What, you may or may not ask, launched this tirade? Words are my art, my passion, my fun and games, and so on—I merely wish to have it know that I love words. Etymology, anagrams, puzzles, the twisting and turning of a phrase, I love anything that conveys my thoughts to your brain.
But in loving words, it is therefore logical there are words that I hate. And as the titles conveys, it all started when I was a teen and heard the word groovy. From the moment it left those long-forgotten lips, I loathed it. It was silly, grating, and meaningless. Through the years, I met other words I hated with equal fervor, for example: awesome, dude, bro (and the lesser-known brohoe), and it is what it is. What does that even mean?
I actually have a personal Word Hate List (WHL) that started long before dope was a good thing. There were a few words that made the list through the years: fuzz, dig it, the projects, and prolly, although I do sometimes use that one in emails. But only with my sibs *snrk*, I thought I’d sneak that in.
Unfortunately, in the last decade my WHL has grown tremendously. Where in the name of all that is holy did words like cray-cray, stay-cay, and vay-cay come from? Are people so lazy they can’t even finish saying a word? (Case in point—I am having a fight with autocorrect just to keep those words on my screen!) I managed to survive the YEETs and the YOLOs, and of course, the Lol, Lmao, Lmfao, Rofl, AND Roflmfao, never having actually done any of those things, well, except maybe the first two. I’ve seen wut/wat written, not as slang in dialogue such as in a novel, but as a question asking for clarification.
But at last, we reach the event that brought about this lighthearted communiqué. I truly thought I had reached the pinnacle of word hatred. Until I opened an email from a book club and I was hit in the face with V-Card. I stared at it. In the context of what I was reading, it could mean only one thing. My forehead wrinkled in distress. Nooo, I moaned. Please, let it be one horrible incident, but no, suddenly it was everywhere in the description of books, from the subplot all the way to the actual plot line. I started seeing it in other places, especially regarding Young Adult (YA) chatrooms. The phrase waves its unsavory presence ubiquitously–in comics and in amusing, upbeat novels, as well as more serious writings, all aimed primarily at a YA audience. If I need to get down from my soapbox and explain to you why I find V-Card objectionable, then you and I will never understand each other.
Before I go, in fairness, there is one fairly new word that I’ve seen lately that I enjoy, and that is “karen.” It’s not so much a word as a description. Look it up on Reddit and prepare to be entertained. I have intentionally left my loathsome words undefined. I understand there are Urban Dictionaries out there on the Internet somewhere, which you are free to locate and use. Have fun.
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