My guest today is Wendy from Minding Spot, whose Pet Words are her pet peeves. (She was lovely enough to review both Brightwing and Lana Halliday on her blog, so check those out when you have a sec!)
Everyone has a pet peeve, but those that read and write have pet words. Those pesky little words that make you cringe, shudder or frown. When I was younger, I always thought I sounded intelligent speaking the biggest words I could find; I'd learn what they mean and use them in a sentence. My mom tells me I drove her crazy with humongous for several years. What's not to like about humongous?
"I'll have that humongous piece of chocolate cake!"
"I'm not kidding about that spider! It's humongous!" EWW! But it gets the point across.
These days my favorite large word is facetious. I love that word! I use it whenever I can but I try not to overdo it. Now on the flipside, there are several words that make me frown. I'd raise my eyebrow but I never learned how to do that. Shut up drives me loco. Seriously. It's two words – sure – but it's so rude it lights my fire and sparks shoot out of my ears. My kids have learned not to say shut up unless they want the wrath of crazy on them. It's like a curse word. This country has the freedom of speech and I intend to use it as often as possible. My dad always said my name should have been spelled with an i (Windy). Ha! Granted, there is a time and place for everything, but "Can you please be quiet?" is so much nicer.
Another word I can't stand to read or hear is fool. I realize it has a definite meaning, but there are other words out there to use in its place. Somewhere in my childhood, it was driven into my brain that it wasn't a nice word. I can't pinpoint where it was, but it has stayed with me and everytime I read it or hear it, my lip curls in distaste.
"I was just fooling you." Really? A joke... say it isn't so.
"You are a fool!" Shudder...shudder.
As a prolific reader, there are several other words that give me the heebeejeebees, but those two rate right up there. And don't get me started with romance novels, seriously some of those adverbs can send me right into a swoon. "His sweat drops bursting on my tongue tasted like fresh rain on a moonlit night." Seriously? Um, no.
But I'm getting carried away and that is a different discussion on another day. I'd like to thank Laura for inviting me today. This is my first guest blog so I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'd love to know what your thoughts are, and your own pet words! As always, feel free to visit me at Minding Spot.
The pleasure was all mine and I'm not being facetious! Seriously, it was a humongous honor!
Wendy
2 comments:
Thanks for being a guest on my blog, Wendy! I'm with you on "shut-up." We never, ever said it when I was growing up, and though I've had times in my life when I've cursed like a sailor, I still never say it.
I remember when shut up was a bad word in my family. It was right up there with F*** and SH**. And I got in just as much trouble for saying shut up as I would have for saying the other words.
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