OT: This Drives Me Nuts

[jmt57]

My mother and all her sisters grew up in PA and used the word "youns" to describe a group of people. I don't recall ever hearing it from anyone else.

 

[Delicate Genius]

I've had this image saved on my computer since 2017, and now I can finally use it.

 

[turkeyneck]

"nothing to ride home about"

For some reason that popped another one into my head. "If you think such-and-such then you have another thing coming." It should be "another think coming" - because such-and-such being an incorrect proposition then your first think was insufficient, thus another think.

 

[The Trickster]

Something like that is the commonly employed and universally mis-used expression "fish or cut bait". This originated in the days of dory fishermen and was an admonition to not sit around doing nothing. You were either to be actively handling your longline or you were cutting bait for lines hauled in to be re-baited. In its current usage the "cut bait" part has come to mean "give up" or "punt".

That is very interesting to me.
I was unaware of the origin.
I believe the meaning has changed over the years though.
Many people these days don't even know the original meaning of cutting bait (since it's pretty much all prepackaged these days}.

Anyway I share many of the peeves listed above.
But as my daughter is quick to tell me, English is a living language and therefore always evolving
So as much as I dislike it, I try to accept and adapt (not so easy for an old man)

 

[TheRainMaker]

McDaniel and Samuels.

 

[The Trickster]

Irregardless, when the phrase calls for regardless.

As mentioned previously, I could care less when the writer means I couldn't care less.

i.e. when it should be e.g., and vice versa.

Same deal with a semi colon vs a comma.


I will admit to often having difficulty with affect vs effect myself.

This has always bugged me as well.
But whether we like it or not, it's a real word with the same meaning for hundreds of years.

 

[turkeyneck]

But as my daughter is quick to tell me, English is a living language and therefore always evolving
So as much as I dislike it, I try to accept and adapt (not so easy for an old man)

Not to pick on your daughter, she is merely repeating what is propagated in schools these days, but the purpose of language is to transmit an idea via the code of words and grammar from one mind to another. If both minds are not using the same codebook of definitions and rules of grammar then the transmission process is fraught with error.

 

[turkeyneck]

This has always bugged me as well.
But whether we like it or not, it's a real word with the same meaning for hundreds of years.

Harrumph, I say. They are not they same. Regardless means without regard. Irregardless, if it means anything, means NOT without regard; that is, the opposite of regardless.

 

[HSanders]

a lot of people do not know how to use the word "momentarily" correctly.

 

[turkeyneck]

My mother and all her sisters grew up in PA and used the word "youns" to describe a group of people. I don't recall ever hearing it from anyone else.

English is a near-infinitely expressive language but it has one profound defect - no first second person plural. It The void gets filled colloquially in many ways.

Edit: cut and paste error fixed.
Edit again: Oops. Fixed another.

 

[jmt57]

This has always bugged me as well.
But whether we like it or not, it's a real word with the same meaning for hundreds of years.

It just sounds incorrect. When you place an "ir" in front of a word, that is supposed to make the meaning of the word the opposite, or negative. Think of responsible versus irresponsible, for example.

My guess is that irregardless was used incorrectly at first, but as it continued to be utilized so often over the years it eventually evolved from slang to a word that is included in the dictionary.

 

[turkeyneck]

It just sounds incorrect. When you place an "ir" in front of a word, that is supposed to make the meaning of the word the opposite, or negative. Think of responsible versus irresponsible, for example.

My guess is that irregardless was used incorrectly at first, but as it continued to be utilized so often over the years it eventually evolved from slang to a word that is included in the dictionary.

Probably from people conflating "regardless" with "irrespective" and coming up with the nonsense word irregardless.

 

[Ian]

It just sounds incorrect. When you place an "ir" in front of a word, that is supposed to make the meaning of the word the opposite, or negative. Think of responsible versus irresponsible, for example.

My guess is that irregardless was used incorrectly at first, but as it continued to be utilized so often over the years it eventually evolved from slang to a word that is included in the dictionary.

LOL, funny how they can be like, "Hey, that's not a word!"

[People keep using it anyway]

"(Sigh)," - it eventually ends up in the dictionary.

 

[Nikolai]

I could of cared less about what people post. Its they're decision, irregardless of what I or anyone else might of said in this thread.

 

[Ian]

LOL, I love how people in our age group enjoy this topic to the point where we're three pages in - and I'd be happy if it went 100 more as we vent about this. #GetOffMyLawn

 

[Stu Pidassle]

I've heard that for a long time now but it wasn't always so. If you look at movies from pre-'70s or so "hung" was more often used, both in US and UK films. I think sometime in the '70s people started to get uncomfortable with the double entendre of someone being hung and so started to fuss over the "hanged" alternative.

When threatening people I always use "hang by the neck until dead" to avoid any confusion.

 

[jmt57]

I wonder how much of this is due to spellcheck being prevalent in our lives, but grammar checking software being less so.

If a person types something and no squiggly lines appear, the user is given false confidence that the written material is fine.

For example, I spent many years working in a corporate environment in the Tampa area. Various promtions were run to incentivize the sales staff. Sometimes this would be a pair of tickets to see one of the local pro sports teams play. Far too often when a flyer was printed or an email sent out for tickets to the Tampa hockey team, it would refer to the Tampa Bay Lightening, rather than the Lightning. The spellcheck software at that time assumed the user was trying to say the opposite of heavy, rather than the weather occurence that causes thunder.

 

[Stu Pidassle]

I wonder how much of this is due to spellcheck being prevalent in our lives, but grammar checking software being less so.

If a person types something and no squiggly lines appear, the user is given false confidence that the written material is fine.

For example, I spent many years working in a corporate environment in the Tampa area. Various promtions were run to incentivize the sales staff. Sometimes this would be a pair of tickets to see one of the local pro sports teams play. Far too often when a flyer was printed or an email sent out for tickets to the Tampa hockey team, it would refer to the Tampa Bay Lightening, rather than the Lightning. The spellcheck software at that time assumed the user was trying to say the opposite of heavy, rather than the weather occurence that causes thunder.

Spell check can be pretty funny and awkward. Damn you autocorrect Speaking for my own deteriorating grammar, email and texting are dumbing everything down to abbreviations with no capitalization or punctuation. No one has mentioned any pet peeves when it comes to capitalization. I leave you with the sentence to show how important it is. "After a long day in the saddle I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse."

 

[upstater1]

My mother: IRREGARDLESS IS NOT A WORD

Me: but it's right here in the dictionary...

Mom: I don't care. The dictionary is wrong!

Funny stuff -- listen to Mom!

 

[Hyped]

I usually respond from my phone so my grammar is always of