# Meaningless words.



## Olly Buckle (Apr 13, 2016)

They are not meaningless words of course, merely words that have lost their meaning, or have their meaning obscured, I am sure we all have our pet hates, a few of mine.

‘Just’, as in, “I am ‘just’ going down the shops”, meaning ‘I am only going to the shops’, or ‘I am going down the shops right now’  Nine times out of ten it is simply a filler and adds nothing. People use it in constructions like “I am just going down the shops and popping in on Maisie after”, an oxymoron, or ‘I am just off down the shops now’ tautology 

‘Justice’. One of the Law Lords once defined justice as ‘The best possible outcome for all parties involved, the victim, the society and the perpetrator.’ I continually hear people using it as though ‘justice’ is some sort of personal possession or right, “Where is my justice in that?” “I am just looking for justice for Maisie, he should be locked up”. What they usually mean is ‘Revenge’, which has little to do  with any form of justice.

‘Right’ and ‘deserve’, I’ll put them together because they are so often used together, ‘People have a right to the health service they deserve’. They are used as though they are natural absolutes, when they are socially defined. Until quite recently, in historical terms, the victorious had the right to enslave the vanquished, and they were perceived as deserving it. ‘Rights’ can be defined in law, (‘You have the right to remain silent ...’) but the word is frequently used wrongly, ‘I’ve got a right to put my opinion’, no you have not, your opinion is rubbish and I do not want to be subjected to it, hold it if you wish, but shut up about it.

What are your ‘pet hates’, and why?


----------



## midnightpoet (Apr 13, 2016)

Legendary

This is a media thing, even if someone even remotely famous dies - or just gets in the news for some reason they are "legendary."  King Arthur is legendary, Hercules/Heracles is legendary.  I suppose you could say that Elvis was legendary because stories were told of him that may not have happened.  I don't buy it, especially people who are still living.  I know meanings of words change over time, but as far as I'm concerned, this is useless.

Hero

Same as above.  Thrown around like it was nothing.  Football player scores and he's a "sports hero."  This denigrates the efforts of real heroes - like the firemen that helped on 9-11.


----------



## bdcharles (Apr 13, 2016)

"Just" plagues my WIPs. It's just everywhere. I just can't seem to get rid of it. I'm just going to have a massive edit and then everything will be just perfect. It's extra-nefarious because it is sort of semi-invisible. 

And don't get me started on social absolutes, and this whole notion of "having the answer."

All that said, these are things that, for better or worse, people say, so it's all good dialogue fodder. And who knows, maybe we're all better off labouring under these conditions. Can you imagine trying to get a whole load of people on board when they just won't stop thinking for themselves. It would be like herding cats!  Life is a power struggle. What one does with that power is what makes them "good" or "bad", in my own little worldview.

My personal pet hate word? "Service". It quite literally means nothing and everything at the same time. You can string it together an infinite number of times and it would not change a thing. A service service service serivce service. A calorifically negative word.


----------



## RhythmOvPain (Apr 13, 2016)

Omfg, whenever I hear "NAHMEAN" I want to bitchslap someone.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Apr 13, 2016)

midnightpoet said:


> Legendary
> 
> This is a media thing, even if someone even remotely famous dies - or just gets in the news for some reason they are "legendary."  King Arthur is legendary, Hercules/Heracles is legendary.  I suppose you could say that Elvis was legendary because stories were told of him that may not have happened.  I don't buy it, especially people who are still living.  I know meanings of words change over time, but as far as I'm concerned, this is useless.
> 
> ...



Don't forget "epic."  That word actually used to mean something.

If you want to be literal, "that" is very often a meaningless word.  Probably 95 percent of the time, you can remove it and the sentence will be perfectly fine.


----------



## Olly Buckle (Apr 13, 2016)

> If you want to be literal, "that" is very often a meaningless word


Part of the five percent. Did you know seventy six point four percent of all statistics are made up ?


----------



## bazz cargo (Apr 13, 2016)

I find it hard to read my screen after I have Tippexed out all my mistakes.


----------



## Jigawatt (Apr 13, 2016)

I'm guilty of abusing the following words in rough drafts: _that, suddenly, just, really, very, only, in other words, that is to say_. There are exceptions, although I can't think of an example off-hand. Occasionally one or two of these words slip into my posts because I want to write how I speak. Perhaps I should speak as I write? The reason I don't like "_that is to say"_ and "_in other words" _is because the writer is assuming the reader has not understood, so the idea is restated more clearly. Why not state it clearly the first time? Again, I think there are exceptions.

I thought of another: _did_. As in, "He did take the money from the counter." It's better to say, "He took the money."


----------



## Olly Buckle (Apr 13, 2016)

> I find it hard to read my screen after I have Tippexed out all my mistakes.


I bet the Egyptians had a joke about the Babylonians trying to chisel hieroglyphs on to a papyrus. 

Speech and writing are such different things, Jigawatt . Tautology can be useful to emphasise a point, but phrases like 'in other words' do work better in speech where they are recognised as cliche tags which give time for the speaker to think and clue up the listener. With editing one has unlimited time to compose one's words, and the reader can always look back on written words if he misses something... See what I did there?


----------



## Cran (Apr 13, 2016)

The one that always gets me laughing for misuse is _meteoric = drops like a stone from a very high place; forms and falls like rain.

_This makes the phrase _meteoric rise_ an oxymoron.

The phrase that always makes me cringe is _the fact of the matter is ..._


----------



## Crowley K. Jarvis (Apr 13, 2016)

Humility. 

A word forgotten by the modern generation. Almost completely unused, much less displayed by a person, humility is nothing more than letters on paper, because you won't find it here anymore. People, as discussed below, want to have pride, justice, and the 'right' to do whatever they want with no consequences. And god forbid you say or do something that offends a person or group, because they take themselves too seriously to let it go.

No one is humble, no one uses the word.


----------



## RhythmOvPain (Apr 13, 2016)

Love: the most meaningless word I can think of.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (Apr 13, 2016)

RhythmOvPain said:


> Love: the most meaningless word I can think of.



Speaking as someone deeply in love with his wife, you couldn't be more wrong.


----------



## aj47 (Apr 13, 2016)

I think he means in the "I just _love_ that new hairstyle!" sense.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Apr 14, 2016)

All of these things are said, so my characters can, and probably do, say them. To do otherwise would make the chatacters artificial.


----------



## aj47 (Apr 14, 2016)

Jack of all trades said:


> All of these things are said, so my characters can, and probably do, say them. To do otherwise would make the chatacters artificial.



But of course!  Dialog is different.


----------



## DaBlaRR (Apr 14, 2016)

Olly Buckle said:


> ‘Justice’. One of the Law Lords once defined justice as ‘The best possible outcome for all parties involved, the victim, the society and the perpetrator.’ I continually hear people using it as though ‘justice’ is some sort of personal possession or right, “Where is my justice in that?” “I am just looking for justice for Maisie, he should be locked up”. What they usually mean is ‘Revenge’, which has little to do  with any form of justice.




Probably because a lot of people don't like to admit to something as negative as revenge. They justify what they really mean, by using an accepted form of revenge.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Apr 15, 2016)

astroannie said:


> I think he means in the "I just _love_ that new hairstyle!" sense.





astroannie said:


> But of course!  Dialog is different.



And yet the examples are primarily dialog. See your own example above.


----------



## Jack of all trades (Apr 15, 2016)

Crowley K. Jarvis said:


> Humility.
> 
> A word forgotten by the modern generation. Almost completely unused, much less displayed by a person, humility is nothing more than letters on paper, because you won't find it here anymore. People, as discussed below, want to have pride, justice, and the 'right' to do whatever they want with no consequences. And god forbid you say or do something that offends a person or group, because they take themselves too seriously to let it go.
> 
> No one is humble, no one uses the word.



I disagree on both counts. There are those that use the word and those that are humble. In my experience, however, those that proclaim to be humble usually are not.


----------



## Book Cook (Apr 15, 2016)

It has to be "like".

"I'm, like, looking at her and she's, like, telling me about, like, my friends and how she, like, went with my friends to, like, shop for shoes and I'm, like, pissed because I didn't have, like, time for that. I tell her, like, I'm a busy girl, not like her. I have to, like, dye my hair and do my nails. I can't always have time for, like, shoe-shopping."


----------



## Blade (Apr 17, 2016)

Iconic, nothing is iconic if everything is.:deadhorse:

The phrase 'took responsibility for' in regard to terrorist acts. Nobody is taking responsibility for anything.:blue:

Dizzy, groovy. Do these words even still exist.:-k


----------



## J Anfinson (Apr 17, 2016)

I overuse "began" and "started" a lot in first drafts. They can almost always be removed or improved.

So far in this draft I'm working on I have 31 "started's" and 49 "began's". Maybe that's not horrible but it drives me nuts.


----------



## aj47 (Apr 17, 2016)

astroannie said:


> But of course!  Dialog is different.





Jack of all trades said:


> And yet the examples are primarily dialog. See your own example above.



Okay, but if he loves lasagna, that's not dialog, but it's the same concept.

While I'm here....*pivotal* and *unique*.


----------



## Olly Buckle (May 17, 2016)

"Disaster", used as overstatement for a mishap to such a degree it loses value.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (May 17, 2016)

How about _fantastic_? We use it to mean "good" these days, but its true definition is closer to "extraordinary."


----------



## PrinzeCharming (May 17, 2016)

I was just watching a movie on MTV yesterday. I couldn't help, but laugh. Has anyone ever heard of young teens in 2016 using 'phat'? It's an acronym for 'pretty hot and tempting'. How about 'da bomb'? Do kids ever drop the -izzle's anymore? That was the shiznit!


----------



## Olly Buckle (May 17, 2016)

I just read that men are 'fabulous', strange, I feel quite solid and real.


----------



## Firemajic (May 17, 2016)

Olly Buckle said:


> I just read that men are 'fabulous', strange, I feel quite solid and real.




lol, Olly, you can be solid and real... and fabulous...


----------



## SenileBeagle (May 17, 2016)

"I was just watching a movie on MTV yesterday. I couldn't help, but laugh. Has anyone ever heard of young teens in 2016 using 'phat'? It's an acronym for 'pretty hot and tempting'. How about 'da bomb'? Do kids ever drop the -izzle's anymore? That was the shiznit!" 



I've heard them all.  But I'll tell you, Prinze, the one I hate most is _"my bad".  _Drives me nuts.


----------



## PrinzeCharming (May 17, 2016)

SenileBeagle said:


> I've heard them all.  But I'll tell you, Prinze, the one I hate most is _"my bad".  _Drives me nuts.



I still use _that_ only for sarcasm, like being confronted by a belligerent person.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (May 17, 2016)

SenileBeagle said:


> I've heard them all.  But I'll tell you, Prinze, the one I hate most is _"my bad".  _Drives me nuts.



How about "I'm good" as a substitute for "No, thank you"?


----------



## TheWonderingNovice (May 17, 2016)

'Savage(s)' once used to describe uncivilized behavior or people. Also used describe a something fierce and or violent. 

Now it is used to describe any behavior that is rebellious. Mostly people disrespecting others or talking back. It's ridiculous.


----------



## Gamer_2k4 (May 17, 2016)

Four pages in and no one has mentioned "literally"? Okay, I'll do it.


----------



## PrinzeCharming (May 17, 2016)

Gamer_2k4 said:


> How about "I'm good" as a substitute for "No, thank you"?



That's the one I learned to ignore. It's like,  "Yeah,  I know you're good.  Do. You. Want. Some?"

"Yeah,  I'm fine."



TheWonderingNovice said:


> 'Savage(s)' once used to describe uncivilized behavior or people. Also used describe a something fierce and or violent.
> 
> Now it is used to describe any behavior that is rebellious. Mostly people disrespecting others or talking back. It's ridiculous.



This seems to surface more often at work amongst my peers.


----------



## Olly Buckle (Jun 19, 2016)

"I really do think"

I know it is a phrase rather than a word, but so often I want to say, "No you don't, you simply hold ill founded opinions".


----------



## Patrick (Jun 19, 2016)

There are no meaningless words or phrases. There are contexts in which some words are redundant, but I have no issue with words and phrases themselves. Many of the phrases mentioned here are done to add emphasis, such as, "I really do think you ought to incoporate them, Olly." :razz:


----------



## Jeko (Jun 19, 2016)

> Nine times out of ten it is simply a filler and adds nothing. People  use it in constructions like “I am just going down the shops and popping  in on Maisie after”, an oxymoron, or ‘I am just off down the shops now’  tautology



It's an intensifier for limiting action and promoting a fixity upon that action. There's a difference felt between 'I'm going to the shops' and 'I'm just going to the shops'. The latter is usually a response to some expectation of wider action. I don't think 'just' has lost any meaning here.

As for justice, I think it's become a synonym for karma for many people when they talk about 'where's my justice'. The equilibrium. So it's clinging to its original meaning in most cases.

A word that's lost meaning in some circles is 'edgy'. Means either 'avant-garde, experimental' or 'irritable'. Some communities on the internet have managed to confuse it into 'experimental in a way that irritates me'.



			
				Cran said:
			
		

> This makes the phrase _meteoric rise_ an oxymoron.



Etymologically 'meteoric' spanned out into also meaning 'having sudden speed or brilliance'. 'Meteroic' was born as an adjective outside of the scientific discourse to describe such brilliance. So this is not an oxymoron.


----------

