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Original poster

to get wound up by a completely harmless phrase?and what phrases/sayings get your goat

419 replies

mayorquimby · 08/05/2009 12:14

i know on the spectrum of tragedies this falls solidly on the unimportant end, but still what is life without trivial annoyances?

the phrase? it'e when people say "i personally..."
i mean why put in the personally? obviously if you preface your statement or belief with "I" it is clear to me that you are about to express your views or personal beliefs.

so what things that people say wind you up?

cheap at half the price is another.
and also the americanisation of "i couldn't care less" to "i could care less" because to me it no longer makes sense.

i'm beginning to think i am doomed to spend a jack dee like existence getting pissed off about tribvial things people do and say which have no bearing on the state of the world and which i could easily ignore and live a happier life.

OP posts:
fizzpops · 13/05/2009 10:50

I agree mayorquimby, doesn't make sense to me. I wondered if it was one of those phrases that cease to mean anything because they are so familiar and so a mishearing of it becomes the accepted norm.

alibag · 13/05/2009 10:56

Ok, nearly all my wind-up phrases are here, but (admittedly having had to skip to page 14 lest I suffer coronary attack due to indignant rage at all these phrases) I think no one has yet mentioned "to infinity and beyond!" which surely is as impossible as "very unique"? (or am I wrong?)

8oreighty · 13/05/2009 10:57

"it's all good" makes me want to punch people

alibag · 13/05/2009 10:59

also LOL - never sure if it's lots of love or laughing out loud....
and just what does "My bad" mean?...
and I was asked to "4 eye" something at work...
I am going to lie down in a darkened room...

spenthen · 13/05/2009 11:03

Can I just add

"the run-up to Christmas"

and

"Christmas dinner with all the trimmings".

(Yes I know I am being unseasonable )

8oreighty · 13/05/2009 11:06

I also hate it when people "axe me a question" or say "can I lend your pen" as in borrow...

wishingchair · 13/05/2009 11:19

I am, like, soooo guilty of so many of these.

I really really hate the phrase "I'm loving [insert banal item]". Often can be found in "what's hot and what's not" sections of magazines, daytime TV etc.

wahwah1270 · 13/05/2009 11:50

FIL calls DH and DD "mate" - W~HY??????????????????????

WhatFreshHellIsThis · 13/05/2009 12:02

alibag isn't 'to infinity and beyond' meant to make no sense? I thought it was kind of an ironic joke in Toy Story?

I think the point of 'hell in a handcart' is that it would be a really uncomfortable way to travel - so not only are we on the way to hell, but it's a bloody awful journey, iyswim?

WhatFreshHellIsThis · 13/05/2009 12:06

And I'm definitely on the side of think not thing, as explained on www.phrases.org.uk:

"If you think that, you have another think coming" means "You are mistaken and will soon have to alter your opinion". This is now sometimes heard with "thing" in place of "think", but "think" is the older version. Eric Partridge, in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases, gives the phrase as "you have another guess coming", "US: since the 1920s, if not a decade or two earlier". Clearly "think" is closer to "guess" than "thing" is. The OED gives a citation with "think" from 1937, and no evidence for "thing".

wishingchair · 13/05/2009 12:47

Yes WhatFreshHell ... I only ever use that phrase in something like this:

"If you think you're going to school dressed like that, you've got another think coming". i.e. she needs to think again.

Definitely would never say: "you have another thing coming". Makes no sense surely? And I most definitely do not say "nothink" etc.

thumbwitch · 13/05/2009 12:54

I have been thinking about this "think or thing" thing and have an explanation that makes sense to me:
if you take the "think" part in the beginning, to be "expect", you have an expectation of what is to follow. i.e., what "thing" is to follow the expectation. So therefore, if your expectation is incorrect, a different [another] thing than the thing you were expecting would happen (or come) instead.

Fair enough?

I would like to add some more.
"slap-up meal" - wtf?
"why not try XYZ?" because: I don't want to/ the product is shit/ I could have thought of that myself/ you are a patronising git (delete as applicable)

TheConstantIroner · 13/05/2009 13:03

Not a well known phrase, but an expression I often hear:

When arranging for DS to play at a friends house one morning, friend's mother asks me,

"Would you like me to lunch him before you pick-up"?

wtf?!

thumbwitch · 13/05/2009 13:08

oooh, not one I've ever heard before and seriously never hope to hear in RL! mental...

TheConstantIroner · 13/05/2009 13:16

( friend's house)

" I'll pop round after I've lunched the boys"

I cringe every time I hear it.

Dillydaydreamer · 13/05/2009 14:02

Worse than nothink is noffink

Dillydaydreamer · 13/05/2009 14:04

Lunched Fed and watered like a delicate flower that will wilt

KERALA1 · 13/05/2009 14:24

"At the end of the day" errgh what does this add, a waste of words.

"Change yer bum" instead of changing a nappy - immediately marks the speaker out as rough as old boots. "Go wee wee" spoken by an adult has the same effect.

"Tummy time" for a baby to play on its front. Isufferably naff and twee.

wishingchair · 13/05/2009 14:51

thumbwitch ... ok but then if you take my example but using your words it would become:

"if you expect to be able to go to school dressed like that, you've got another thing coming".

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What other thing will be coming? Wouldn't you just say "if you expect to be able to go to school dressed like that, you're wrong/you need to think again".

I'm still firmly in the 'think' camp.

chegirl · 13/05/2009 15:02

I really hate 'its meat and drink to him/her/them' I dont know why. I just think its horrible.

I nearly shit myself - How crude can you get? I mean I am common but even I have to draw the line.

Why do people insist on saying pacific when its bloody SPECIFIC you morons.

'The crux of the matter' makes me cringe. Dont know why maybe its too much like crotch

Credit crunch gets on my bloody nerves.

Oh and there is this flipping weather girl who insists on describing crappy weather as 'mist and murk' SHUT UP you silly bint.

I am sure there are loads more because I am very grumpy.

wishingchair · 13/05/2009 15:06

And who are those people who say "thery" instead of "very". I used to work with someone (in her 50s) who did this all the time. Had visions of her being corrected over and over again at primary school so she said "the" instead of "ve", so much so that every 'v' sound becomes 'th'.

Grrr.

Poledra · 13/05/2009 15:07

I say Change your bottom to DD3 - does that mean I'm only as rough as old shoes?

As for 'lunched' - wtf??

Dillydaydreamer · 13/05/2009 15:22

Changing a bum is a regional thing, northern passed on from parents. For those snobs among you
I say it because my mum said it and am neither rough or uneducated. So there! At the end of the day ........ it gets dark.

jumpingbeans · 13/05/2009 15:33

None of you are "thinking outside the box! arggggggg, that drives me loopy, after reading this lot, it is quite clear, whatever you say is going to piss someone off, and ladyaga, wtf is fanny batter?

womma · 13/05/2009 16:54

Oh lordy, all of the above.
I really hate the use of as, eg 'I can't go out as I have no money'....it's BECAUSE you effing moron!! I just hate it, it makes my eyes bleed.
And 'it's all good'...no it's ruddy well not, and who are you, Lisa Ianson?
But, at the end of the day, you just have to literally turn round and say...dies from lack of will to live brought on by other people

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