Do makey-uppy words piss you off ?

Not as much as when people decide that a they'd like a word with an already established meaning to mean something else.

raah! wrote: »

Not as much as when people decide that a they'd like a word with an already established meaning to mean something else.

Like 'revert'. People sending me emails at work saying 'I will revert with feedback'

Really? You will return to your original state? Fvck off and learn some English you twat!

Anyone else not realise Lawnmower is a shortened word?

Most of them don't really annoy me that much, but I do hate the word "recessionista" :mad:

Mostly cos it's said either by or about people who have barely even noticed there's a recession on, e.g. "Kate Middleton wears outfit more than once/wears something from Zara- what a recessionista!!!"

Yeah, poor auld Kate's money situation is only shockin', the poor creathur.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

It's a composite word : "lawn" & "mower"

There's no letters stripped out of that, as far as I can see.

The issue with "staycation" :rolleyes: is that it should be "stayvacation" and they have actually shortened it.

Enlighten me, though - what letters were removed in "lawnmower" ?

I thought you meant it was since you used it as an example earlier in the thread, I wasn't aware that it was a shortened word and must have mis-read your post.

I hate lots of modern portmanteaux like "staycation" and "guesstimate" (aren't a guess and estimate almost the same thing anyway?)
Business speak also, especially "going forward." Maybe someone can enlighten me, but doesn't it just mean "going forward in time," which is what we're all doing anyway?

What really bugs me is the unnecessary and lazy shortening of words, which seems to happen on American TV more often than it does here. On the many occasions on which I've had to watch E! News unwillingly, I get a little spasm of rage when they say "photog" instead of "photographer."
On Criminal Minds, when they're searching for the killer, they call him or her "the unsup." I think it might be short for "unidentified suspect."
The worst is the CSI programmes where they say "vic" instead of "victim." They really can't be bothered saying a whole extra syllable composed of three more letters?

Reading about sports in newspapers in America was also like reading a whole new language at times. I never knew "winningest" was used seriously to mean "most successful." The most annoying thing though, was a headline about a young up-and-coming footballer. It's common in U.S sports to describe a really good player as a "phenom" - short for "phenomenon." This headline read: "He's Phenom-enal!" What was the point of the hyphen!? Didn't the sub-editor actually realise the "word "phenom" comes from "phenomenom!?"

End of rant. I just really hate laziness in language.

I can't stand this new trend of adding 'gate' at the end of some scandal. E.g. 'Bloodgate' or 'Piggygate'.

ScienceNerd wrote: »

The word "guesstimate" always makes me irrationally annoyed.

It's a word. Estimate is based on an analysis of information and statistics. A guesstimate is similar, but involves more of an element of guesswork.

guesstimate(guess|ti¦mate)

(also guestimate)
informal

nounPronunciation:/ˈgɛstɪmət/

• an estimate based on a mixture of guesswork and calculation:a rough guesstimate of public expenditure

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/guesstimate

I need to "axe" you a question.

"Paccificly" instead of specifically bugs the crap out of me, although that's just poor language skills more than deliberately sodomising it.