Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be sick to death of wanky language?!

423 replies

PyongyangKipperbang · 19/04/2023 01:51

Late shift so cant sleep and this has been bugging me.

Loads of examples I am sure but the two that are currently pissing me off is "curating" and "sourcing".

When did "buy new clothes" become "curate a fresh wardrobe". I do not curate, I am not a curator. I need clothes, I buy clothes, I wear clothes. End of. Also clothes do no go off, they go out of fashion but if that is the case then you are buying the wrong clothes, timeless classics never go out of fashion. You do not need "fresh" clothes.

When did "going to do the big shop" become "sourcing ingedients". Has anyone ever said "I am going to Tesco to source our ingredients"? Have they fuck! If I am making stew or salad or lasagne or.....dog shit on toast (an option I have occassionally offered the kids when they were pissing me off about dinner options) I will go shopping and buy what I need. I do not "source" beef and vegetables, or lettuce or bloody pasta. I will concede that the dog shit may need more in the way of sourcing.

You need stuff. You buy stuff. Why the need for bullshit language to make this boring life task into an "experience".....actually that's another one, I didnt "experience" a restaurant or a stately home or whatever, I visited it.

Now I cant sleep even more because venting has made me more angry!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 19/04/2023 10:52

RollingDownTheRiver · 19/04/2023 09:49

I hate it when someone wants to "share something with you" instead of telling it to you. The only thing I want to share is cake!

This one takes me right back to the mid 90s when my daughter was at nursery school. At pick up time, the teacher would often smile kindly and say 'Have you got a minute? There's just something we need to share with you ...' and my heart would sink. The time she climbed a tree and refused to come down .... the time she took another child into the loo and washed her hair with the liquid soap .... etc etc. I suppose by 'share' they were trying to signal it wasn't just my problem, they were lumbered with it too.

(She's a very responsible, sensible 30-year-old now! Works in a school herself.)

asdfgasdfg · 19/04/2023 10:59

my pet peeve is "hack" no it's a tip, why make up new words when one already exists?

ratherbepaddleboarding · 19/04/2023 11:00

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/04/2023 08:09

Words and expressions become fashionable and you start seeing/hearing them everywhere. ‘Reaching out’ instead of just contacting, is another.

I doubt it will ever have registered with many MNers, but nobody ever used to refer to a ‘newborn’. It was almost always a new baby - or perhaps a newborn baby.
I’m fairly ancient so every time I see ‘newborn’ I wonder what on earth was ever wrong with ‘new baby’.
As for ‘curating’ I’ve seen it on a big sign in John Lewis, who really ought to know better, but maybe not, after signs with ‘gifting’ all over the shop around Christmas time. That’s one that really does rouse my inner Victoria Meldrew. (Aka Grumpy Old Bag, for anyone too young to understand the VM reference).

On a similar vein, when did "hen do / hen night / hen party" become simply "hen"?

For some reason I hate this.

"Going out for Sarah's hen!"

"What should I wear to hen on Saturday?"

🐓

IsThePopeCatholic · 19/04/2023 11:01

I blame: Americans, management consultants, and psychotherapists for this wankathon.

I hate: deep dive, double down, uptick, lived experience.

Anyfeckinusername · 19/04/2023 11:01

JOURNEY!

"We are on a journey" (means: no we haven't achieved x y z yet)

"The customer journey" - their experience!

PATHWAY instead of path.
The graduate career pathway...

PLAYBOOK instead of manual... (ooh, this manual is fun!)

I do wonder if it's that the age of digital that's leading on it, as visually these words can be represented with graphics instead of their original counterparts

DiscoBeat · 19/04/2023 11:04

Great thread! 'Preloved' is one that gets me. It's second hand, and there's nothing wrong with that. Anyway, if they had loved it they would have bloody kept it.

And obviously 'journey' when it doesn't involve at least an overnight back.
'Going on a journey of self discovery'
Or 'finding myself' : just look in the mirror!!

Anyfeckinusername · 19/04/2023 11:05

asdfgasdfg · 19/04/2023 10:59

my pet peeve is "hack" no it's a tip, why make up new words when one already exists?

Oh yes, hack!

And a few years ago, anyone remember everything was a MASH UP

DiscoBeat · 19/04/2023 11:05

And 'grass roots'. If you're not talking about the lawn just stop it.

Thanks a bunch OP, I'm all of a rage now!

Clarinet1 · 19/04/2023 11:06

I’m kind of on the fence with some of these examples; where does avoiding being over-fancy shade into failing to the full richness of
our language? We have an enormous heritage of vocabulary and even grammar from a lot of sources which means that there are often lots of synonyms for the same thing, some of which have additional connotations which may make them more appropriate in some contexts. Also, language has always developed and changed over time so why should it stop?

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/04/2023 11:07

I just had an email from an expensive clothing co. I’ve occasionally bought from, inviting me to look at their ‘carefully curated summer edit’.

ShanghaiDiva · 19/04/2023 11:08

Reach out drives me nuts. It’s contact, unless you are one of the four tops

Guiltridden12345 · 19/04/2023 11:09

YouOKHun · 19/04/2023 10:17

I think misuse of the reflexive pronoun is an attempt to sound more sophisticated. It doesn’t achieve that and it doesn’t make sense - only I can send something to myself!

These threads pop up from time to time and they always contain the same offences: reach out, curate, gifting, handcrafted, pop of colour, sourced etc etc. Another one is “eclectic”. There are so many fashion and gift shops and sites who have “sourced a carefully curated collection of eclectic pieces”. In the small fashion shops near me this means a pile of very expensive shapeless linen bought by the owner at some trade fair having completely forgotten their market. The eclectic (random) pieces (clothes) that have been sourced (bought) and curated (hung on a rail) and languish there until the shop has an “event” (heavily discounted sale).

Show quote history

This made me laugh out loud -perfect example!

DiscoBeat · 19/04/2023 11:10

Another one: 'discovered'. I discovered a wonderful little brunch cafe just off the high street. Well guess what, someone else discovered it first. That's why it's there!

MintyCedric · 19/04/2023 11:12

I may have just used the phrase ‘glow up’ on my website…now thinking I might need to change that!

AutumnCrow · 19/04/2023 11:13

I occasionally work with students and dread the day my resistance fails and I slip into a state of word-based wankery.

When I say 'prepare for the journey', I mean 'prepare for the journey', i.e. have you sorted out your fucking passport and a small backpack not have you achieved Zen and set up a safe space network on Tik Tok.

DiscoBeat · 19/04/2023 11:15

I may have just used the phrase ‘glow up’ on my website…now thinking I might need to change that!
If your website is about lightbulbs we'll let you keep it!

friendsinplaces · 19/04/2023 11:16

Someone in a radio interview I was listening to mentioned her "lived experience" 3 times in as many minutes. I'm screaming at the radio because if she hadn't lived it, then she couldn't have experienced it could she? And why couldn't she just say "in my experience" or "my experience has been" etc??

CalpolDependant · 19/04/2023 11:17

When are people going to sack off all this wanky language and realise that…

“you are enough”

CammieKennaway · 19/04/2023 11:17

I can't stand "I'm telling my truth" - I just think "so just your version then"

friendsinplaces · 19/04/2023 11:19

Has anyone mentioned "my truth", "his truth", "her truth" etc yet.
I hear that and immediately decide that it wouldn't be anyone else's truth and it's another way of saying they are lying. Or at the least stretching the truth in a big way.

FloydWasACat · 19/04/2023 11:19

OP, I think I love you (in a not weird way). You have actually made me properly laugh, and I have really needed that today.

jay55 · 19/04/2023 11:20

"Hold the pen." Is pissing on my chips at the moment.

friendsinplaces · 19/04/2023 11:20

CammieKennaway · 19/04/2023 11:17

I can't stand "I'm telling my truth" - I just think "so just your version then"

We crossed 😁

Kernackered · 19/04/2023 11:21

I remember about a decade ago when people started answering questions with the unnecessary word "so".
"Where do you work?" "So I'm a doctor".
"What is the film about?" "So it's a documentary"
It still irritates me, as though people are in the middle of a debate and need to convince me of something.

suzyscat · 19/04/2023 11:22

I think curating a new wardrobe is different to buying a few clothes and sourcing ingredients is different to a big shop.

When I was sick of all of my new mum clothes (after too many years in them) I took inspiration from some people I follow and bought various items that would interchangeably create cohesive looks, were more like my younger style but more suitable to what I felt comfortable in for my age/ stage. Not that I ever use either phrase but now you've mentioned it I think that describes what I did.

Sourcing ingredients to me is when you're either hunting down something that you couldn't buy just anywhere, or looking for specific qualities - not just whatever's on the supermarket shelf.