Linguistic Pet Peeves

morte, LPN, LVN · Aug 15, 2016

We have a gentleman at work that always used to say he would be OCD except the letters were out of order. Then I took my nursing psychology class and came in to work to inform him he was right he wasn't OCD he had obsessive compulsive personality disorder. The guys had fun telling him that he had a personality disorder for awhile.
Of of course I also periodically call my grandfather just to throw in "me and whoever" did something because it drives him nuts.
I hate it when people worsh their hands in the zink. What does it mean to worsh? Zink is a metal.

worsh, zink, and the infamous ax. are all accents....

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · Aug 15, 2016

Neither is "ain't." I say "y'all" but don't write it.

I am a yankee and I have a BA in English. I only write y'all and I never say it! I love it as a plural you in writing.

When I speak my Jersey comes out and I say "you guys". My husband says "youse".

FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN · Aug 15, 2016

Nauseous is the word for something that causes nausea. Spoiled milk is nauseous.
Nauseated is the word for someone experiencing nausea. A patient can be nauseated.

Not so. Both the Oxford English dictionary and Merriam-Webster list affected with nausea as the first definition.

Krzysztof · Aug 15, 2016

Ironic â‰ simply unfortunate or coincidental

Ironic â‰ ray-ee-yain on your wedding day

Ironic â‰ black fly in your Chardonnay

Ironic â‰ ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife

Ironic â‰ meeting the man of your dreams, then meeting his beautiful wife

Editorial Team / Admin · Aug 15, 2016

Ironic â‰ simply unfortunate or coincidental
Ironic â‰ ray-ee-yain on your wedding day
Ironic â‰ black fly in your Chardonnay
Ironic â‰ ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
Ironic â‰ meeting the man of your dreams, then meeting his beautiful wife

Great. Now I have that song stuck in my head. And yeah, none of those has any element of irony at all.

logank622 · Aug 15, 2016

This isn't nursing related, but I'm a classical musician and hate the phrase "it built to a crescendo." Crescendo is the word giving the performer instruction to gradually increase their volume. So something doesn't build to a crescendo...it builds in or with a crescendo, or it builds to a climax.

I'm a classically trained musician too, and this never even occurred to me. I don't use the phrase myself, but I've heard it several times and never picked up on it. Now it will drive me crazy every time I hear it. Thanks for adding to my list. :)

roser13, ASN, RN · Aug 15, 2016

wrong, orientated is a legit word.

Doesn't mean we have to like it. Makes me crazy.

logank622 · Aug 15, 2016

It drives me crazy when people say "jealous", but mean "envious".

I only recently learned the difference. I think most people think they're interchangeable.

For me:

The worst for me is when a nurse doesn't take the time to learn the proper pronunciation of meds. Metoprol, Alprazam, etc. Any number of variations on metoclopramide or metronidazole. Not only irritating but potentially dangerous. I don't even care if you stress the wrong syllable, but don't change syllables or leave them out entirely!

Defiantly instead of definitely.

"Hopefully". It means "in a hopeful manner". If you say "hopefully it rains tomorrow", you're saying "It WILL rain tomorrow, and it will rain in a hopeful manner". Unfortunately, the dictionary has added "I hope" as an acceptable definition, so I have to let this one go - but darn it, it's just not right! :)

Cricket183, BSN, RN · Aug 15, 2016

I get teased that I am OCD. According to the DSM-5 I am not. So I tell people this finding and that I'm just picky. Of course, they insist I must be if I know that.
Pfft.

I don't meet DSM-5 criteria either. But I definitely have some strong obsessive-compulsive tendencies. I like to call them personality quirks. Luckily, they don't cause me excessive anxiety and for the most part I can laugh at myself and my obsessive need to have things in their rightful place, to have every "i" dotted and "t" crossed, and to use proper spelling, grammar and syntax.

I'm married to a man who has his master's degree in genetics and can spell rhodacoccus erothapolus (one of his first projects) but has trouble with simple words like where/were, which/witch, to/two/too, one/won, and meat/meet. I just smile when I read his text messages.

Another one that bothers me is affect/effect. Affect is a verb. It means to influence something. Effect is mostly commonly used as a noun meaning the result or impact of something, an outcome.

Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP · Aug 15, 2016

This is the difference between American English and English as it is spoken in England.
In England, a car has a bonnet and a boot, and the signs at the zoo tell you not to worry the animals. Were I to visit England, I would try to use the proper idioms.

Yeah it's not like we...you know...invented the language or anything :cheeky:

llg, PhD, RN · Aug 15, 2016

I didn't major in the subject, but I enjoyed it throughout school. There's a line in one of my favorite musicals, 1776, "Mr. Adams, but, Mr. Adams I cannot write with any style or proper etiquette. I don't know a participle from a predicate. I am just a simple cobbler from Connecticut,"and when I hear it I think to myself, "I do!"

Oh ... that's one of my favorite songs from that show.

:whistling:

"Till then ... till then ... I am ... as I ever was ... and ever shall be ...."

llg

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Aug 15, 2016

Lots of other threads on this....

Okay, y'all. In spite of what some people will say, your use of language will influence what people think of you, and how intelligent and/or competent they think you are.
My current number one: You don't LOOSE your license, you lose it. (If your license is loose, you need to capture it...)
Don't even get me started on loosing YOU'RE license...
What are other some other linguistic "nails on chalkboard" for folks?