I find it especially annoying when people use the word "acronym" when they mean "initialism", or, more broadly, "abbreviation".

An initialism is an abbreviation made up from the first letters - the initials - of the phrase being abbreviated; an acronym is an initialism that is pronounced as a word. All acronyms are initialisms; the converse is not true.

NASA - acronym

GPS - initialism, but no acronym

scuba - acronym

FBI - initialism, but no acronym

snafu - acronym

NPR - initialism, but no acronym

 

A guy I know always asks people to "tell me why"...

Note: All the examples I am about to share were actually stated just yesterday in my weight training class..



Ex. 1: Tell me why I got drunk last night, woke up with a hang over this morning and got drunk in the afternoon...

Ex. 2: Tell me why Smalls ain't never got no weed and he acts like it's a bad thing that I don't wanna give him none of mine, ya know what I mean?

Ex. 3: Tell me why my leg is hurting, man! I just did some bicep curls! Tell me why I can do these all day, my... n-word...



I don't really get irritated by him continuously saying "tell me why".. It doesn't drive me nuts but I would prefer him not always starting his "what-I-did-last-night/yesterday/last-week/etc." sentences with "tell me why".. He usually is a very intelligent person to speak to... Just not when he's speaking to one of his "homeys".

 

People are crazy "nowadays"...
"Nowadays" you have to watch out for yourself
I can't believe what the youngins are up to "nowadays"
You cant trust anybody "nowadays"

Listen for it, it will amaze you how often it is used.

 

That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to read that "word."

 

"awesome"
"you know what I mean"

 

I want to tear the person innards out when I hear them say the following:

Anything about "Obama"

"In this economy"

Baseball ready. ( phrase used in my kids little league games by parents whose little f_ck trophies are too stupid to pay attention during a game)

I have more

 

I think its funny when people say "here's a picture of me when I was younger"

Every picture of you is when you were younger, unless you're Marty McFly

 

Green

Sustainability

Dethaw. You idiot, that means to freeze.

 

wut or wat instead of what
Really any sort of internet chat/texting shorthand...

I sometimes think I must be the only person who sends text messages in proper English. No, I don't care that I spend an extra 30 seconds in banging out my message.

EDIT: and I managed to make myself look like a hypocrite by using a misspelled word in what I wrote above

 

One of my biggest is when people don't know the difference between moot and mute.

...but that doesn't matter now so it's a mute point.