{"id":9841,"date":"2023-11-22T22:57:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T22:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/?p=9841"},"modified":"2023-11-22T22:57:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T22:57:40","slug":"the-words-you-love-to-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/2023\/11\/22\/the-words-you-love-to-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Words You Love To Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Letter from America<\/b><\/h1>\n

If there is one word in the English language that makes my old college buddy, Ruth Hennigan Gerrity, and my mother, Noreen Rooney Sheridan, cringe, it is \u201csnot.\u201d \u00a0In my mom\u2019s case, it isn\u2019t that the meaning of the word conjures up memories of her mopping up the endlessly running noses of her six children when we were too young to do it for ourselves.\u00a0 In Mom\u2019s youth, the now-commonplace \u201csnot\u201d was considered too crude for any well-bred young lady to utter.\u00a0 For a woman in the ninth decade of her life, Mom easily goes with the evolutionary flow of idiomatic English; however, on the subject of this one word, she\u2019ll likely never change her opinion.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

In my mother\u2019s presence, all who know her well substitute \u201cmucus\u201d for \u201csnot,\u201d but that would never do if they were joined by\u00a0Jodie Kucich Shirley<\/b>, who has pronounced this seemingly benign alternative taboo. \u00a0Almost as repulsive to my mother as the word for that \u201cstuff that drips from nasal cavities\u201d are the phrases \u201cshut up\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m booooored.\u201d \u00a0Hearing either of these was enough to drive her to rummage in the kitchen\u2019s utensil drawer for her choice of disciplinary tool.\u00a0 I wonder if\u00a0Eleanor Fetch<\/b>\u00a0also pulled out a wooden spoon when she overheard\u00a0her<\/b>\u00a0kids harshly warn others to hush, because \u201cshut up\u201d ranks way up on Eleanor\u2019s list of verboten admonitions, too.<\/p>\n

In recent days, I have discovered that many (if not most) people maintain unwritten lists of shudder-worthy words and phrases.\u00a0 For reasons unknown to me, the word \u201cmoist\u201d is offensive to a host of folks\u2014women, mostly.\u00a0 How does a woman with this aversion describe the soil of a perfectly watered African violet?\u00a0 The tip of Fido\u2019s nose? \u00a0The texture of her freshly bathed, towel-dried newborn baby\u2019s skin? \u00a0Is the word \u201cmoist\u201d so repugnant that she would rather describe the aforementioned as \u201cnot too wet, not too dry\u201d each and every time \u201cmoist\u201d would serve more than adequately?<\/p>\n

Jill Tasco Easton<\/b>\u00a0and I share a dislike of the new-fangled expression, \u201cwe\u2019re pregnant!\u201d\u00a0 I\u2018m not sure when this started (and why it became so popular is beyond my comprehension), but I have always believed that the only physiologic \u201cwe\u201d in a confirmed pregnancy consists of mama and baby.\u00a0 I\u2019m perfectly comfortable with a couple\u2019s delighted announcement, \u201cwe are expecting\u201d but, until men can fully experience the thrills and chills of childbirth, the mother-to-be\u2019s declaration, \u201cI<\/b>\u00a0am pregnant,\u201d is the only one that rings true to my ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could care less\u201d jars the slats of several of my friends, including\u00a0Anne-Marie Cottone<\/b>,\u00a0Barbara Babowal<\/b>, and\u00a0Melody Learned<\/b>, but\u00a0Philip O\u2019Neill,<\/b>\u00a0who figuratively foams at the mouth when he hears it, defends his position well.\u00a0 \u201cNo, no, no, NO!\u00a0 \u2018I could care less\u2019 means there is a level of care to which you could still drop!\u00a0 If you are trying to demonstrate how\u00a0little<\/b>\u00a0you care about something, the correct phraseology is \u2018I\u00a0couldn\u2019t<\/b>\u00a0care less.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I have yet to meet a man more candid than\u00a0Michael Zerner<\/b>, whose pet peeve is the phrase, \u201cto tell you the truth.\u201d\u00a0 He never hears it without tuning out much of what follows that conversational preface; he is far too busy wondering why the speaker needs to clarify his or her\u00a0own<\/b>\u00a0trustworthiness.<\/p>\n

Bernie Suchy<\/b>,\u00a0Kathleen Ruddy<\/b>, and\u00a0Gene Tullio<\/b>\u00a0loathe the dismissive \u201cwhatever,\u201d generally mumbled by those who \u201ccould care less\u201d about anyone or anything.\u00a0 I\u2019m with them on that score.\u00a0 Even worse is the shortened form adopted by a\u00a0lazy<\/b>\u00a0and apathetic subset:\u00a0 \u201cWhatev!\u201d<\/p>\n

Please tell me:\u00a0 What\u2019s wrong with a simple \u201cthank you\u201d these days?\u00a0 Lately, \u201cyou\u2019re the best!\u201d has taken its place.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re the best!\u201d has even trickled down to the toddler-aged population.\u00a0 After helping my then-three-year-old grandchild in the bathroom, she looked up at me in grateful appreciation:\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re the BEST!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The best at what?<\/i>\u00a0I asked myself.\u00a0\u00a0Wiping a behind?<\/i>\u00a0Maybe I\u2019ll have this inscribed on my tombstone:\u00a0 Name, date of birth, date of death, and \u201cThe BEST bottom wiper in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, \u201cyou\u2019re welcome\u201d has been largely replaced with \u201cno problem,\u201d according to\u00a0Arlene Scott O\u2019Donnell<\/b>,\u00a0Marianne Otremba<\/b>, and\u00a0Maureen Conway McCartin<\/b>, all of whom despise it. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing\u201d and even the dreaded \u201cwhatever\u201d are employed almost as often.\u00a0 Ugh.<\/p>\n

Topping the lists of\u00a0Julie Rondeau<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Karen Ranger<\/b>\u00a0is the expression \u201cit is what it is.\u201d\u00a0 That one is so overused by now that it has lost any of its original suggestion that those who do use it are profoundly philosophical in their worldview. \u00a0More fatalistic is\u00a0Nirmal Gerow<\/b><\/a>\u2019s list-topper: “It\u2019s\u00a0reality<\/b>.”\u00a0Oh, really?<\/i>\u00a0In the same vein,\u00a0Nicholas Graziose<\/b><\/a>\u2019s least-favorite phrase, \u201cit\u2019s all good,\u201d has also become void of meaning, a phenomenon that truly \u201csucks.\u201d\u00a0 Sucks:\u00a0 You guessed it.\u00a0 That word made some lists, too.\u00a0Sara Bojarski<\/b>\u00a0is representative of those who have had enough of it.<\/p>\n

Jason Morhaus<\/b>\u00a0is growing weary of hearing and seeing \u201cYOLO\u201d every time he blinks.\u00a0 While it is true that \u201cyou only live once,\u201d the average life is long enough that one can pick up a good vocabulary along the way.\u00a0 That education should include learning the difference between \u201cliterally\u201d and \u201cfiguratively,\u201d according to\u00a0Camilla Lightfoot<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Bob Clancy<\/b>, and dropping the word \u201cirregardless\u201d altogether, writes\u00a0Lauren Devlin Boylan<\/b>.\u00a0 Surely a few synonyms for \u201cawesome\u201d aren\u2019t that difficult to find, says\u00a0Judith Good Taylor<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The adverb-averse\u00a0Jane Kahan<\/b>,\u00a0Joan Farruggio Chicchetti<\/b>, and\u00a0Mary Ann Dougherty<\/b>, can do without \u201cactually,\u201d \u201cseriously,\u201d and \u201cevidently,\u201d respectively.\u00a0 OK.\u00a0 I\u2019ll cut back.<\/p>\n

It is probably apparent to you by now that I did quite a bit of crowd sourcing in preparing this piece, only to discover that\u00a0Angela Henderson<\/b><\/a>\u2019s list evidently contains the term \u201ccrowd sourcing.\u201d\u00a0 Whatever.\u00a0 That seriously sucks for you, Angela, because it is what it is.\u00a0 Crowd sourcing is the awesome wave of the future. Enlisting the help of friends enables a writer like me to string lots and lots and lots of words (including the word \u201cmoist\u201d) together without doing much thinking. Actually, I could seriously care less about your response and, to tell you the truth, if I hadn\u2019t known you since you were a snot-nosed kid, I\u2019d probably unfriend you.\u00a0 Wait!\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s going a bit too far.\u00a0 I should be grateful that you contributed anything at all.\u00a0 You\u2019re the best!\u00a0 So you\u2019re stuck with me forever, Angela, or at least until I hear you and your husband say, \u201cWe\u2019re pregnant.\u201d\u00a0 Then\u2014no problem!\u2014I\u2019ll have no choice but to unfriend you, because that would be the proper thing to do. \u00a0After all, YOLO. \u00a0And y\u2019know what?\u00a0 It\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

By Cara Sheridan O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.<\/span>” mce_’ + path + ‘\\” + prefix + ‘:’ + addy53157 + ‘\\’>’+addy_text53157+'<\\\/a>’; \/\/–><\/p>\n

Cara can\u2019t contribute her usual weekly article this week so we thought it might be nice to re- run her most popular piece so far which has received over 13,000 hits on DPNlive<\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter – @DigiPrintNews<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2013, DPNLIVE \u2013 All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter from America If there is one word in the English language that makes my old college buddy, Ruth Hennigan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-and-style","category-living-in-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9842,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9841\/revisions\/9842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.webhostlabs.net\/synergy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}