What are your pet peeves re English usage?

@Walter Hinteler,

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Bah-low-knee.
Paow-knee.

Superfluous explanation. I understand that people from New Jersey and NY etc say "Baloney" when they are talking about the (non-Italian) sausage product called "Bologna", but I was querying whether anyone really supposed that it was the right way to pronounce Bologna. That is, the joke consists of pretending to suppose that the pronunciation of "Baloney" is a quirk of English when it is in fact a dialect artifact.

1 Reply

@contrex,

its not funny when you dissect it to death.

1 Reply

@roger,

roger wrote:

I don't know, but it's certainly peeve worthy.

We even have people saying they bought something off of ebay.

Years ago I scored a coup in a thus-themed discussion on the alt.usage.english Usenet group by pointing out that "off of" is found numerous times in Samuel Pepys' diary, and also Shakespeare. It seems to have become disfavoured around 1800.

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

its not funny when you dissect it to death.

One tends to dissect jokes ones does not understand, or if one is unsure of their nature.

1 Reply

@contrex,

sometimes when we "overthink" something, we lose its humor or impact.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

sometimes when we "overthink" something, we lose its humor or impact.

I am aware of that. The fact is that I didn't know whether the thing about "Baloney" was meant to be a joke or not. You do get some really dumb posts here on A2K. For all I knew the perpetrator might really think that Bologna, properly said, rhymes with pony.

1 Reply

definately
would/should/could of

Using "I" in the objective case:
"He gave you and I furtive looks."

1 Reply

@FBM,

Define definately....

2 Replies

@Builder,

Irregardless of who uses it...

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@Builder,

Builder wrote:

Define definately....

The mispelling just grates on my nerves...

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Currently my main peeve is with "police-involved shooting". Why can't journalists just say "the police shot someone"?

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Distains ad nauseum.

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@goodfielder,

THANK YOU! You have identified the TWO non-words that I despise beyond all others!

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@contrex,

bologna properly said, DOES rhyme with pony. Check out a dictionary. That is bologna the lunch meat, or a slang term for utter nonsense, not the Italian city.

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

and, I might add, possibly the most disgusting lunch meat there is.

1 Reply

@MontereyJack,

Not if it's sliced thick, fried, and served on white bread slathered with Miracle Whip.

2 Replies

@roger,

yick. Hellman's, perhaps, would redeem ity a TINY bit.

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@roger,

Mirkle Whip should be classified as a toxic sybstance.

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There used to be a regional fast food chain with stores in Klumbus, Ahia which offered fried baloney sammiches. (Don't know if they're still in business.) They were properly served with MUSTARD.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

And a bonus two points for knowing why mustard is used with preserved meats.

0 Replies

What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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