Um. . .Like. . .Whatever!
Posted: Thursday, October 08, 2009
by Abigail Richards
Whatever! Whatever! Whatever! Whatever!
O.k. sorry, had to get it out of my system. Apparently 47 percent of Americans surveyed in a recent Marist College poll found that the term "whatever" is the "most annoying in converstaion."
"Whatever" easily beat out "you know," which drove a quarter of respondents insane. The other annoying contenders were "anyway" (at 7 percent), "it is what it is" (11 percent) and "at the end of the day" (2 percent).
You have to give the word props for lasting so long. I can think of many annoying words or phrases that I, for one, am happy did not have staying power.
"Don't Have A Cow!"
I hate to admit, I said this a lot as a junior higher. I remember my mom lost it one day in a dressing room while I was talking back to her saying the above statement. Her response, "I did and it was you!" Needless to say she was a little tired of dealing with a teenage girl.
"Gag Me With A Spoon!"
Could we use a more visual and annoying statement? How many times did I say that as a teenager. Sometimes, I wanted to hand the person a spoon. You know carry one around in my pocket for just the occasion.
"Not!"
I still hear people say this. I think that is why it is so annoying. It went out of style in the 80's.
"Psyche!"
Along the same line as "Not!", this was really annoying when it was followed by a guy rubbing his hand through his hair.
"As if"
This is definitely one of those girl statements. "As if I would go out with him!"
Anything ending in "izzle"
"Fo shizzle my dizzle" I do not even know what that means!
Guess I got a little carried away with phrases and words that annoy me. What about you. Do you have any phrases from the present or past that drive you up the wall? Share them in the comment section below.
This Article has been viewed 1,903 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Very funny Abigail. Shizzle my dizzle? That's new to me. 'Whatever'. :)
Hi Abigail.Wow! I'd forgotten some of those. I haven't used "Don't have a cow" in quite a while. Your mom has a great sense of humor!My current pet peeves are "these ones" and "those ones."Anyway, love your article.Dianne
I gotta agree, "Whatever" is the most annoying. It's not because of the word itself, but because of the attitude displayed. What the person is really saying is, "Just shut up. I really don't care to hear your advise or opinion." And with that, they just shut off their hearing as if the one speaking is no longer there.
I completely agree with your sentiments. I find it fascinating to look at how language changes over time. The problem we have now is, because of the global media and most of the first world's immersion in it, I think language is changing much faster. More people are adopting common phrases and ways of expressing themselves. And what about texting and internet chatting and the damage that is doing to language in terms of the lack of grammar and quality of expression!
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.