Annoying words, and Words You Hate

[Quizatzhaderac]

Maybe he meant to say "rating of speed," because your speed is rated on a scale from 1 to 10 along with accuracy and level of difficulty.

"rate of speed" refers to the motion of motor vehicles in every instance I've heard it used, including this one.

[YellowYeti]

Maybe he meant to say "rating of speed," because your speed is rated on a scale from 1 to 10 along with accuracy and level of difficulty.

"rate of speed" refers to the motion of motor vehicles in every instance I've heard it used, including this one.

rate of speed sounds wrong, but rate of knots sounds fine.

[Eebster the Great]

Maybe he meant to say "rating of speed," because your speed is rated on a scale from 1 to 10 along with accuracy and level of difficulty.

"rate of speed" refers to the motion of motor vehicles in every instance I've heard it used, including this one.

No, it's definitely referring to one of those big signs the cops hold up with a number between 1 and 10.

[Quizatzhaderac]

Oh, you mean this cop? I forgot about him.

[SirAdrian]

"transitioning"
It somehow escaped corporate meetings and infected the general public. Just use "changing" or "switching" or even "in transition to" for crying out loud.
"leveraging" likewise. I can't even tell what people mean when they use leverage as a verb. I don't believe it has an actual meaning related to leverage at all.

"emails" used as plural. I check my email, not my emails. I received some email, not some emails. I hated the use of email as a noun for a single "piece of email" back when that happened, but time and usage have mellowed it to mild dislike.

[SuicideJunkie]

"emails" used as plural. I check my email, not my emails. I received some email, not some emails. I hated the use of email as a noun for a single "piece of email" back when that happened, but time and usage have mellowed it to mild dislike.

The problem seems to be that Letter(s) have become Email(s), rather than something more scale-appropriate like Byte(s)

[Grop]

As a French man, saying email for emails would feel super weird, but as is the case with so many English mass nouns. My email messages are naturally emails. Did you notice I sent you three pieces of email about new year's? feels quite non-practical.

[Eebster the Great]

"transitioning"
It somehow escaped corporate meetings and infected the general public. Just use "changing" or "switching" or even "in transition to" for crying out loud.

These days, I mostly hear that term for people in a gender transition, MTF or FTM. The term seems appropriate in that context, since it is more specific than "changing" and the process is called a transition, not a change. More generally, some psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and gurus distinguish "change" as a term of art to refer to change in external factors and "transition" as a change in internal factors.

"leveraging" likewise. I can't even tell what people mean when they use leverage as a verb. I don't believe it has an actual meaning related to leverage at all.

"To leverage" means "to use as leverage in a negotiation." If I am negotiating with the oil lobby and am on the committee that will decide the approval of new wells, I can leverage that power to solicit large campaign contributions.

"emails" used as plural. I check my email, not my emails. I received some email, not some emails. I hated the use of email as a noun for a single "piece of email" back when that happened, but time and usage have mellowed it to mild dislike.

I guess logically, since pieces of mail are not "mails," email messages should not be "emails." But they clearly are, to basically everybody. I think it makes sense. You can send many things through the mail, including letters, parcels, postcards, and more. You can only send emails through email.

[SirAdrian]

These days, I mostly hear that term for people in a gender transition, MTF or FTM. The term seems appropriate in that context, since it is more specific than "changing" and the process is called a transition, not a change. More generally, some psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and gurus distinguish "change" as a term of art to refer to change in external factors and "transition" as a change in internal factors.

Oh, I agree that 'transition' is better than 'change' etc. in many cases, but it would be 'make a transition' or 'be in transition' or the like rather than 'transitioning'.

[Eebster the Great]

OK, I get the noun vs. verb thing. Though, at the end of the day, the new use is hardly surprising.