Overused And Tiresome

Colonial Williamsburg window. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-40mm f/2.8 lens @ 29mm; 1/1600th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200

I can only speak for myself but I find the overuse of certain words and phrases to be very tedious and tiresome.  Linguists estimate there are over 1,000,000 words in the English language, but for some reason, too many people use too few of them.  Here are the ones I'm really tired of hearing over and over and over again.

And the #1 on my list is....

1. Like

It seems that everyone around the age of 35 and younger is determined to use the word "like" at least once if not multiple times in every sentence.  Not only every sentence but every time they utter anything at all.  I can only assume that these young adults and children are taught to us this one word in school as my generation does not seem to use "like" in so many inappropriate ways.  For example, "We were, like, driving to the, like, store to pick up a, like, few things when we, like, saw a cow, like, running down the roadway, like really fast!"  Give me a break, PLEASE!  Enough of the word like every minute of every day!  If I were king of the world, I would remove that word from the language.

In the mean time, I vote to create laws to fine those who use "like" inappropriately.  Just think how large the government coffers would become!  Ban it, like, now!

2.  Awesome

Everything is "awesome" nowadays.  Even the most mundane event, item or thing is now "awesome."  I don't know about you, but not so much in my world.  Maybe because I have experienced so much over my lifetime that only, on occasion, things rise to awesome.  It must be that those who feel compelled to use the word "awesome" for everything from the color of one's shoes to having a sunny day must have led really sheltered lives in which absolutely nothing much happened.  That is the only explanation I can think of which possibly could make things that are routine to everyone else in the world are considered "awesome."

I vote to fine those who use "awesome" inappropriately.  That would be "awesome!"

3.  Super

In the same way "awesome" is used, "super" is right up there.  For example, "That pair of gloves is super cool."  Or, "She must be super smart as she passed the math test with a 75%!"  Or, "That sky is super blue."  You get what I mean.

I vote to fine those who use "super" inappropriately.  In fact, that would be super!

4.  Oh! Wow!

The people who tend to overuse these two words, like the ones who use the ones above, seem to be surprised and astounded by just about everything.  Everything is a surprise that requires them to utter, "Oh! Wow!"  This little phrase seems to have spread to people of all ages.  Well, maybe not my 96 year old mother-in-law, but too many, in any case.  

I vote to fine those who use, "Oh! Wow!" inappropriately.  

Oh! Wow!  I'm done.  These four, like, are enough to chew on for the time being.  

If you have additional tongue-in-cheek comments, please leave them.  It's always awesome to have a little fun.  Just super, in fact.

Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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