What is your least favourite word?

[RuthieG]

Oxford Dictionaries have a OneWordMap where you can submit your least favourite word:
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/one-word-map/#

Personally I cannot understand why the most popular choice is currently "moist", a good old Anglo-Norman word with a very precise meaning. I was torn myself, and could have chosen nearly any newly coined awful word, but I had to go with my inexplicable lifelong hatred for the word "belly".

EDIT: Regrettably, as MaryAnn points out later in this thread, this has been discontinued on the OED site owing to "severe misuse" . However, do please continue here!

Ruth

[Peter Why]

I've just added "empowerment"

Peter

[MARTIN GEESON]

I nominate brigade. - This is the automatic choice of the intolerant sub-intelligentsia when they wish to portray those who think or live differently from themselves as an organised group dedicated to the overthrow of Common Sense, religion, decency and everything which made Britain great.

"PC brigade", "gay brigade", "leftist brigade" - the march of the forces of Chaos is deafening.

Martin

[StoryTeller]

But Ruth! Bellies are funny.

I would nominate 'passion' ... if only I could be bothered. (*wink*)

[MaryAnnSpiegel]

Update: We regret to inform users that due to severe misuse we have had to remove this feature from our website.

Unfortunate. It sounded like a lot of fun.
MaryAnn

[Elizabby]

I can't stand "nice" - it is used to mean a whole gamut of impressions, none of which is the original meaning! (Precise, or refined.)

I also dislike the usage of the word "literally" - nothing wrong with the word itself but using it to mean it's own opposite makes my eyes cross! (Metaphorically.)

[barbara2]

I've just added "empowerment"

Peter

"Empowerment" yes, it qualifies for me too as does most contentless jargon. But my favourites at the moment are the many self-congratulatory words infesting the interior decoration magazines I'm addicted to. Here's just one:

"a creative" (used as a noun).

Ha! I googled and discovered where to look for some - http://www.findacreative.com.au/.

Best,

Barbara

[SonOfTheExiles]

The noun "workshop" used as a verb.

SOTE

[VfkaBT]

Movie, used as a verb, as in the noxious Turner Classic Movie channel meme "Let's movie!" I gather it comes from the same school as 'let's motor', which I first heard in the movie Heathers, uttered by Winona Ryder. I love that movie, most classic movies, but not bad logos.

[gypsygirl]

I was torn myself, and could have chosen nearly any newly coined awful word, but I had to go with my inexplicable lifelong hatred for the word "belly".

I much prefer tummy, which is the word we used in my family when I was growing up.

I don't like the word flesh. I always get a shudder when I see it used in old cookbooks. I'd much rather eat meat than flesh.

[SonOfTheExiles]

"I much prefer tummy, which is the word we used in my family when I was growing up."

My grandmother (b.1889) used to sometimes called it the "pinny", as in to have "a pain in the pinny". I realised years later that it derived from "pinafore", an apron worn or "pinned afore".

I haven't thought of that in years.


SOTE

[carteki]

My teacher at school hated us using "nice", esp "very nice". I don't know what to replace it with - no real catch all other word exists.

I thought that this post was for words you hated reading. One non-native English speaker dislikes the word "bow" because it can be made to rhyme with "hoe" or "how" depending on the intended meaning.

[Piotrek81]

My teacher at school hated us using "nice", esp "very nice". I don't know what to replace it with - no real catch all other word exists.

I thought that this post was for words you hated reading. One non-native English speaker dislikes the word "bow" because it can be made to rhyme with "hoe" or "how" depending on the intended meaning.

And this non-native speaker still dislikes the word

As a non-native speaker I could look at this question from several perspectives:
- the word I dislike most based on its sound
- the the word I dislike most based on its pronunciation (here English has so much to offer )
- the words which are frustrating to try and translate into Polish either because they are more vague or more nuanced than their Polish equivalents

One word which I dislike from this last perspective is a super common word "friend". I dislike it because it's so vague and it seems that in the everyday language it can mean both someone you occassionally have a beer with as well as someone who you'd give your life for (yeah, I realise that you can modify the word by adding "close", "best", etc.). It doesn't help that in Polish this word is routinely translated as "przyjaciel", the Polish for close friend. So confusing For more casual types of relationship we have a word "znajomy" ("aquaintance").

[TriciaG]

One word which I dislike from this last perspective is a super common word "friend". I dislike it because it's so vague and it seems that in the everyday language it can mean both someone you occassionally have a beer with as well as someone who you'd give your life for (yeah, I realise that you can modify the word by adding "close", "best", etc.). It doesn't help that in Polish this word is routinely translated as "przyjaciel", the Polish for close friend. So confusing For more casual types of relationship we have a word "znajomy" ("aquaintance").

So on Polish Facebook, are the people who you've approved called "przyjaciel" or "znajomy"? (Is Facebook wording it correctly?)

[Piotrek81]

I don't use Facebook but I'd expect it to use "znajomy".
EDIT: I tried accessing an Fb profile or two as a guest, but apparently either this feature is not visible from the guest level or I don't know where to click. Other social websites I looked up (Instagram, Last.fm) have switched to the "following"/"follower" which means something completely different and thus is rendered very differently in Polish.