Friday Five - OK, so I'm a word snob

[sugarplumkitty]

1) What word irks you everytime you hear someone say it?
"Skiddish" - instead of skittish as in, "My cat is so skiddish." What? Are they skidding around corners or scooting their butts on the floor? Skiddish is not a word.
"Nucular" (sound it out, people! It's spelled nuclear "nu-cle-ar") Nucular is not a word. What really burns me is "nucular" is now an accepted pronunciation.
"Irregardless" - another non-word. It's "regardless."
Mispronounced French or multisyllabic words. It always makes me think the person is like Bush.. trying to sound more intelligent than they are. My hubby does this all the time. It comes from learning big words from reading when nobody around you uses them, and from hearing uneducated relatives mispronounce the few they did use. He doesn't seem to care that it makes him sound stupid even though he's using the words in the proper context. If I hear him say so-and-so is an en-TREP-an-ear one more time...

2) What is your favorite word?
alliteration

3) What does it mean?
A group of words in a phrase all beginning with the same sound. It's used in poems and advertising. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers...

4) What word do you say far too often?
Alrighty then.

5) Name three words you think other people overuse:
The last irritating one was "Can you hear me now?" but I can't think of any driving me crazy right now.

Comments

[thatvoiceguy.livejournal.com]

What really burns me is "nucular" is now an accepted pronunciation.

You & me both, dear. I may have to start sporting this attire if people don't knock it off:

http://www.t-shirthumor.com/Merchant2/products/nucu.html?Category_Code=tops

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

LOL

[donnickcottage.livejournal.com]

Wow. You ARE a word snob! So you mean the right word is skiTTish because your cat is putting on a skit?

If your husband is like Bush, I can't imagine how you keep from lighting him on fire as he sleeps. I for one always make sure that I have smart people around me when I read big words, so when I use them wrong they roll their eyes and I can tell that I'm a moron right away.

Alliteration is also used in my stories.

Alrighty then, time to go. Have a lovely holiday dear. I hope I didn't say that wrong:)

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

lol, it was the Friday Five! I didn't pick the questions, I just answered them. Normally I just keep my mouth shut about it.

Let me clarify ... Eric isn't like Bush at all. He knows the words and uses them correctly. It's just the pronunciation that isn't quite right.

Bush mangles words his speech writers give him because they aren't in his normal vocabulary.

[yeoww.livejournal.com]

I hate the misuse of "affect" and "effect".

And I think "snittish" should be a word.

STBX says "nuculear." But even he doesn't say "internets."

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

"snittish" oh yes! It should be a word. We could make it one by using it!

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

"nuculear." LOL He combines both pronunciations? That's funny!

"internets?" did Bush say that? He might have been trying to say "intranets" because that's a valid term. Any private network that doesn't let people outside the company into it is an intranet. He misses a lot of small sounds that change meanings.

I miss most of his speeches.

[yeoww.livejournal.com]

That's what I'd heard on the news. Maybe his hearing is poor? My hearing has deteriorated and I miss things sometimes. But no. I think, unfortunately, that the explanation is simple - he's an idiot.

You would love the article I just read in one of the December New Yorker magazines. The author noted that the "red" states (those that voted for Bush in the last election) had the highest feral pig populations in the US.