The Figure of Speech That You Dislike The Most

[tora]

When it's super hot and bright outside, my mom always says these exact words, "the sun's really beating down on me" and I hate it! It's not like it's beating her, I think it sounds like the sun is slapping her repeatedly on the back. and it makes no sense. Grr.

 

[Undiagnosed]

someone comes out of the bathroom and syss, 'it's all urn, pee pee"..... SO STUPID!

 

[anne.bc]

"A watched pot never boils."

Um, that's B.S. It boils eventually!

 

[Christian T]

How about "at the end of the day." Sometimes it makes sense, like when a few of my classmates were squabbling over who got to sit where in adherence with strict rules of friendship groups and unbreakable routine - funny, I'm actually describing NTs here, but it's starting not to sound like it - and the exasperated teacher said "At the end of the day, does it matter where you sit?" Fair point, I thought. That was the first time I'd heard the clich?, and it's true. When those students came home, I doubt they would have still been devastated that their highly-structured seating plan was disrupted.

However, I find it really annoying when it's misused. If I was talking about going through my last year of high school, and said "At the end of the day, the final score matters very little," that would be utter nonsense. It would either mean that today I would be finishing all my classes, graduating, finding a job, starting a family and then retiring in time to reminisce on it all while the sun sets, or it would mean that during the twilight hours of each day the score is irrelevant, but during the other parts of the day it's very important.

 

[Geordie]

"You know..."

I am guilty of using it too

But I don't know everything

 

[Ylva]

No, its a different one. It definitely has something about a door in it. I can never remember the exact wording on it.

Walk on the wall?

That one took time for me, at least. How exactly am I supposed to associate someone's Spiderman skills with their feelings of frustration?

"Oh that's Normal"

Say what; come again, once more and slowly this time... how the hell is that "normal"?
If I comment on something I find odd, disagreeable or uncomfortable then it is not normal for me and therefore only normal by majority, what you are insinuating is that I am not normal for finding something off about a supposedly normal thing or situation!

Bah ; ]

Is it possible that they are saying it is normal for you to find that thing abnormal?

1. Can I say something?
2. Do you mind if I ask you a question?
3. LOL

1,2--How would I know? I haven't heard it yet, and if I had, it would be too late for me to answer effectively.
3. Very little is that funny, certainly nothing one has to call attention to by using LOL after it.

When chatting with my sister online, I can tell when I really said something funny because she practically hammers the keyboard.

I still prefer saying "lol" to faking a laugh.

"You know..."

I am guilty of using it too

But I don't know everything

That's mine, too!

Someone will say something, phrase it as a statement, and finish the sentence with, "you know?". Sometimes they will punctuate it tonally with a period instead of a question mark – or I will miss the tonal punctuation and assume it's one instead of the other. It's maddening. (Although I don't mean that I actually go mad, just frustrated with the ambiguity.) i want to go all Gandalf on them and reply: "What do you mean by that? (And how could you possibly know what I know?) Do you mean that I now know, in which case you are putting moderate amounts of faith in my short-term memory; or do you mean that I knew beforehand, calling into question why you just told me? Do you mean to ask me or tell me whether I know, or do you simply inquire as to whether I understood what you said the way you intended, in which case I'm left to ask: how could I possibly know?"

Often it turns out they just meant: "I can't be bothered to explain what I mean, so I'll just assume you know it through some telepathic abilities you haven't told me about, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that you do not understand what I mean, which again would have seemed reasonable if I had bothered to think about it, because it's not like I gave you any hints besides the clich?d ramblings with no context that I just gave you."

 

[TheFoz]

when dealing with customer service or work situations:

"I'm sorry you feel that way"

This never comes across as sincere, it never comes across as commiseration, condolence, or regret.

It just seems like a polite way of saying "You are soooo wrong I just can't be bothered to understand your complaint"

 

[Ylva]

Seems rather like a rude way to say that.

That reminds me of another one. "I'm sorry for something I did" instead of "I'm sorry about something I did." As though they pittied the thing they did rather than attempted to take responsibility for it.

 

[TheFoz]

"A watched pot never boils."

Um, that's B.S. It boils eventually!

Pots of water are the weeping angels of state physics.

 

[Ylva]

"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" is a minor one. Actually, you catch more with vinegar, but that's not the reason I hate it. Why would I want to catch flies, and why would I want friends who act like flies? If that metaphor is to work on any level, you should replace "honey" with "horseshit" or something of the kind.

Really, who wants to be around people who behave like flies scavenging something? I sure don't.

 

[Undiagnosed]

"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" is a minor one. Actually, you catch more with vinegar, but that's not the reason I hate it. Why would I want to catch flies, and why would I want friends who act like flies? If that metaphor is to work on any level, you should replace "honey" with "horseshit" or something of the kind.

Really, who wants to be around people who behave like flies scavenging something? I sure don't.

Ha, Ha, Ha, funny. I never thought of it but it's true......New saying..."You catch more flies with ******** than vinigar",.... hmmmm, you know that actually dose work in mediphore too...

 

[Undiagnosed]

I think someone said this before above but......"it is what it is"...... Whatever?, why say it, it's like saying Nothing at all. Like saying..."today is today".. stupid to say

 

[Christian T]

Fair enough - I now have the same reaction the old nursery rhyme "ring around the rosies" because of its origins in the black plague. The truth can be disturbing.

I have to admit that I was factually incorrect there. According to the tv show QI that song had nothing to do with the plague when it first came about. The only other commonplace description I can think of that had unpleasant origins is "villain" which comes from the Old French "vilein" meaning a serf, those unfortunate tireless peasant workers at the bottom of feudal society, who occasionally would try to take over a manor and claim their human rights, for which they were regarded as evil.

Now we call Hannibal Lecter, the Joker and Captain Hook villagers because underpaid worker = evil (as we show by continuing to use the word), oh what short memories people have when it comes to language. I understand that connotations change words completely, but still, I wish some people paid more attention to why they're speaking the way they are, because it is fascinating.

 

[Flinty]

One I encountered in junior high quite a bit: "a million and a half".

Apparently it means 1,500,000. Funny, but it sounds to me like 1,000,000.5, which is rather oddly specific.::

 

[Ylva]

You know the story of the Ugly Duckling who turned into a beautiful swan? People use that parallel from time to time, and occassionally to refer to me. (Apparently I filled out nicely.)

And it's not that I mind having been thought ugly by people who didn't use it against me. It's not that I take offense at not conforming to the aesthetics of someone. I was not a pretty child.

It is just that… baby swans aren't ugly. They are adorable. They are like cute, tiny feather-explosions! With miniature beaks! The analogy falls flat.

 

[Christian T]

baby swans aren't ugly. They are adorable. They are like cute, tiny feather-explosions! With miniature beaks! The analogy falls flat.

That might sort of be the point. They are adorable, but they're different to the ducklings, and that makes the ducks see them as ugly.

There's nothing wrong with Aspies, we're just not NTs, and being surrounded by NTs who might view us as being weird and deformed, that's how we feel.

Personally, I think the Ugly Duckling is a great parable for expressing the feeling of displacement compared with being somewhere where you belong.

But I know this really is the thread for people who don't like metaphors.

 

[Ylva]

"When all is said and done"

It sounds like a reference to Doomsday.

 

[shinyedge]

when dealing with customer service or work situations:

"I'm sorry you feel that way"

This never comes across as sincere, it never comes across as commiseration, condolence, or regret.

It just seems like a polite way of saying "You are soooo wrong I just can't be bothered to understand your complaint"

Public figures use this sort of apology often. They are never sorry for what they did. They are sorry that you thought what they did was wrong.

 

[shinyedge]

One that I am hearing more and more often is, "which begs the question...."

People use it when they are trying to sound educated, but they are using it with the wrong meaning. They use it to mean, "which prompts one to ask the question...."

I have even read this in the newspaper. Journalists ought to know better.

In fact, "beg the question" is a term used to describe fallacious logic. It means that you are using what you are trying to prove as an argument in your proof.

The classic example is
"Everything in the Bible is true. I know because the Bible says so, and everything in the Bible is true."

 

[Christian T]

I just saw a pretty overused clich? be irritatingly misused.

Film critics always say that their personal favourite moment in a film is "alone worth the price of admission" but this critic was reviewing a free-to-air television series when he used that phrase. There was no price of admission, and this just shows how much of an unimaginative clich? it has become. Why not say that it is "alone worth tuning in for" or "the effort of following the episode for the previous forty minutes" or something that shows an awareness of what you're actually saying.

Interestingly, the show that was being reviewed - the Australian detective comedic drama Mr and Mrs Murder - itself ridiculed the bungling of another clich?: "for all intents and purposes [you are already dead]" meaning you are practically dead, despite any other plans and attempts you may be making to prevent your death, it will happen someone. The character writing the death threat wrote it as "for all intensive purposes" which would be talking about the elaborate, in-depth function of the person's death. "You are already dead for a range of complicated reasons and explanations."

I suppose some people could care less about these things, but I like to be a where of them.