Hindustan Times
Words YOU love to hate
Last week, I put up a (brief) list of words I love to hate, and invited you to send in yours. The response has been very enthusiastic, thank you very much. Not a man to go back on my word, I am putting up the list of words/phrases you said made you wince/cringe.
Revert back
Paradigm
Praxis
Geographies
Mortality audit
Huge funds
Reply back
He wished me on my birthday
On the same wavelength
Timeframe
Clean chit
Since long
Awesome
Enclosed herewith
Comprising of
Anyways
Happening
Rocking
What’s up / Wassup / Wazzzaaa
Out of the box
I am good (in response to ‘How are you?’)
Walk the talk
Counterrevolutionary
Razzmatazz
Schmaltz
Manoeuvre
Dear All (as a salutation in a letter or email)
Best (as a signoff in a letter or email)
Hot
Cool
So. Shall we keep adding to this list? Over to you.
This year’s Man Booker Prize…
The longlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize is out. Have you seen it? In case you haven’t here, it is.
The Children’s Book by A S Byatt
Summertime by J M Coetzee
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
Me Cheeta by James Lever
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Not Untrue & Not Unkind by Ed O’Loughlin
Heliopolis by James Scudamore
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Love and Summer by William Trevor
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
It’s a safe, solid and good longlist, I think. With Coetzee, Trevor, Byatt, Mantel and Toibin as well as a few left-field choices on it, it looks like a pretty strong one. Admirers of writing from this part of the world (that is to say, India and Pakistan) will be disappointed to see that neither Amit Chaudhuri’s The Immortals nor Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows is in the reckoning.
More later. For now, here is the prize’s official website. It’s got lots of interesting stuff. And sign up for alerts if you want to stay ahead of the newspapers and TV.
(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, August 3, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Filed under Books · Tagged Man Booker Prize, words you love to hate
The word I really hate is Prestigious. Dislike its smarmy, status-seeking connotation.
And I can’t find The Little Stranger ANYwhere. Even Landmark has let me down.
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Soumya Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
As much as ‘as is my/her wont’? Or more? Or less?
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No, no I LOVE “as is my wont”. It can be used ironically. Actually, I don’t see how it can be used seriously at all. But I really, really HATE “prestigious”. I guess it can be used ironically too, but I think it’s nasty.
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Hi
Thanks for giving the prize’s official website. You are right about Kamil Shamsie and Amit Chaudhuri not being nominated. Pretty puzzling….
[Reply]
Soumya Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Well, who can tell with prizes? It’s almost all a matter of luck and consensus. Posh Bongo, Julian Barnes had called the Booker Prize once.
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Please include “Mind blowing” , “never mind”, “hey dude” , scooty, thats it (very final..no room for any debate…I hate that), period (no more questions). “man’ (used as a slang)
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Why don’t you add those to the list we have and lob it across? I shall put it up… Thanks.
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the only words i hate are “moist”, “loins” and “copulate”…totally not inter-connected
some expressions i hate ( totally random)
1. gone are the days when…
2. blindly aping the west
3. Lets party dude
4. lets get wasted/ I was so wasted
5. full-figured girl
6. she wears the pants
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I don’t like those words whose meaning I don’t know !!!!!!!
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Would that be a long list? Nothing like a dictionary in that respect…
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An addendum if you like: the most annoying or overused phrases or buzzwords in the workplace today (ref. a survey by Accountemps, US) -
Leverage
Reach out
It is what it is
Viral
Game changer
Disconnect
Value-add
Circle back
Socialize
Interface
Cutting edge
[Reply]
Many thanks. Send me the link for the survey if you can.
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