In the past three years or so the word "ultimately" is rarely used anymore. Instead, a six-word phrase is almost invariably used as a substitute for it these days. Can you believe that! Instead of a single word used to mean "the final outcome" or "the end result" people have now been using SIX WORDS to mean exactly the same thing? Why? What kills me when people utter those six words is that language, spoken or written, is supposed to evolve to be ever more efficient -- to express thoughts using the fewest words possible. This phrase that peeves me so much is,
"at the end of the day." It sounds like you're narrating a fairy tale instead of just referring to what you think is the final outcome of a process.
The word ultimately still exists, unfortunately people get bored with using the same 'word' and replace it with 'a phrase' such as the one you mentioned. The substitution that is bothering me lately is 'that's a lot to unpack' instead of something simpler. I think it's more useful to keep written information as sleek and simple as possible, but on-air personalities often jazz up their broadcasts with new verbiage, others soon follow and it quickly becomes an over-used phrase. A few old stand-by phrases have disappeared such as 'well, the smart money says' or 'according to conventional wisdom' but 'thinking outside the box' really should disappear. Its like fingernails across a chalk board for me.
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