Thirteen irregular word uses

To quote Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame): "Verbing weirds language".

  1. Impact is not a verb, no matter how often people say "the plane impacted into the mountainside".
  2. Irregardless is not a word. Regardless of what you I might think. (However, I still think it's a pointless word meaningless verbal bastard. (Thanks, Doug!))
  3. Unthawed means to freeze, not to make not frozen.
  4. You borrow things from someone, not to someone.*
  5. Alot is two words: "a lot".
  6. …looks on has reached its saturation point in newspaper photo captions.
  7. I find it irritating to be mocked by Americans for pronouncing "about" as aboot**—especially when I continue to hear the word roof pronounced as ruff by some of our neighbours south of the border.
  8. Even though it's a real word, orientate gets my goat. There's a perfectly good word already, and it's orient.
  9. Unnecessary non-standard words, used in an effort to sound eloquent, such as utilized where used would suffice, or…
  10. at a high rate of speed for fast. These always strike me as terms used by people trying to sound intelligent; unfortunately they usually make them sound pompous.
  11. Comprised of annoys me. It should be "composed of". Both of the following are correct: "The band trip was composed of thirty-five high school students." "Nineteen wolves comprised the whole of the zoo. What a boring zoo trip that was."
  12. My high-school gym teacher once told us, before a ski trip, that we should dress warm, but not "like the abdominal snowman". I was the only one in the gym that laughed.
  13. Thursday is not a verb, but I feel like I've been Thursdayed.

* This is a French thing, and I hear it in my hometown, but not in the town where I now live. It's because en français, the verb prêter means both "to borrow" and "to lend". It's a vectored verb, in that it has a direction. (If "vectored verb" isn't a grammatical term already, I hereby coin it.)

** Which is a pronunciation I've never heard in Canada, by the by.

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12 Comments

  1. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 9:29 AM | Permalink

    I love this list! #5 is my biggest pet peeve; I'm trying to figure out a way to launch a crusade against the use of alot. It really drives me nuts, and I don't know how it's been perpetuated! Happy TT!

  2. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 11:15 AM | Permalink

    a lot… that's a good one that i often forget about! good TT list… my TT this week is all about things not to feed my dog (based on unfortunate previous experiences)!

  3. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 12:36 PM | Permalink

    thank you! I don't think i've ever said Aboot or 'eh'.

    and the borrow/lend thing is something my husband and i argue over all the time. nice to see i'm right! ;)

  4. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 12:36 PM | Permalink

    oh, and my TT is up.

  5. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 1:17 PM | Permalink

    Ruff? I've never heard that down here, except from my dog. Must be a Yankee thing.

    I love Canadian pronunciations. And I love Canadians.

    Great list!

  6. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 3:47 PM | Permalink

    yeah, no coke and no coffee makes Laura something something…..

  7. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 5:14 PM | Permalink

    Laura
    Oh, I've said 'eh' many a time. I probably said it a dozen times today and didn't even notice.

    Also: "Go crazy?"

  8. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 5:23 PM | Permalink

    I agree with you on all of them. Except for #2.
    It is a word and is in the Webster's dictionary.

    Great T13!

  9. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 5:56 PM | Permalink

    Suprina
    How 'bout that. I stand corrected.

    However, I also note the following, in the Merriam-Webster online definition for irregardless:

    "Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead."

  10. Posted August 16th, 2007 at 11:46 PM | Permalink

    My pet peeve has always been people who pronounce "harass" as if it were someone's last name. And it really cheesed me when I discovered that that was an allowable pronunciation.

    My high school English text called irregardless "a meaningless verbal bastard." I love that.

  11. Posted August 18th, 2007 at 10:29 PM | Permalink

    I assume you also hate "at this time" and "at this moment in time" when "now" will always suffice.

  12. Posted August 19th, 2007 at 11:44 AM | Permalink

    Nicholas
    That would be correct.

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