A Word By Any Other Name

Like many of you, I’m guilty of over-using  words or phrases in my daily life.  CNN.com did a recent story of overused and annoying words from a panel of reporters,  and it prompted me to think of the words I love and hate.    There’s a  great story at Askmen.com which lists 10 words they felt needed to be “put out to pasture.”  So many popped into mind as I sat down to compile this llist, and my pals on Twitter had some suggestions too.   Here then  I give you  the words or phrases,  Showing Off My Ass-ets considers irritating or tired. On the other side I provide a list of ones I love to throw in conversation for color.

Irregardless This word gets used so often that I wondered if it really might be a word in the dictionary.  Afer looking at Grammargirl.com here’s what I found:

First, let’s talk about irregardless. Some people mistakenly use irregardless when they mean “regardless.” Regardless means “regard less,” “without regard,” or despite something. For example, Squiggly will eat chocolate regardless of the consequences.  The prefix ir- (i-r) is a negative prefix, so if you add the prefix ir to a word that’s already negative like regardless, you’re making a double-negative word that literally means “without without regard.”

Like For fifteen plus years this word has been used way too much.  Remember “Valley Girls” the movie that inspired this change in vocabulary?  Like means : to be suitable or agreeable to,to feel attraction toward or take pleasure in, to wish to have, or to to do well in according to Merriam-Webster dictionary.  Now it is used as a filler in conversation ” I was, like going to eat at like the McDonald’s…”  This is a word I am guilty of using to excess.

Whatever This word has slowly crept into more than just the teen’s lingo, as adults now use it as well.  Whatever in it’s proper form according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary : “anything or everything that, no matter what, or used to express astonishment or perplexity.”  After the popularity of the Legally Blonde movies this word along with the hand movement that goes along with has become a constant thorn in our collective side.  It can be used in a sentence like this ”  I said to my mom, “whatever, please leave me alone.”

For me these three are  so overused and played that I wonder if they will ever retain their orginal meaning.  There are so many more that I could come up with but I think you get the point.

As for my list of words I like to sprinkle in which are overlooked:

• Frothy: I love to use this word which means “light in content.”  I use it to describe magazine articles I might read or a television show I might watch.  An example might be ”  That show was a refreshing and frothy comedy.”  Try it out in conversation.
• Cheeky: I’m not from England but I love this word a whole lot…  Being cheeky to me means being bold and I love using this word to describe myself at times.
• Belligerent: This means to want to wage war or inclined to aggresiveness.  Example of this word usage is ” He became belligerent when I told him to clean his room.”

I hope this inspires you to get out there and substitute some new words in place of the ones you may (over) use  in your daily discussions with others.  Come up with more that drive you crazy and comment for me below.  I love getting comments and feedback.  This cheeky one is signing off for now…