Annoyingly misused words/phrases

[Echobelly]

I saw a listicle about 'Nepo babies' of famous people who looked just like their parents, when what they meant is 'child of a famous parent'. Not all of them were in the public eye or attempting to break into the entertainment or sports industry. Nepo baby specifically means someone using their parents' clout or connections to get a career, it doesn't mean 'child of a famous parent' and that kind of annoyed me.

Have you seen any misuses of a word or phrase that has irritated you?

I COULD care less! Seems to be the American use of ‘ I couldn’t care less’ .
Makes no sense at all .

Should of, could of 🤦‍♀️

"Staycation" used simply because a holiday is Not Abroad.

Empathy. It’s used all the time when people mean sympathy.

Rest bite instead of respite. I see this one quite often now!

"Two times" instead of "twice". It just grates on me - "Two times the cleaning power of ordinary detergents!" Just say "twice" and stop infantilising me!

Generally and genuinely.
I heard someone say the other day 'He's a really general guy'.

Came on to say this one.

Pacifically. It’s specifically. It doesn’t necessarily pertain to the Pacific.

"Cheap at half the price".

Of course things are cheap if they are half the price.

You mean "cheap at twice the price" i.e. this is such a bargain that even it were twice the price it's still a bargain.

I'm sure lots of people will be along to say "it's regional".

It's not regional - it's just wrong.

'Half Term' for end of term holidays (Christmas, Easter specifically) - half term is the week halfway through a term.

Don't know why but this one drives me crazy!

I’m super annoyed at the use of the word ‘super’ used in place of the word ‘very’.

It’s a super-new thing. Amongst super-cool peeps. Everything’s about getting super-hungry so eating some super-yummy muffins, or visiting a super-cool new bar. Then they get super-tired and need to do a super-high amount of ‘bed-rotting’ 🙄 in order to get back to being able to interact with the world in a super-bright way.

Wondering and wandering are being mixed up at lot, eg. "I was wondering round the supermarket", were you? What were you wondering?

Just reading that made me feel old and tired. 😳

Some of my younger members of my team talk like this and I inwardly wither to an ancient angry husk inside

‘Cheap at half the price’ is correct. It means that even if said item were half its current price it would still be considered cheap ie good value to the person buying.

Someone i know says 'cornucopia' instead of copious.

It's someone i love dearly and it makes me smile when they do it. I don't have the heart to correct them!

Momentarily means for a moment. Momentarily in the US means in a moment. I chuckle at planes landing momentarily.

Misuse of literally. “I literally died!”

Professor McGonagall says (in the film) “The Sorting Ceremony will begin momentarily”.

using staycation to mean UK holiday is very annoying

I've just been on another thread complaining about this one -

Nickname. When you mean shortening. 'We're thinking of calling her Elizabeth, nickname Beth'.

No. A nickname is an 'eke-name' or 'extra-name'. A name given other than the actual name. Beth is SHORT for Elizabeth, not a nickname. And a nickname should arrive organically, like someone being called 'Short Socks' when their name is David, but they once wore short socks. 'Dave' is not a nickname.

That one is all over MN name threads.

Actually.

Gender when people mean sex.

No it isn't correct. It's wrong.

The correct phrase is "cheap at twice the price".

It's also a lyric in "Who will buy" from Oliver (sorry, doing that annoying thing of everything reminds me of a song!).