*makes note to call flashman "dude" when appropriate".

Pantyhose. Ridiculous word.

'facebook'

i don't hate it, it's just that it's so... ridiculous? absurd? i can't describe its weirdness...

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1137/

: )

Nice link.

"Bro" is starting to work its way up my list... But the winner is most definitely the Marine definition of the word "motivated" which doesn't mean "acted upon by an outside force towards one action or another" but "a Marine with a positive outlook on all things Marine/military." (Marines can be so collectively stupid sometimes...)

(Alright, I know that last post didn't exactly phrase things the way they should have been, but as I said, Marines have their moments...)

I'm changing my vote - to 'burglarize'. A deeply troubling Merkinism.
The word is 'Burgle', folks. 'Burglar' comes from 'burgle'. You can't go making new verbs out of nouns that are themselves derived from the correct verbs, or we'll all end up getting burglarizatificated, or worse. The burglarizatificatorizer will have sold your TV before you've told the police that you've been burglarizatificatorizated.

That reminds me of a story I was told by my then Vicar in HK (now dead) about a time he had when visiting inmates in Stanley Prison. He met with one man who was in there for having committed sodomy. It was recorded in his record, and on his cell door, using the B word. He was well regarded by the other inmates, which puzzled the Vicar until this man explained that everyone seemed to think it said he was in for burglary.

I have realised that I too have another hated word...

so, as in, "He was sowwww handsome"

or, for the pruists,

sewwww

like sooooooo?

mine would be liberry. (library)

The abbreviation, "dis".

No, "progressive" (which usually means anything but)!

I hate the term "carbon footprint", there's such an air of self-righteousness associated with that word.

Term, I mean, not word.

As for individual words? Blog is fucking retarded.

...what about "multi-accounter"?

They are stupid, hence their name is stupid.

green, as in "going green"
Most people use it just because everyone else is using it, not even researching what is actually "green" and what isn't--such as hybrid cars.

You are all wrong. It is 'challenge'.

Apparently, each of us no longer have problems, we have 'challenges' that are 'solveable'... I will post more on this vein later.

I didn't realize there was a right answer... Hey flashman, what is it about genre that grinds your teeth? I've been thinking about this one all day now, and I just can't think of why it'd bug you so much...

patriotism

Nothing wrong with 'patriotism' as a word.... it's just a silly idea.
I agree that 'genre' is quite irksome, though. It doesn't look anything like it sounds, and it sounds bloody stupid. It also makes any ordinary remark concerning genre sound pretentious. The annoying thing is that it's the only word which means, precisely, 'genre', so there's really no way round it.

I used to know a girl who objected strongly to the words 'panties' and 'chunks'. I had to invent the expression 'panty chunks' just to annoy her....

Fantabulous. Flashman and Feck, we seem to share an inexorable hatred for all things American...

One more. I absolutely detest the American 'pronunciation' of French words. As they say, I'm 'abhorred'.

You're just jealous because you're not in their click. :P

Yes, genre grates because you have to suddenly affect a false French accent to squeeze it into a sentence.

Try going to a book shop and asking for, "the sections on Science Fiction, Gardening, Sport and any radical political genre you have please..."

Besides, the human being in this world that I despise more than any other (at a personal level) and who spends her whole time trying to create the impression that she is anything other than corrupted pond scum, has one and only one publication to her name: a small pamphlet regarding the role of genre in teaching materials for the very young. I kid you not. Utter pretention. The word and the woman deserve each other.

I can't recall ever hearing the word abhorred. Abhorrent, but not abhorred... What Americans do you listen to?

As for challenge cg, are you having problems with PC-speak?

vertically challenged etc

My favourite was a serious piece from some years back which tried to PC the Bible and had Satan as morally challenged.

I'm not anti-american,

but do find some aspects of pronunciation amusing/grating.

Rowt instead of root for the English word route is like a dentist drill without anasthetic...