ABUSED WORDS

@saab,

Soup Nazi.

Grammar Nazi.

"Nazi" Nazi. It's a joke.

1 Reply

@DrewDad,

You Nazi Nazi, you!

2 Replies

@dlowan,

You and your Hitleresque charm....

0 Replies

@TilleyWink,

That's precisely the kind of annoying crap i'm talking about.

0 Replies

@TilleyWink,

TilleyWink wrote:

"it is what it is"

That one annoyed me for a while, too. But it's just a different take on "what's done is done" or "there's no use crying over spilled milk".

0 Replies

"Spilt milk," what you wanted to say was spilt milk.

I hadn't thought of it, but i think Saab is right about the ridiculous proliferation of examples of Godwin's law. Godwin was not wrong about this tendency, and what is amazing is that he was writing at a time when the internet was much less frequented place than it is today.

I try to avoid using the term "Nazi," and if i am referring to Germany in that period in an historical discussion (which is almost exclusively in response to some jerk who either admires Hitler and his thugs, or who is trying to compare them to a modern person or persons) i try to always used NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which means National Socialist German Workers Party). It is correct, accurate and it avoids the needless proliferation of the word "Nazi," which is so overused and abused that it no longer means much more than "some guys i really hate."

Good observation, Saab.

DD, don't be such a "Nazi Nazi" Nazi.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

I might become a recursive Nazi.

function Nazi (NaziNazi)
Nazi = NaziNazi + "Nazi "
echo "You're a " + Nazi (Nazi) + "!"
end function

0 Replies

@roger,

roger wrote:

Crap. People around here say 'no problem' when all they mean is 'you're welcome'. Sounds like they've just given you their right leg, but hey, don't feel obligated, or anything.

It is also used when one passes someone too closely, and one's concern might be that one offended another, so one might say, "Sorry." The reply could then be, "No problem," meaning he/she did not take offense.

But, not saying, "you're welcome" seems to me as though some people are not comfortable with standard formality, and for whatever reason would like a substitute, that being, "no problem." Used like that it sounds to me like a regional usage, sort of like, "Howdie," instead of, "Hi."

0 Replies

@saab,

saab wrote:

The English language is full of words to express feelings so why do women have to say "OOOH MY GOOOD" several times when someone is telling them a story about what happened.

I believe "Oh my God" was started by women, and might have originally reflected a desire by some women to enjoy the extra drama that an "Oh my God" may express in the eyes of everyone. Today it might just be standard feminine behavior. Like hair tossing with one's head.

1 Reply

Epitome: a person or thing that is typical of or possesses to a high degree the features of a whole class. In other words, the average, not the best.

And what's up with modifying unique? Really unique? Most unique?

1 Reply

@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

You Nazi Nazi, you!

In the play and movie, A Thousand Clowns, Jason Robards (movie version, black and white) kids with his nephew in English, but with a German accent, seemingly to imitate Nazi soldiers. Jason Robards plays the part of a secular Jewish New Yorker that seems to have had burnout in his position in the media, and does not know where his life is going. Regardless, the imitation seems to have been used as a way to make that whole era less traumatic, and perhaps a little humorous in the way that zealots can sometimes be seen as humorous. This may have also been the case in Mel Brooks' original movie version of The Producers, where Dick Shawn played the part of Hitler.

It almost strikes me that that use is with us today by non-Jews too.

0 Replies

@Foofie,

It is female behavior also as you said like hair tossing with the head.
It is females who use the same expression in other languages - the ones I know - never male.

0 Replies

On a truly bizarre note, i just returned from taking the little dogs to the park. While there, i sat at a picnic table, from which to watch them do their dogly thing. Among the graffiti scrawled on the table was the following:

Maia psycho Shanimal gene nazi . . .

What the . . . ? ! ? ! ?

0 Replies

@Greyfan,

Quote:

And what's up with modifying unique? Really unique? Most unique?

You're confusing two different definitions of 'most', Greyfan. The use of 'most', above, is not the 'most' of definition # 1, below. It is an adverbial intensifier. The 'really' is of the same nature.

Quote:

M-W

1 : to the greatest or highest degree "often used with an adjective or adverb to form the superlative <the most challenging job he ever had>

2 : to a very great degree <was most persuasive>

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/most[2]

0 Replies

@saab,

Quote:

Calling a politician Nazi makes the real Nazis seem much more innocent than they were.
There is close to two generations who did not live during WWII and know very little about it.

That's precisely why we have intensifiers, Saab. Of course everyone is entitled to an opinion but don't you think it's futile, silly really, trying to tell someone which superlative/intensifier they should use.

Attilla the Hun and some others were probably pretty bad too but we make use of their names.

1 Reply

@Setanta,

Quote:

I want to scream everytime i hear a news reader or commentator use the word iconic. Iconic means ...

Quote:

Grammar Puss

S Pinker

So these are the "language mavens." Their foibles can be blamed on two blind spots. One is a gross underestimation of the linguistic wherewithal of the common person. I am not saying that everything that comes out of a person's mouth or pen is perfectly rule-governed (remember Dan Quayle).

But the language mavens would have a much better chance of not embarrassing themselves if they saved the verdict of linguistic incompetence as a last resort, rather than jumping to it as a first conclusion.

The other blind spot is their complete ignorance of the modern science of language -- and I don't mean just the often-forbidding technicalities of Chomskyan theory, but basic knowledge of what kinds of constructions and idioms are found in English, and how people use them and pronounce them.

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html

1 Reply

@JTT,

Why go back so far in history?
We have Stalin and Mao. Calling someone a stalinist usually means a communist following Stalin´s form of communism and maoist is a person who follows Mao´s form of communism. It is hardly used as a intensifier.
We also have Napoleon who tried to conquer Europe - noone ever says napoleonist.
I react just as negatively when I see someone calling Obama a socialist. It is absurd, he is a democrat, he is not even a social democrat - seen with European eyes.

1 Reply

@saab,

I see a bunch of points of view on language are being punched out. Oh, wow.

are the rest of us allowed to talk, or if we do, is it automatic vilification?

1 Reply

I'm going to go postal if I hear just one more explanation of what someone plans to do "going forward". Who stole "in future" from the language?

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

Use whatever words you want to - we are discussing abused words and I do have my point of view just as the rest of you. I have not attacked any of you personally for what words you are using - just in general what I personally don´t like and don´t use myself.
If I am not allowed to say my opinion without being made fun of as Nazi Nazi or being more or less told to shut up by you I can only say you are bunch of hypocrates.
My long list of wonderful four letters words I´ll keep to myself- jävla skitstövlar

3 Replies

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