anything we wanted, and make acronyms out of them. Then we would make nouns and verbs out of the acronym. Grant even mentions it in his Official Dictionary of Unofficial English. (*^-^*)

As for what word do I hate I would have to go with irregardless. Don't be afraid of commitment. Irregard or regardless, pick one and be proud of your choice.
Although literally is getting pretty sickening (nothing personal just over used)

- When I was growing up…
— Underwear was not an appropriate topic of conversation.
— A "thong" was "what Thinatra things."

- I am another person who dislikes turning nouns into verbs (or using certain parts of speech in other roles).
— "revisioning" – How is this different from "revising"?
— "You're harshing my mellow." – Did this really originate with the Grateful Dead?

- At times "verbing" a noun can communicate quite economically: During canning season I asked a friend how she spent her afternoon. She said "Janis and I were apple-saucing it." Folksy and simple, but if that became more than a one-time expression, it would bother me.

- "as being" – One of my former bosses used to insert this phrase into almost every sentence.
— "Lock the door when you leave for lunch, as being twelve o'clock."
- I never understood what he thought it added to his speech.

- misuse of "myself"
— "My brothers and myself did that" (instead of "my brothers and me").
— "They presented the award to my boss and myself" (instead of "…to my boss and me").
- Why?
— Is this intended to emphasize "my" involvement? to show exclusiveness?
— Is this an attempt to sound more educated or elevate one's social standing by using bigger words?