Ugh… I hear this guy on his cell phone by me just jabbering away a whole bunch of meaningless bizspeak. I think I have a new “I-hate-this-word.” The word: “Impactful,” which presumably means “full of impact,” but is not, in fact a word. Alternatives: “Significant,” “Important,” “Influential,” “Substantial,” “Consequential” or “with great impact,” “with enormous consequences.” “Impactful???” Please, let me BARF on you, impactfully! Other pet peeves: “Obligated”: This word has, unfortunately, made its way into the dictionary, but can (and should) in all situations be substituted with “Obliged.” Much Obligated, Ma’am. “Supposably”: This word seems to be in my computer’s dictionary too, but should always be “SupposEDLY.” These primates must have a supposable thumb! “Insure” vs “Ensure.” Insure = make contingencies for disaster. Ensure = Make certain. I can’t tell you how many times I read something like “To insure that our trades are executed quickly…” and I want to ask, “Really, who’s the underwriter?” “Incent.” Ugh, horrible. Even worse in the past tense. “He was incented.” It makes me INCENSED! Use “incentivize” if you must, but even better is “create incentives for” or “motivate,” or “encourage,” or “reward.”
I thought “impactful” came from sports patois. “His play was impactful.” Other sports doozies are: sticktoitiveness, suddenness.
I heard someone use eventuate a while back in the sense of making something happen… wtf The misuse of effect/affect is a standard one to add to your list. Also I am amazed at how many people can’t spell definitely. I see it mispelt infinately… Finally, in the UK, a football manager came out with the word ‘bouncebackability’ to describe the ability of the team to come back from a couple of goals behind. A popular sports programme got everyone in the game to use it in interviews etc. Think it made it into the dictionary at the end of the year. I actually support that sort of effort - they made it happen, it didn’t just creep in.
I hate a$$holes who jabber away on the phone, too loudly, in public places to try and make their lives seem impactful. It incents me to no end. Why must these douc*bags be obligated to trying to pretend? Are they trying to insure that we think they are cool? On a side note, my boss doesn’t know the difference between insure and ensure… He wrote an email to me and used it incorrectly. I told him I thought we were in the telecom business, not insurance. We haven’t spoken since.
“Obligated”: This word has, unfortunately, made its way into the dictionary, but can (and should) in all situations be substituted with “Obliged.” Much Obligated, Ma’am. This didn’t sound right to me so I looked it up and you are not correct. http://painintheenglish.com/?p=1669 Obligated is a perfectly legitimate word with a subtly different meaning to obliged. I’ve never heard impactful said but I agree with you that there are plenty of well-established words that already convey the meaning well enough not to need it to be introduced.
Effect / affect is tricky, though. If it was simply affect is a verb and effect is a noun it would be easy, but there are times when effect is a verb. I think the rule is you use effect as a verb when your action brings about change rather than direct change??? I don’t know, I try to avoid using either as a verb just to be safe.
A lot of people think alot is one word. For goodness sake, it is not.
LBriscoe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Effect / affect is tricky, though. If it was > simply affect is a verb and effect is a noun it > would be easy, but there are times when effect is > a verb. I think the rule is you use effect as a > verb when your action brings about change rather > than direct change??? I don’t know, I try to > avoid using either as a verb just to be safe. Effect as a verb is a little different than affect as a verb. The difference is that “to effect” basically means “to cause” or “to bring about” whereas “to affect” simply means “to have an impact.” It’s a bit like the difference between “to rob” and “to steal.” They both sound like the same verb, particularly in the active tense, until you realize that “I was robbed,” doesn’t mean the same as “I was stolen.”
anyways… i hate anyways… drives me up the wall
akanska Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > anyways… i hate anyways… drives me up the wall Anyway, is it ok for you when it’s singular?
goes to eleven Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A lot of people think alot is one word. For > goodness sake, it is not. Thats alotta crap.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > akanska Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > anyways… i hate anyways… drives me up the > wall > > > Anyway, is it ok for you when it’s singular? yeah- as long as it isn’t the first word out of one’s mouth in EVERY sentence.
My Latin teacher made us all expunge “a lot” from our vocabulary, unless we were talking about a parcel of land (He bought a lot of land, lot #6254 to be exact.) or an allocation (Will you ask her to allot these equitably?). I do use “a lot” occasionally in spoken language, but I still feel my Latin teacher’s disapproval (even from beyond the grave). I pretty much never use it in any kind of formal writing.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My Latin teacher made us all expunge “a lot” from > our vocabulary, unless we were talking about a > parcel of land (He bought a lot of land, lot #6254 > to be exact.) or an allocation (Will you ask her > to allot these equitably?). > > I do use “a lot” occasionally in spoken language, > but I still feel my Latin teacher’s disapproval > (even from beyond the grave). I pretty much never > use it in any kind of formal writing. I like it. It will be my 2010 resolution.
I hate the phrase “bandwidth” to ask if I can handle a project. JUST ASK ME DAMNIT, DONT ASK IF I HAVE BANDWIDTH. While I am on it, I hate the phrase “deep dive” just say detailed! While I am on it, I cannot stand people who cannot grasp “can” vs. “may.” When someone asks me “can I have ‘x’” I am just going to reply, “yes you can,” from now on.
Someone in my group always says IRREGARDLESS. This is not a word, and it’s annoying.
How about “Alternatively.” This may be splitting hairs, and it doesn’t seem to be technically incorrect, but I feel one should always use “Alternately” instead. Why waste syllables?
topher Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Someone in my group always says IRREGARDLESS. This > is not a word, and it’s annoying. Irregardless annoys me, too. As does ending every sentence with the trailing off “So…”
This is a good brainstorming session. We are thinking vertically to flush out (drill down) the critical issues by thinking outside the box. At the end of the day we can unleash some key deliverables to use going forward. We’ll need to touch base again to address the metrics from today’s action items used to determine the success of our synergy. Keep up the team work.