Driftglass has a list of "some expressions to be put down like sick dogs in 2010". My favorite:
"Impactful" -- The go-to word for illiterate executives who dare not admit that they made it all the way into a corner office with ever learning the difference between "affect" and "effect".
Thank you! I hate the misuse of the word "impact" when people actually mean "affect." If I taunt you, I am affecting you. If I punch you in the head (for misusing the word impact), I (or, more accurately, my fist) am impacting you.
I'm not sure this misuse has as much to do with illiteracy, as it does that business types like to use Manly, Big Swinging Cock words.
Either way, I hope driftglass is right. Now, as the kids say, go read the whole thing.
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THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, said Death.
"What does it contain, then?"
ME.
"Besides you, I mean!"
Death gave him a puzzled look. I'M SORRY?
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It's a few years old now, but "It is what it is" makes me gag.
And I don't like the use of "grow" as a transitive verb. You don't "grow" your business, you manage it so that it grows. (Yes, I know people say "grow corn," for instance, but I view that as an idiom. You plant corn, and the corn grows.)
And don't get me started about "organic" to refer to anything but a compound of (at least) hydrogen and carbon.
It's really an old problem. One classic episode of Barney Miller back in the *70s* had a case where an community college English professor got in a fist-fight with the advertising exec who was responsible for the made-up words and bad grammar in a pickle ad on the bus route they were both on.
30 years later, we still complain about it, so I kinda think it is a lost cause...
It's still worth making a stink once in a while. I wrote an angry email on another topic to a local retailer who spelled "every day" as one word (in the wrong context, of course). They actually changed the sign.
The sign said something like "Everyday you use your discount card..." It should have been two words in that context.
My fist am impacting you? Good one!
"tough decisions" which term came out of the G Bush White House is one that most irritates me. He himself wanted to appear tough. Now the print, tv, and wire media writers will say "tough decisions" as a matter of course regarding anybody or anything.
The use of the term 'less' when they mean 'fewer" is grating. This is a battle I feel I will lose because it shows up on the news and major media.