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buzzword watch

faustian bargain

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here's a thread to alert your fellow man about buzzwords and catch phrases that are up and coming, hitting their peak, or past their prime. this was sparked by the 10th or so time i have heard the phrase 'tipping point' recently. i'm fairly certain it comes from malcolm gladwell's book of the same name. i suppose i'll have to read it now. i feel that this particular buzzword is going to become tiresome mighty quickly. so, what have you heard recently? what are you tired of already and you wish people would stop saying? what do you predict will be the next buzzword? /andrew
 

Dakota rube

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(I hope I don't sound like Andy Rooney) I hate when I hear: Myself as in: "Today was a good day for myself." Servicing: "XYZ Company, servicing the tri-state area for 28 years." (I remember when servicing was slang for the horizontal mombo.)
 

Ambulance Chaser

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"Brown is for farmer."  So two months ago.

I'm still waiting for ernest to come up with another one . . .
 

PeterMetro

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Myself as in: "Today was a good day for myself."
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. People always say to me - "You can call Carl or myself." I feel like responding, "Actually, I can call myself, you can call yourself, or I can call you."
 

aybojs

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Not a particularly new buzzword, but one that's annoyingly pervasive if you're in a university setting: "value judgement." Couple it with the stereotypical relativist nonsense and you get something like "You're just making a value judgement. Who are you to judge truth and morality? Every culture is beautiful."
 

matadorpoeta

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this doesn't count as a buzz word, but it annoys me to hear people say 'conversate' when they mean 'talk to.' and i think the words 'female' and 'male' are being way overused.

"hang on cuz. i'm gonna go conversate wit dis female."

and i'm sick of my corporate friend telling me he's going to "touch base" with me later.
 

faustian bargain

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this doesn't count as a buzz word, but it annoys me to hear people say 'conversate' when they mean 'talk to.' and i think the words 'female' and 'male' are being way overused. "hang on cuz. i'm gonna go conversate wit dis female." and i'm sick of my corporate friend telling me he's going to "touch base" with me later.
...but how else are you going to be able to stay on the same page?
 

Aaron

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I can't stand people using "guy" with improper syntax. For example-

"Whoa, guy, why do you talk like that?"
"What, you mean properly?"
"Yeah, guy, like that..."

Drives me nuts.

A.

P.S.>I couldn't stand "touching base" even the first time I heard it. Thank God I don't hear it much anymore...
 

shoreman1782

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Business/marketing:

"moving forward..." Groan.

"meta-" I overuse this one myself, but...

"learning" as a noun, syn. for "lesson." Worst when plural. "literacies" is similarly dumb - though I use it too.

Overuse/misuse of "convene" ("We are convening stakeholders around new learnings, to facilitate knowledge sharing through storytelling activities, and to assist in closing the knowledge/practice gap, in turn encouraging internal quality improvement.") Blech. How bout, "We're training people."

Overuse/misuse of "comprise"

General overuse/misuse of Latin-root words, and pointless Capitalization.
 

faustian bargain

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oh, here's one that surged in popularity late in 2001, and seems to be finally starting to wane: 'make no mistake'. 'at the end of the day' has had a nice long run. time for it to die, i think. oh here's a good one that i've heard for the past ~3 years or so: 'it is what it is.' very useful phrase, when you've run out of other things to say about something.
 

aybojs

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General overuse/misuse of Latin-root words, and pointless Capitalization.
Agreed. I also find it really annoying when people arbitrarily try to use "authentic" plurals for Latin words, but reveal that they don't even know the basics of the language. "Virii" is still somewhat popular among computer nerds, who don't seem to get that there is no such word as "virius" and that "virus" is a neuter noun. Also I hear some idiots refer to "penises" as "penii," when the proper Latin plural is "penes." If you're going to try to be pretentious, at least get it right.
 

nightowl6261a

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My biggest pet peeve word, has nothing to do with biz, but oh how I hate hearing this: Closure My question when I hear that word, did anything really change? Has everything now gone away and been forgotten.....what a stupid word and thought process, I think now I have Closure on this word. Â
devil.gif
 

johnw86

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oh here's a good one that i've heard for the past ~3 years or so: 'it is what it is.' very useful phrase, when you've run out of other things to say about something.
A friend of mine told me he was sick of this phrase the other day--I realized I'd have to monitor myself because I frequently use it when people refuse to accept the reality of the situation. At the same time, I'll add my vote for "whassup, dawg?" A colleague of mine (50-something professor) told me he had been addressed (by an 18-year-old female student) as "buddy." As in, "hey, buddy."
 

topcatny

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Business/marketing:

"moving forward..." Groan.
I have heard a similar term since I started working and it drove me crazy from the beginning.

"going forward"

aaarrrrrggggghhh...
 

FIHTies

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On a similar vein... I am really tired of hearing this kinda lame stuff when we talk about rapists and serial killers.
(CNN) -- Brian Nichols, suspected in four fatal shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where friends and neighbors described him as a respectful young man with a middle-class upbringing complete with plenty of advantages, who was popular with his peers., The only thing I can say is, our hearts go out to the people in Georgia," said Reginald Smalls, Nichols' uncle. "I really mean that ... Brian is a nice young man, as far as we know. I don't know what happened."
 

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