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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To cringe when people say...

570 replies

Dalmore30 · 14/12/2020 23:39

Food being described as ‘beautiful’, ‘gorgeous’ or ‘stunning’ makes me wants to vomit.

I have to bite my tongue when people say ‘fry off’ rather than just fry.

And the word ‘secondment’ makes my skin crawl!

Is anyone with me on these?

OP posts:
wellthatsunusual · 15/12/2020 01:31

Am intrigued by the hatred of the word secondment. What's the alternative to that one?

Like a previous poster, I hate pan fry. Similarly, oven baked. Where else would you bake something?

And rooms being described as light and airy.

BritWifeinUSA · 15/12/2020 01:33

Safe. This obsession about being “safe” is driving me around the twist. I’m in a Facebook group where we share recipes, photos of food (shoot me now), restaurant reviews, etc. When I joined I got a message on screen saying “we want everyone in this group to feel safe, so we do not permit...”. It’s a Facebook group where we talk about food, not road trip through a war zone. I can only use “safe” to talk about not being in immediate physical danger but it seems to be used now to refer to not hurting people’s feelings.

Italiangreyhound · 15/12/2020 01:48

StrawBeretMoose your name is stunning! (See how nice it is!)

Grin
Italiangreyhound · 15/12/2020 01:50

Going forward... why not ...in the future...from this point on...

www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2011/aug/30/mind-your-language-going-forward

Italiangreyhound · 15/12/2020 01:51

""a phrase that business people use to mean someone completely fucked up big time but we don't want to dwell on whose fault it was; instead can we all just adopt an optimistic outlook and please can we all start thinking about the future, not the shithole of a present that we're in?"

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 01:51

@Spybot

I'm in the States. I have to restrain myself when I hear people, most often men, say " I'll do the double cheeseburger" or " I'll do the fried chicken". What's wrong with saying " I'll have the chicken" or " Can I have the cheeseburger". Can't stand it! Another one is that is driving me bonkers is when people say " I'm super excited" or " I'm super pissed off". Why don't people say very anymore?!
Yes! I noticed this a lot on Selling Sunset! “I’ll do a Mimosa”.
CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 01:52

What word should people use instead of secondment OP?

FortunesFave · 15/12/2020 01:53

When I first met my inlaws I was DISGUSTED by how much they discussed the food we were eating. It was all so inane.

"This fish is nice."

"Yes. That fishmonger is the best"

"Is it the one on X Street?"

"Yes."

"It's beautiful isn't it! Really crispy"

I'd be like OH FUCK OFF!

Just eat it!

After 18 years I now join in. They beat me the bastards. It's just easier.

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 01:54

The piece, as in

“We must make sure we consider the Finance piece in this project” or “then you have the whole Health and Safety piece..”

It’s especially amusing to Scots because, to us, a “piece” is a sandwich.

FortunesFave · 15/12/2020 01:55

Cuppa I prefer "of an evening" to the ridiculous and incorrect "On an evening"

And as for BREW.

NO! NO! NO! NO!

FortunesFave · 15/12/2020 01:56

Cheetahs what do they mean? I'm a writer and I call an article a "piece".

So do lots of my clients. "Can we have the piece by Thursday?"

alexdgr8 · 15/12/2020 01:57

i find forward planning strange. there are depts named thus.
what would retrospective planning be.
my dear father used to laugh about a relative's speaking of two equal halves. thereafter if he himself mentioned a half, we would ask, would that be an equal half ? and we'd all laugh.
happy days. long gone unfortunately.

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 01:58

“Onboarding”

As in “I am onboarding three new receptionists today”. Or “we’ll need new staff to do this, we must make sure we budget for the onboarding costs”

Often used with “piece” as mentioned above- “Josie will be looking at the onboarding piece in advance of the meeting.”

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 02:00

@FortunesFave

Cheetahs what do they mean? I'm a writer and I call an article a "piece".

So do lots of my clients. "Can we have the piece by Thursday?"

Fine in that context. The one I mean is when someone is using it to refer to an aspect or an element of a project.
PatricksRum · 15/12/2020 02:02

Pan fry means to fry with little or no oil it isn't describing the cookware. Confused

Bahhhhhumbug · 15/12/2020 02:02

This newish craze of putting a 'So' at the srart of every answer to a question. On a quiz show for example 'What do you do for a living?' 'So.... I'm a twat nurse/estate agent/' Host then says 'Oh really..... and what does that entail exactly?'...... 'So.....' grrrrrrr.

FortunesFave · 15/12/2020 02:02

Cheetas How ridiculous of them. Why don't they bloody say aspect then!?

EBearhug · 15/12/2020 02:03

"Dave can speak to the finance piece." No, he can speak to us about financials.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 15/12/2020 02:04

Mince beef (instead of minced) irritates me intensely.
Ditto mash potato and pack lunch.

And people who aren’t American saying ‘bathtub’ instead of just ‘bath’.

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 02:05

@EBearhug

"Dave can speak to the finance piece." No, he can speak to us about financials.
Ha ha you’ve been in meetings with me @EBearhug!
CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 02:07

Also people who aren’t American saying “regular” to mean “normal”.

“Would you like decaf coffee or regular?”

Minesril · 15/12/2020 02:08

I hate 'of an evening' but have no idea why. It's only come into my radar recently, surely when i was young we would say things like 'i enjoy reading in the evening'?

MinnieJackson · 15/12/2020 02:11

Eewww! I feel sick now

OldGreyBoots · 15/12/2020 02:15

I have an irrational dislike of "lush" in some situations. I don't mind it in reference to food, or to describe, say, woodland, but in other situations ("that programme was lush") it just annoys me! Feels wrong Grin

CheetasOnFajitas · 15/12/2020 02:16

@Minesril

I hate 'of an evening' but have no idea why. It's only come into my radar recently, surely when i was young we would say things like 'i enjoy reading in the evening'?
In a similar vein to “of an evening” I am not a great fan of “at the minute” to mean “at the moment” but it seems to be all the rage- eg “he’s not working at the minute”.

To me both phrases sound like they might have started off as dialect, maybe Northern, and expanded. I can hear Alan Bennett saying them.