If your conversation with me is regularly peppered with these — and used without irony, without tongue in cheek — we basically won’t be friends.
Occasional uses, however, will be forgiven. Context is key.
~ harmony
~ balance
~ empowerment
~ powerful
~ dynamic
~ “my truth”
~ “gifted” as in “My friend gifted me this lovely handmade sweater.” You mean she gave you a lovely handmade sweater? Shut up.
~ “blissed out” — blissed out people need to stay THE HELL away from me.
~ “healing”
~ goddess
~ diva
~ “own” as in “You need to own your full potential.” No, I prefer to rent mine, thank you.
~ destiny
~ “a-ha moment”
~ sisterhood
~ “it’s all good” — no, it’s not. I repeat: Shut up.
~ birth/-ed/-ing — as in “What do you want to birth in your life?”
~ “inner voice”
Stay tuned for future volumes of “A List of Words and Phrases That Make My Eyes Glaze Over.”
“empower” may be my least favorite word of English.
Related topic: the dreaded “mission statement.” Way too many mission statements use words like “empower,” “paradigm,” and nouns masquerading as verbs.
Why does a church need a mission statement, for example? “Worship God Most High” seems like it covers it all, right?
I cannot stand it when gift is used as a verb. It’s not as bad as when “network” is used as a verb, but it’s close.
Ew.
It’s the Power Point-ization of the English language. Can’t stand it.
Tracey, I love you for taking down the horrendous use of “gifted” as a verb. I think people use it because they think saying something was “gifted” makes it sound more special (as opposed to ‘gave,’ which they might argue is used even when you make donations to the Goodwill). But to me it just sounds grating and affected.
Sisterhood also gets me. But that might just be because lately my better and more loyal friends have been MALE rather than female.
Another phrase I hate? “Are you OK with that?” when used in the context of some horrible life-changing event. It sounds so…trivial. It’s like “We’re going out for Chinese instead of Italian, are you OK with that?” works, but “Your best friend in the whole world is getting divorced and moving to Outer Mongolia, and someone else that you loved and trusted turns out to have betrayed you and stolen your identity, are you OK with that?” doesn’t.
“Are you OK with that?” is like Sympathy Lite, and I hate it.
My two least favorite words at the moment are authentic and organic. Take a stab at where I’ve heard these the most.
I love that you keep a list, it makes me feel less weird for having a list. “my truth” ha, I’m with you on that and many of the others. The big one on my current list is when people say “I’m good”, instead of “no thank you”, in answer to a question like “would you like more coffee?”.
Do people really say “a-ha moment” anymore? That’s so. . . ’90s or something.
I’m with you on most of these (others I hadn’t thought of). Gifted, YES! And the one thing that will get you banned from future conversations with me after one usage: “It is what it is.” Really? I thought maybe it is what it isn’t. It ALWAYS is what it is, Trixie!
ricki… I may be guilty of “are you OK with that?”. Must take that one out of play…
sheila–I can’t remember the last time I heard network used as a noun. Sad, yes? But when you’re in public accounting for 7 years, it’s all you hear about. Networking. Blerg.
I admit I use the word organic. And I’m not talking about carrots or beets. I use it when I talk about an acting moment that I think is particularly real … I like the word “organic” better than “real” in that context.
But it really should not be over-used! In ANY context!
And “it’s all good” drives me batty. It is? Oh, it is? Tell that to the folks in Darfur, you privileged bonehead.
I thought A-Ha’s moment was in the 80’s. Really cool video, though.
I am guilty of “it’s all good.” Not as some philosophic statement. I find myself saying in response to someone doing something like bumping into me and saying, “Sorry.” I say, “No problem, it’s all good.” Perhaps it’s really not “all good” but I’m practiced at hyperbole.
Tracey………….we haven’t been watching Oprah have we?????
I just about dumped the cat off my lap tonight when I saw a commercial for a major insurance company using “aha moment”! (It’s how their name ends.)