Annoying things people say?

[DJChameleon]

Hub? I definitely hear it used here and there, but not so much that it would get on my nerves. A piece of corporate lingo that bugs me though is people using "ask" as a noun, as in "what's the ask from the client on this?"

Funny, I had a zoom meeting two weeks ago and "ask" kept coming up. It made sense in context since I'm a fundraising captain putting together a team but yeah that's an odd one. Thank goodness I don't have to hear it too much.

[Trollheart]

To DJ's point about "pause words" to give you a chance to gather your thoughts, a funny but true, and exclusively Irish story. Learning Irish is hard, even for natives. It's a terrible language, which consistently fails or refuses to follow the basic rules of most other languages, including the so-called "Romance" ones (French, Spanish, Italian etc.) In general - and I'm talking VERY general here - if you know a word in, say, French, you can usually pick it out in the other languages because they sound similar. Case in point: "good" which is bueno in Spanish, bona in Italian and bon in French. You know what I mean.

But Irish is mad. We have words that are ten or more letters to describe a three-letter one in English (Gluisteain - pronounced gloosh-toyin - for car, buachaill (boo-a-kil) for boy etc) and you simply can't look at another language and work out from that how to read, or speak, Irish. Maybe Scottish, I don't know. Definitely not Welsh. Anyway where is this all heading? Where am I? Who are you people? How did I get here? Oh yeah.

In class then, as the teachers of Irish stubbornly (and rather stupidly, in my view) refused to speak any English, so that if you didn't understand something you had to ask "As Gaeilge! As Gaeilge!" (In Irish), if called upon, as we were, to string together a sentence in Irish, everyone - and I mean everyone - would use the word "agus" (aw-gus) which means "and" to pause and try to think of what came next. So funny. We all did it, the teachers knew, but it was a desperate effort to cudgel or threaten or bribe your brain into giving up the jealously-guarded next words in Irish. Seldom worked.

Anyway, "hub" I don't get, as Jansz said. I've only heard it used when it should be, as in, a centre of operations - "our hub is in Dublin" etc. Also by irate motorists who suddenly realised they were missing a vital component from their car's wheels, as in the oft-heard phrase "Oi! Who the fuck took my hubs? I'll kill the bastard!"

Two more for me: "touch base" - what? You'll touch my WHAT later? And one of my all-time hatreds, "step up to the plate". That's fine for you Americans, but we don't play baseball so it doesn't make sense for us. I tried to introduce "step up to the (penalty) spot", which would, in my view, tie in better to us guys on this side of the pond, but no dice. Nobody was having it. Oh, and "ballpark". Nobody here ever says it, except in concert with "figure" or "number", so why do we use it? The word "rough" or "estimated" work just as well. Bloody ballpark figure my arse!

[SGR]

Oh, and "ballpark". Nobody here ever says it, except in concert with "figure" or "number", so why do we use it? The word "rough" or "estimated" work just as well. Bloody ballpark figure my arse!

Over here in America, in info tech, we call them SWAGs - scientific wild ass guesses. Think it comes from the military.

[Janszoon]

Two more for me: "touch base" - what? You'll touch my WHAT later? And one of my all-time hatreds, "step up to the plate". That's fine for you Americans, but we don't play baseball so it doesn't make sense for us.

UH-OH!

[Marie Monday]

Thank you Marie, I think you're right. And you as well: in your posts you have a style that favours precision over drama I think. Is that how it is for the real life Riot Grrrl ?

that's nice of you to say but I don't think the way I express things is undertstated? Maybe it comes across different

[Key]

One word I absolutely loathe is 'hub'. Makes me cringe every time. I suppose it's part of the category of hideous corporate talk, which bothers me a lot more than the overuse of 'like' or 'so...' etc. (I plead guilty to using 'like' and 'I mean' too much)

Hub? I definitely hear it used here and there, but not so much that it would get on my nerves. A piece of corporate lingo that bugs me though is people using "ask" as a noun, as in "what's the ask from the client on this?"

Damn I must be really behind on the times because I never hear either of these terms used often enough to get annoyed by them.

[Marie Monday]

I envy you

[grindy]

I envy you

Never heard those two either and I work in management in a huge global company. I'm also lucky, I guess.

[Trollheart]

I've heard ask, as in, "wow! That's a big ask!" Usually refers to something that is hard to do and, not surprisingly, comes both in politics and football - "To get that through Congress is going to be a big ask" or "Six nil down? There's fifty minutes left so maybe they can pull it back, but it's a big ask!" (Not, I hasten, to be confused with "big ass". Which is something to do with large mules or something I guess). I can see the usage of "ask" in this case, though really it's a shortened form of "thing to ask someone to do" I suppose. Bloody world today: not enough time and everyone has to shorten everth-

[Marie Monday]

Never heard those two either and I work in management in a huge global company. I'm also lucky, I guess.

tbh I wouldn't know if corporate people use it because I'm not one, but it feels similar to that kind of language. The same attempt to make plain and dry things sound fancy or hip

[jimmy jazz]

I know one person who would use that word and he was a try-hard wanker who I didn't like so I agree.

[SGR]

I know one person who would use that word and he was a try-hard wanker who I didn't like so I agree.

Hmmm...can't imagine which 'Hub' he was most familiar with. 

[Janszoon]

Hmmm...can't imagine which 'Hub' he was most familiar with. 

    

[Guybrush]

I've heard ask, as in, "wow! That's a big ask!" Usually refers to something that is hard to do and, not surprisingly, comes both in politics and football - "To get that through Congress is going to be a big ask" or "Six nil down? There's fifty minutes left so maybe they can pull it back, but it's a big ask!" (Not, I hasten, to be confused with "big ass". Which is something to do with large mules or something I guess). I can see the usage of "ask" in this case, though really it's a shortened form of "thing to ask someone to do" I suppose. Bloody world today: not enough time and everyone has to shorten everth-

Big ask sounds dumb. I'd replace it for tall order, the expression Frank Drebin uses when he thinks Nordberg is asking him to buy heroin.

[Psy-Fi]

"Big ask" sounds like something a very young child would say.

And for that matter, so does "my bad."