English Words That Make Me Want To Burn Webster's Dictionary

Being someone who loves words and phrases and clauses, I suppose it only comes natural to me that I would gravitate towards writing as a hobby.

I'd really like to make it my source of sole income...but that's another story altogether.

With hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, there's no shortage of synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms to choose from.  And I have to say that in the case of 99.9% of all the words that exist in my vocabulary, I love using them whenever the opportunity presents itself.

(Though admittedly using the word antidisestablishmentarianism is a challenge in standard conversation.)

But much like any language in the world, there are some words that absolutely make me cringe.  And whenever possible, I try to avoid using them.  It doesn't always work that way - mainly because of the fact that I'll be devoting part of this blog to talking about the words of the English language that I don't like.

In some cases, it's because it's a tongue twister to say.  In some, it's because I hate how the word is used in (and out) of context, and in my most hated word in the English language...well, I'll wait for that one when I get to it.

And I suppose it goes without saying that derogatory, racist, sexist, and homophobic words are excluded from this list because they are ugly enough without me having to talk about them.  Which I won't do because I don't like posting garbage like that in this space.

So, what words do I find myself cringing at?  Here's my list of nominees.

BAE

Seriously, if you're calling your sweetheart "bae", you need to find a better word.  In all seriousness, bae is actually an acronym for "before anything else", but most people who seem to be under the age of 20 use it to describe their significant other - which I find cringeworthy.  Besides, when you translate it into Dutch, it's reportedly means the same as a poop emoji.  Yeah, there's a lovely sentiment to share with the person you love.

SNOWFLAKE

You know what?  I don't have an issue with the word snowflake in the traditional sense.  After all, snowflakes are beautiful and unique.  But when you have people who use the word to describe a person who doesn't agree with their political points of view, it's become incredibly overused, and frankly, it's made me cringe whenever I see the word.

Oh, and one more note.  Even though it seems to be mostly conservatives that use this term to describe liberals, I find that there are just as many snowflake conservatives as well.  Tomi Lahren, I'm looking at you.

MOIST

Seriously, is there ANYONE who likes this word?  It's very oddly spelled, it doesn't roll off the tongue very well, and it makes everything associated with it sound dirty.  Even SuperMoist cake mix.  And everyone knows that cake is the most heavenly dessert ever created.

Well, at least I'd like to think so.

ACTUALLY

Okay, so I have a love-hate relationship with the word "actually".  It's a word that I find myself using way more than I should, and it has taken a conscious effort on my part to not use it.  It has sometimes failed on my regard, and I'm sure that if you look through the archives of this blog, you'll see me use that word a lot in my early entries.  But then I think of how annoyed I get when I hear people use it in conversation and how often other writers use it in their articles and it's enough of a deterrent to not use the word again.

And if that doesn't work, there's this clip from "America's Next Top Model".

And now, the one word that I hate the most.  More than bae, snowflake, moist, and actually.  And it's a word that many probably might be surprised to learn that I hate so much.  But here's my least favourite word of all.
SYSTEM

I hate the system.

No, not THAT System.  I forgot how great of a tune "Don't Disturb This Groove" is!  That System can stay.

But when it comes to the word system, I hate it.  Not because of the word itself, but because of the way people use the word.

When something goes wrong in a person's life, they blame the system.  When a child is bullied and nothing ever gets done about it, they blame the system.  When paperwork gets lost at the hospital, or at a law office, or at a school, they blame the system.

To me, the word "system" is another word for scapegoat.  And to me, the word system is a convenient way for people to shirk personal responsibilities onto someone or something else to avoid taking on the challenge of fixing things or making life easier for everyone else.

I think it's gotten way too easy for politicians, CEO's, school board heads, insurance companies, and anyone else who likes to blame the system for their own shortcomings.  I think that in a lot of cases, the so-called "systems" get broken because of people within them abusing their power and/or authority and how they get away with it because nobody has the cojones to challenge them.  Whenever people cite the system as the reason why they can't...I want to scream at them to stop using the word system and to start using words like "proactive" and "responsibility".

Maybe then, the word system won't have such a dark meaning behind it.  And maybe then I won't dislike the word so much.

But again.  Those are merely my thoughts on the matter.  I want to hear from you.  What words make you want to burn your dictionaries?  Let me have them in the comments section!