The Single worst word in the English Language

to me the most beautiful word is FREE and the worst is proprietary

DR Love or can i call you dude love? why so serious dude like for real you need to chill out and let other dudes be like who they wana be ok dude

[edit on 8/4/2008 by razor1000]

Bah I'm so stupid. I have spell check on my computer too!!

[edit on 4-8-2008 by Paresthesia]

For me, the most hated word in the English language has got to be any of the following or a combination of all three: 'MacDonald' or 'Mac D' or 'MacDonalds'. Uuuuurrrrrggggghhhhh!

I would have to go with "Mustache". Or is it "Moustache". and what is the real pronunciation? is it "Mus-tash" or "Mus-tawsh" or "Moo-stash" or "Moos-tawsh"

reply to post by WolfofWar

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I'm not a fan of the phrase: "used to" as in "I used to live in Mexico", "I used to play hockey"

When someone says I used to do something, it implys in the passed but the definition of the word "used" doesnt include a reference to the past, yet people (including myself) use the phrase

The phrase just doesnt make sense to me. Here are the defintions for "used":

employed in accomplishing something; "the principle of surprise is the most used and misused of all the principles of war"- H.H.Arnold & I.C.Eaker

exploited: of persons; taken advantage of; "after going out of his way to help his friend get the job he felt not appreciated but used"

secondhand: previously used or owned by another; "bought a secondhand (or used) car"

Yet when the word "used" is followed by to it can be a verb of the past tense indicating that someone did something in the past.
Just one of those silly English rules or exceptions, not sure which

Or even worse. "Made of fail." When my friend said that I was "made of fail" I paused for a moment and said that that phrase made no sense whatsoever. I hate it when people use "like" every three seconds. And a phrase that I just don't like simply because I can't pronounce it correctly is "deux ex machina." I can never figure out if it's "de-us ex ma-shine-ah" or "de-us ex ma-ch-inah" with the ch german pronunciation, or "dew- eh - ma-ch-inah" or any combination thereof. I usually pronounce it "de-us eh ma-(german)ch-inah" Drives me crazy. Armine also drives me crazy. I can never find a correct pronunciation for that name anywhere. Some say it's "Ar-min" others "Ar-meen", and one name site said that it was "ar-eye-nee" and used the name hermione as an example of how to pronounce it. I'm quite torn between "Ar-min" and "Ar-meen." I also don't know if the pronunciation differs depending on whether the name is used for a girl or a boy.

And my favorite words: phalanges, dilapidated, and aye

Actually I can think of a couple...

my personal favorite word I don't like is 'can't'... I am sure you understand that, but then maybe you 'can't'... argh........................

I don't like simple words for complex feelings either, like 'Love', that is useless in my opinion.

Let's pick on fast food joints...

"Veggies"

"Fixins"

And Taco Bell epitomizes the intentional butchering of our sacred language...

"Melty"

I swear, I could'nt make this # up...

www.theonion.com...

I have a friend who says "slippy" instead of "slippery".Ever since we were kids hes used it and more than once the resulting argument has come to blows.It annoys me so much and the bastard still says it around me just to get a rise.

reply to post by Kacen

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YouTube Link

My favorite word is 'loam'. Not just because of our wonderful ATSer loam, it was my favorite before that. I just like the way it sounds. 'Loam'. Plus, it makes me think of lying back on a soft grassy ground and sinking into it like a bed.

Another favorite is the southernism 'fixin to'. I'm fixin to go to the store...haha takes me back .

I hate when people mispronounce 'spaghetti' and call it 'pisketty'. I also hate 'irregardless'. What I really hate is when Canadians say things like 'south' as if it rhymes with 'both'.

Is that English? I always assumed it was Yiddish.

As far as single English words go, I don't like the word "blouse".

I am also in the "irregardless" and "orientated" hater camp.

Someone mentioned Taco Bell earlier. I absolutely deplore the concept of arbitrarily 'creating' words, be it by stupid teenagers, hipsters or "musicians", but especially in ad campaigns by huge corporations: "FOURTHMEAL" ...I got your fourthmeal right here, Taco Bell. Or how about "Just say, 'Go Large'" Or "Supersize It"? I will not.

I also hate "txt shorthand". So much so that I'm well known among my friends for painstakingly pecking out every single word in its entirety with proper punctuation when I send a text message. I've gotten pretty good at it, too!

I do catch myself typing an occasional "lol" or smiley here and there, though.

And while I'm venting about things I hate, let me throw in bad punctuation, particularly missing or misused apostrophes:

"Your hot!"

My hot what?

Or the dreaded, reptilian "grocer's apostrophe":

"I know how to punctuate sentence's."

Some folks seem to think that every time an "s" is added to a word, it has to be separated by an apostrophe.

Or my most hated pet peeve:

"You should of posted that so we all could of read it. I really wish you would of."



I see these here at ATS a lot. It really sucks for me because it affects the way I regard what the person is trying to say. I try to let them roll off of me, but I guess it would be easier for me to undergo therapy than it would be to educate the masses.



[Edit - Grocer's apostrophe in the word "its" lol]

[edit on 9/6/2008 by Teratoma]

[edit on 9/6/2008 by Teratoma]