Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Weary words

A post on the New York Times website lists some overused or misused words and phrases which should be give a rest:
  • famously 
  • frisson
  • trope
  • epicenter
  • besotted
  • battling cancer
  • lambaste
Any additions?

Labels:

20 Comments:

Blogger Philip Moscovitch said...

Closure.
Roll up their sleeves (re H1N1 shot).

4:39 pm  
Anonymous Jeremy K said...

Iconic.

Blasted. (As in: "Opposition MPs blasted the Health Minister today...")

5:08 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Surely "legendary" should make the list...

5:26 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

arguably.

5:43 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

titular

10:34 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

shuttered

make no mistake

folks

12:32 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

absolutely
(an overused affirmative response which usually ends up translating as "perhaps")

7:34 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

any word with "-ista" on the end of it

"perfect"

9:26 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Burgeoning.

9:47 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Garnered.

9:51 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Random.

11:52 am  
Anonymous Dan said...

foodie

also: anonymous

12:18 pm  
Anonymous Jack said...

Let me be clear (Hello, Steve Harper).
Let me get this straight (in letters to the editor).
At the end of the day.
Back in the day.
Holistic.

2:38 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"So"

to start a blog post

4:29 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Almost every term writers use related to movie production in order to avoid saying "directed" or "shot" or whatever: "helmed" and "lensed" are my two least favourite.

11:41 pm  
Anonymous Jacques Pilon said...

Impact.

Mostly, I hate how it, and a growing number of other words, get used a verbs.

9:59 am  
Anonymous Jacques Pilon said...

Of course, I meant a growing number of other nouns, not words. Duh

10:02 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

beg the question
- overused and usually misused

12:39 pm  
Blogger Whatever You Want said...

moniker

4:52 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How about the "the" in the phrase, "he is married to the actress Penny Ante." What's wrong with just "actress"?

12:09 am  

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