Patterico's Pontifications

2/28/2009

Words It Is Not OK to Say

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:32 pm



Via Rob Long comes this list of words it is NOT ok to ever say..

I disagree with “meh” (a good Simpsons word) and “blog” (for obvious reasons). “Blogosphere” . . . well, I use it but don’t like it. If anyone has a better one for the concept, suggest it.

Are there any you disagree with? And what would you add to the list?

I would add “tweet” and any size on the Starbucks menu.

29 Responses to “Words It Is Not OK to Say”

  1. “big tent”
    “Sullivan is a conservative”
    “better not to vote, since there are no conservatives running”

    Larry Sheldon (86b2e1)

  2. Systemic.
    – most especially when the correct word to use is “Systematic”.

    Joe (561999)

  3. Blogdom?

    Bleepless (4e5b51)

  4. I’m not a big fan of “blog” or “blogosphere” either. Also every time I hear someone say either it’s with derision. I remember Matt Drudge saying he won’t say either word because he’s sick of people deriding him and other people that post stuff online.

    Timothy Watson (92eba3)

  5. My buzz word vernacular awareness quotient steeply nose-dived after discovering I recognized only about 18% of those terms. Probably the result of not having a television feed coming into the house. I’m going to count this as a good thing.

    allan (eb75b3)

  6. What’s wrong with “blog” anyway? Should we go back to calling them “vanity sites”?

    “Nomnomnom” is supposed to be three separate words, “grok” is often useful when used correctly (which is not often), and opposition to “funnest” can only be driven by pedantic stick-in-the-muddery.

    roy (a1e331)

  7. A man who is wary of being called gay should not use the word “fabulous”.

    Andrew (96ab30)

  8. Or, mahvelous!

    AD - RtR/OS (5e419c)

  9. Joe: get thee to a dictionary.

    Or allow me:
    systemic
    adj. Of or relating to systems or a system.
    Relating to or affecting the entire body or an entire organism: systemic
    symptoms; a systemic poison.
    Relating to or affecting a particular body system, especially the nervous
    system: a systemic lesion.
    {Physiology} Of or relating to systemic circulation.
    American Heritage

    You hear the word a lot these days in reference to the banking system. Systemic risks are threats that affect the health of the entire system, rather than just individuals operating within it. It’s a crucial distinction.

    systematic:
    also systematical adj. Of, characterized by, based on, or constituting a system.
    Carried on using step-by-step procedures.
    Purposefully regular; methodical.
    Of or relating to classification or taxonomy.
    systematically adv.
    American Heritage

    Hax Vobiscum (23258e)

  10. Awesome is used for almost anything these days – it’s lost all of the original meaning at this point. So then they substituted ginormous – not an improvement.

    Dmac (49b16c)

  11. Definitely, “tweet” which still sounds to me like something from an Andrew Sullivan personal ad.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  12. strawman
    It gets misused about half the time

    voiceofreason2 (4a44eb)

  13. You can’t use “funnest” unless you are 16 or under.

    How can I avoid Vayjayjay and ‘Vaycay” when I have to call workers comp doctors all day ?

    Sorry. That’s racist; or something. Ask Biden.

    Vagisil is actually a very useful word when dealing with the left wing blogosphere.

    Nope. Can’t do it.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  14. Yet, somehow the slang word for Negro failed to make the list. The seven dirty words? Nary a one made the list.

    I suspect that words referring to the president as a chimpanzee, words which were extremely popular with our friends on the left for the eight years prior to 20 January 2009, will soon make the list.

    The English-speaking Dana (556f76)

  15. I would add ‘hipster lists’ to the list.

    Apogee (f4320c)

  16. Then there’s “fisk” as a verb.

    The usage is an artifact of the right-wing blogosphere’s wildly inflated self-regard and hermetic insularity.

    We could “rebut” an article, or “respond” to it, but that wouldn’t make us feel special. So we “fisk” it and poke our chest out like we’re doing something other than simply responding.

    Hax Vobiscum (23258e)

  17. Any-hoo….Can’t stand that one

    the struggler (f1e6b0)

  18. Nice try, Hax, but no dice. “Fisk” does indeed get overused, but it doesn’t imply there is anything special about the fisker, only the fiskee. If it were named after the person doing the fisking, we wouldn’t call it fisking. We’d call it sullivaning, and trust me, we’d have abandoned that term years ago.

    Xrlq (62cad4)

  19. “Fisking” has a funny history. I’m sticking with it.

    Plus, it describes a particular type of rebuttal.

    Patterico (cc3b34)

  20. Hax #9 – I was about to respond that you seem to actually grok something – and then your true self resurfaced with #16 … oh well …

    Alasdair (6b086e)

  21. “Cooch” was around when I was a kid and it’s milder than the other slang words for the same thing. I wonder if it’s bastardized French “coucher”.

    nk (502275)

  22. #22 nk:

    and it’s milder than the other slang words for the same thing.

    The variant of that particular bit of slang where I grew up is used where I live now to descibe a foam cold drink cozy.

    A bit jarring to hear.

    EW1(SG) (e27928)

  23. And what would you add to the list?

    Chimp. I’m told that’s racist now that George Bush isn’t relevant.

    Pablo (99243e)

  24. Now, there’s a hodgepodge for ya….

    Making the rounds is this “List of Words it is NOT ok to ever say.” (Well, one of the words is a two-word phrase, and some of them aren’t words at all but silly sounds.)The words (or whatever) are presented without comment nor explanation. It’s jus…

    Silicon Valley Redneck (0436bf)

  25. Olbermann

    EricPWJohnson (9dad16)

  26. “I so ____” instead of I ____ very much.
    “Sullivan is a liberal”

    jack (88112a)

  27. With #16, Hack shows just how ignorant he is. I doubt he realizes that Robert Fisk helped us create the verb “to Fisk” with his inane faux journalism. No doubt, Fisk is some hero to Hack.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  28. I would add “tweet” and any size on the Starbucks menu.

    So if the top of a person’s head is seven feet from the bottom of his feet, we should describe him … how, exactly? Non-short? Or is the sh-word out, too, as that was once a size on the Starbucks menu also?

    Xrlq (62cad4)


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