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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be sick to the back teeth of fashionable words...

239 replies

Funkyblues101 · 10/11/2022 11:01

"Empathy", "iconic", "brutal" and now "visceral". The hottest words for the bandwagon jumpers.
The use of trendy words put me off a person. Anyone else or is it just me?

OP posts:
Riapia · 10/11/2022 13:34

“Perfect storm.”
What?

WhenIgrowup42 · 10/11/2022 13:35

Cannot stand it when people suggest on social media that others who they don't agree with should "get in the bin."

BellePeppa · 10/11/2022 13:35

Sidge · 10/11/2022 12:27

Oh I have loads. Mostly seen on MN.

Narcissistic, abuse and gaslighting. No love he’s just a wanker.

Sourcing.

Gifting.

Woke.

Hundred per cent, meaning in agreement to something. I want to respond “yeah, 67%!!”

I really disliking the word sourcing. It just seems a fancy way of saying looking for and finding something. You found that lamp you didn’t source it!

Harrysnippleno3 · 10/11/2022 13:39

Dupe is short for duplicate which is exactly what the fake perfumes are.

Phos · 10/11/2022 13:42

TellMeWhere · 10/11/2022 13:23

Oh actually, blessed. Fucking blessed 😡

Oh god. My inlaws love this one. I can guarantee at least once a day they will go on about how very blessed we are.

Ingrainedagainstthegrain · 10/11/2022 13:48

From the examples you've given (highly idiosyncratic) I'd say the problem is largely you.

junglejane66 · 10/11/2022 13:53

Super, instead of very
Inappropriate
Race to the bottom
Hard stop
PPoint stack
Punch downwards
Shaven haven

Flowerfairy101 · 10/11/2022 13:58

Vibes. Can't stand it. Especially "I caught a vibe".

Funkyblues101 · 10/11/2022 13:59

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 10/11/2022 11:48

Curating is one to set my teeth on edge.

Everyone curates everything these days. No, you don't. Unless you're in the business of arranging museum exhibits, you collect stuff.

The word narcissist has lost impetus. Every second person claims to know one, and still more seem to think they're competent to diagnose one. No one would imagine it's actually a very rare condition.

'Brutal' seems fairly run-of-the-mill to me. 'Visceral' slightly less so, although I see where you're coming from with 'empathy' and 'iconic'.

Your comfort should be that buzz words quickly die a death and a few years after they peak, look really silly. For eg., the word 'trendy' now really isn't.

Trendy = point taken, touché 😉
I'm adding "epic" to my list. It should have died a death, as you say, but it's still doing the rounds on social media.
I think it's more the overuse of the words that I have a problem with. Everything vaguely harsh is "brutal", every reaction is "visceral". A few years ago NO ONE used the word "empathy" as they do today. Yes, we knew what it meant, but no one ever asked with their hands raised in horror, "where is your empathy?!" MNetters use it every second word pretty much.

OP posts:
Beefcurtains79 · 10/11/2022 14:03

Harrysnippleno3 · 10/11/2022 13:39

Dupe is short for duplicate which is exactly what the fake perfumes are.

But duplicate means exactly the same, which mostly those aren’t. They are just cheap copies of someone else’s hard work.

Funkyblues101 · 10/11/2022 14:10

FuzzyPuffling · 10/11/2022 13:15

Optics. Especially when applied to politics.

YES. This one too, good call.
Also, to agree with other PPs:

  • All variations of trauma, when used in an exaggerated fashion (obviously absolutely fine to use in genuine medical use cases!)
  • All variations of obsess/obsession (again, when used excessively in that gushy, nauseating manner unique to social media)
OP posts:
Clevs · 10/11/2022 14:10

Super

midsomermurderess · 10/11/2022 14:11

‘Role’ for job. And ‘introvert’ when usually someone means what used to be called shy or reserved. Or from the context, very much here, has poor social skills. It is commonly accompanied by angry digs at pointlessly chatty extroverts.

CovertImage · 10/11/2022 14:20

My list is a Mumsnet-only list. These words or phrases that LITERALLY (:-) drive me insane. Several of them are often incorrectly used:

Narc (esp. this shortened form)
Traumatised
Abusive
Unsafe
Triggered
Broken
On the spectrum
Vile
Grim
Ick
Reach(ed) out
Kindly OP
Offer - as in "I always offer fruit at dinner". I dunno why this one bugs me as much as it does but it does

I have more to get off my chest but this'll do.

Charlllesanoyedme · 10/11/2022 14:25

Snowflake used to disrespect the younger generation. Anyone who uses that word has lost the argument I am afraid.

MavisChunch29 · 10/11/2022 14:29

Can I get? is direct and quite useful though.

Life must be hard work getting enraged by popular language use.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 10/11/2022 14:29

Trendy = point taken, touché 😉

OP - I hadn't realized you'd used this until I re-read your post afterwards, when I cringed at myself! That's pretty close to the accurate definition of PA, (oops, another annoying one there) - and I despise PA.

Sorry!

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 10/11/2022 14:31

Charlllesanoyedme · 10/11/2022 14:25

Snowflake used to disrespect the younger generation. Anyone who uses that word has lost the argument I am afraid.

It was also previously a term used by the Nazis to describe the ashes of their victims falling like snow. Just horrible - and I think less of people who use that as a jibe irrespective of whether they knew this connotation or not.

Justlovedogs · 10/11/2022 14:32

I don't mind any word used in the appropriate manner. I do, however, have two real pet hates:
Amazing - no longer has any meaning as used so much. It even has to be doubled up (amazing amazing) to get extra effect
Unique - something is either unique or it isn't. There is no 'somewhat unique' or 'quite unique' etc.
Both grate on me every time. Grrr.

malificent7 · 10/11/2022 14:33

Well they are better than past horrors such as " chillax."

MavisChunch29 · 10/11/2022 14:39

What would grate on me considerably more is anyone picking me up on my use of language IRL. Rude as fuck.

Thepeopleversuswork · 10/11/2022 14:40

I mean...

I know what you mean about these particularly over-used examples (empathy etc).

But its a pretty colourless world if people are frowned upon for using a greater vocabulary. Given the choice of a world where some people over-use fashionable words but use their imagination and a really dull, vanilla one where everyone sticks to functional, lowest common denominator words for everything, I'll take my chances with a bit of flavour.

Thepeopleversuswork · 10/11/2022 14:41

midsomermurderess · 10/11/2022 14:11

‘Role’ for job. And ‘introvert’ when usually someone means what used to be called shy or reserved. Or from the context, very much here, has poor social skills. It is commonly accompanied by angry digs at pointlessly chatty extroverts.

I'm totally with you on "role" for job though. Awful.

CloudPop · 10/11/2022 14:43

Ironic, when they mean coincidental

BobbyBobbyBobby · 10/11/2022 14:44

Remember when people used to say ‘a cheeky little.....’?

i’ve got to the point where I was contemplating buying a machine gun.

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