Hola! And other new words that annoy me.
I may be an old lady but I’m on Facebook and I know how to tweet and blog. But there are some contemporary terms that I cannot bring myself to use. These make me wince – and I have no excuses to offer. Do others feel the same?
When I began this post I was greeted with “Hola! would you like to receive automatic updates and unlock premium support?” (No, I don’t think so.) I am just getting used to “Hi!” – when my students began to greet me like that I was rather put out, having only recently realised that their use of my first name did not imply disrespect. I even accepted that their use of “Babs” – not to my face – instead of “Barbara” was not unkindly meant.
I hate it when my blog is described as “awesome” (Hint!) and the written equivalents of yells and whoops, “Wow!” and “Woohoo!” seem most undignified. The term “heads up” conjures up a lecture room full of sleepy students who need to be shocked into attention.
Worst of all is the use of “lovely” or “the lovely”, often referring to an author, especially popular among romantic novelists, I find. I have been called “the lovely Barbara Lorna Hudson” and I didn’t like it at all.On the other hand, when an editor described me as “the rather hilarious Barbara Hudson” I was absolutely delighted.
There’s nowt so queer as folks. Any more examples?