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over the past couple of years I have started hearing people say "countless" when they mean "many". Somethings are countless, like the stars in the universe, but most things can be counted if one is so inclined. Where it drives me crazy is when people say "countless" to describe something that can be very easily counted.

Case in point, just yesterday a somewhat annoying chap at work complained dramatically to his supervisor "I have gone back to engineering countless times today".
I happened to be walking down the hall and chimed in "three".
Annoying Chap "What?"
Me: "you came back to engineering three times"
Annoying Chap stares back silent
Me: "I'm just helping you count it"
Annoying Chap to his supervisor "You see! THIS is what I have been dealing with all day!"

Conversate rather than converse makes me grit my teeth.

A Houston T.V. news reader can't pronounce the word "Deputy".

He pronounces it: Dep-A-Dee

I was in an upscale restaurant recently and the waiter announced the soup of the day was: Len-Tin-Ill. Apparently, the word "Lentil" needed some bolstering.

I love our Texas dialects, but there are times when one syllable words are pronounced as two and I find it cringe inducing: Court isn't Co-Urt, Yes isn't Yay-Ess and Vacation isn't Vah-Ky-Shun and Joy isn't Joe-Way.

The infantilization of words has become popular: Can't post the word shotgun, but must use Shotty instead...? Flatty for flounder and so on. Please...stop the baby talk or shall I bring you a pacifier and a sippy cup?

Finally, don't gape and fatuously declare to an adult "Good Job" after they've accomplished some minor effort at your direction. "Good Job" is a perfectly fine thing to say: To a five year old.

Oh, I almost forgot, if it's some geezers birthday - don't announce their age with the word "Young" after the number. Though you may mean well, it's condescending.

The two words thet drive me up the wall are: common sense.

MeMelYup wrote:The two words thet drive me up the wall are: common sense.

Only when it comes from a democrat, or an anti-gun nut.

Abraham wrote: The infantilization of words has become popular: Can't post the word shotgun, but must use Shotty instead...? Flatty for flounder and so on. Please...stop the baby talk or shall I bring you a pacifier and a sippy cup?
.

I have some "younger relatives", well into adulthood, but multigenerational that insist on talking to one another in baby talk. Got one thing to say... CUT IT OUT!!! Fortunately they recently moved out of state, but if you guys happen to see this post, PLEASE know that it makes you look like morons!

karder wrote:over the past couple of years I have started hearing people say "countless" when they mean "many". Somethings are countless, like the stars in the universe, but most things can be counted if one is so inclined. Where it drives me crazy is when people say "countless" to describe something that can be very easily counted.

Case in point, just yesterday a somewhat annoying chap at work complained dramatically to his supervisor "I have gone back to engineering countless times today".
I happened to be walking down the hall and chimed in "three".
Annoying Chap "What?"
Me: "you came back to engineering three times"
Annoying Chap stares back silent
Me: "I'm just helping you count it"
Annoying Chap to his supervisor "You see! THIS is what I have been dealing with all day!"

Priceless!

I know, I know......... "priceless" is irritating....

really?. Heard this around the house from the kids. They picked it up from kids at school. Told them to leave it at school. I don't want to hear it.

When you ask an employee if something got done and they say "It should be!"

complement/compliment - I've even seen it wrong in a PhD thesis. old joke:

The reporter asks the ship captain "What's the crew complement?" The captain replies 'Oh, I usually give them a "atta-boy" or "Good job"!

Yous guys....

To make a long story short....

For the lack of a better word....

Anyways...

karder wrote:Case in point, just yesterday a somewhat annoying chap at work complained dramatically to his supervisor "I have gone back to engineering countless times today".
I happened to be walking down the hall and chimed in "three".
Annoying Chap "What?"
Me: "you came back to engineering three times"
Annoying Chap stares back silent
Me: "I'm just helping you count it"
Annoying Chap to his supervisor "You see! THIS is what I have been dealing with all day!"

That's a riot!

Fiddle-fart. One of my personal favorites. I jokingly told one of my East coast suppliers the other week to "quit fiddle-farting around and get my order to me...". I'm sure the workers in his warehouse hate me now, as he says he uses that term daily.

Imply and infer.

One implies to and infers from.

But what really drives me up the wall is when people can't seem to understand the plain meaning of simple, basic English phrases like "shall not be infringed" and "the right of the people."

Texas_Blaze wrote:really?. Heard this around the house from the kids. They picked it up from kids at school. Told them to leave it at school. I don't want to hear it.

Right? Don't ever come at me with "Right?"....

bdickens wrote:Imply and infer.

One implies to and infers from.

But what really drives me up the wall is when people can't seem to understand the plain meaning of simple, basic English phrases like "shall not be infringed" and "the right of the people."

That one's simple. If you're a collectivist (in all things), then "The People" is a collectivist term. Therefore, The People may be armed through the agency of appointed enforcers and bureaucrats and armies, but not individually. The People's this. The People's that. The People's Republic of Californiastan. If you're a conservative/libertarian, then you properly understand the rights of the people as individual rights.

One of my latest bugaboos...... "Pivot," which from Obama has come to mean "more of the same."