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http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/11/oxford-research.html
According to Oxford, these are the ten most annoying phrased in the English language:
1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science
I think that "Top Ten" or "Ten Most Annoying Phrases" or any list of ten is a most annoying phrase, right up there with "Seven Secrets."
More seriously, what about the phrase "soul mate"? Technically it just means someone with whom one has a strong affinity, but we've romanticized it all out of proportion to mean the one and only person who can truly make us happy. When the magic doesn't happen, how many divorces are caused by this phrase? Ditto for that other narcissistic phrase "Finding oneself."
Complaints about "you know" have been around for decades:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1960/12/31/1960_12_31_023_TNY_CARDS_000265221
I think I would like to add laser focused or focused like a laser to the list of annoying phrases. I know it is early in the year, but I want to nominate it to the group/university which makes the list of words/phrases that should be removed from the language. Does anyone know who publishes the list?
Thanks,
Emmett
In my own experience, the real problem is not the general use of these phrases so much as when you hear a single person using a phrase over and over again. I have a friend who overuses the phrase "zero in." Now when I hear someone else use that phrase, which is not really very often, I think of him. But other people using it does not irritate me at all like when I hear it from my friend 3 or 4 times in a 15 minute conversation. I have even told him about his overuse and he defends it saying that there is nothing more appropriate. Oh well, he's a nice guy anyway.
A government worker wrote the phrase in a blog that I read this morning. He seemed to be parroting a higher government official who, not unlike your "single person", has used it too much and sensitized me to it. It probably added to my annoyance that they were both in the government. If the blogger had not been a government official, it might not have been so noticeable.
BTW, my research needs to keep 60 laser diodes properly focused for there to be any hope of my apparatus to function properly. So, I am not against things being focused like a laser in my laboratory, but, rather, I'm against the phrase's broad and repeated application to items that have nothing to do with a laser.
Emmett
Not having read the book at this moment in time, I feel I shouldn't of criticized the selection of this fairly unique top 10 list. But it shouldn't take rocket science to see that the list is absolutely subjective, and with all due respect, I personally like some of these phrases a whole lot, and will continue to use them 24/7. At the end of the day, we can not be sure of the true motivation of the person opposite thus to justify our feeling of annoyance, and it's a nightmare to try to figure it all out.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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