A pet peeve: the misue of the word 'ironic' (1 Viewer)

[Scott Hayes]

Here is an ironic story. Happened in my home town. A guy robs a bank with a revolver. Gets 50g. Later in the day the cops caught him. The pistol he used was his, had been in a box at his grandmothers house. It was an old Colt which aparantly Samuel Colt had fashioned himself as a prototype for a later model. It was worth a few hundred thousand dollars.
My pet peeve is my cat named Peeve. I'm not kidding.

 

[TheoGB]

Actually saw a comedian, obviously canadian, that did a bit on her song not being canadian
he added lines to make her lines ironic...but i'm not bright enough to remember them

Well someone said "Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife isn't irony. Now if you discovered the next day that a spoon would have done, that's irony!"
Dunno which comedian it was, though.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

My pet peeve is my cat named Peeve.

Do you also have a dog named "Great Reluctance" so that when you leave the house to walk him you can honestly tell your wife that you're leaving her with Great Reluctance? (Sorry, old Snoopy joke from "Peanuts" The punchline was, "She creamed him with the waffle iron.")
Regards,
Joe

 

[cafink]

No, that's merely unfortunate. There's no element of the unexpected, or the reverse of the expected, which is the essence of irony.

No element of the unexpected? I assure you he certainly didn't expect the plane to crash.

 

[Allan Sampson]

Yeah, you're and your is a typical one.

In the same vein, the their, they're, there thing seems to seriously screw up the unwashed masses as well. Apparently if it sounds the same it doesn't really matter which one you use.

"Me fail English? That's unpossible."

- Ralph Wiggum

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I assure you he certainly didn't expect the plane to crash.

Expected it, predicted it, feared it. He always (on some level) expects the plane to crash; that's what a fear of flying is, the unreasoning belief that any plane you get on is going to crash.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Graeme Clark]

Actually saw a comedian, obviously canadian, that did a bit on her song not being canadian

he added lines to make her lines ironic...but i'm not bright enough to remember them

I saw a comedian who wasn't from Canada do the same thing (he was from somewhere in the UK). One of his was the "Traffic jam when you're already late". It would have been ironic if the guy in the traffic jam had been the city planner who designed the roads.

My pet peeve in the similar vain is the statement "I could care less!", which of course means you do care to some degree and could possibly care less. It's "I couldn't care less"!!

 

[RobertR]

Another one is "free gift". Well, duh! Of course it's free--it's a GIFT!

 

[Glenn Overholt]

But David, his jaw did literally fall to the floor! You see, his wife saw him looking at her, whacked him upside the head and when he turned to protest, she kicked right in the 'you know where'. He fell
The phrase I am having trouble with is 'the truth of the matter is'. I've heard it way, way too often and it still does not sound correct. Ok, it sounds moronic to me.
Glenn

 

[David Susilo]

I've posted the following somewhere else before:

Harman Kardon --> Harmon Kardon

Definitely --> Definately

They're --> There

You're --> Your

Typo I can handle, misspelling is plainly moronic.

 

[Scott Leopold]

Incorrect use of your, you're, there, their, they're, etc. is a major pet peeve of mine. However, perhaps an even bigger pet peeve would be the use (not misuse) of the words ironical, irregardless and orientate. These are not real words, but have been put into the dictionary so the ignorant (and plain stupid) don't feel so bad. The verb from which orientation is derived is orient, and the correct forms of the other two words are ironic and regardless. If you don't believe me on the last one, look it up in the dictionary, and you'll find the definition to be "regardless."

Regarding the use of the apostrophe to form plurals, as someone who does this often I must point out that it is another appropriate use of the apostrophe. As stated in The American Heritage Book of English Usage:

. Note that in typed or typeset copy, only the word but would appear in italics (the apostrophe and the s would be in regular type).

Granted, the trend may be to drop the apostrophe, but its usage is not incorrect, and was personally ingrained in me by numerous high school teachers and college professors.

 

[TheoGB]

I believe

Definately

That looks confusing to me as it seems to suggest we should spell definitely as definately (shudder). Now that really is something that irritates me. What is the problem with spelling it right???

 

[Nigel McN]

I believe the comic that did a bit on 'Ironic' was Link Removed "you may recognise me as 'darlene' from rosanne".
might have been on a 'Just for Laughs' special

 

[David Susilo]

TheoGB, I thought I wrote it clearly, oh well, maybe my mistake for being unclear. What I meant was: why can't people write "definitely" properly? (Based on Collin's Australian Dictionary)

Some people even went so far as arguing that DEFINATELY is the correct spelling since it's derived from the word FINAL. (sheesh!, they can buy thousands of dollars worth of gears but can't spend $1 at the dollar store for a dictionary. Priority, I guess)

 

[Jon_Are]

Good post, Scott. I can't say I hear people using 'ironical' much, but it annoys me as well when I hear 'irregardless', and, especially, 'orientate'. I must hear the word 'orientate' every day at work.
Here's one more most people do not know: the use of the word 'forte'. When used in music, to indicate that the music should be played loudly, it is properly pronounced for-TAY; but if you are speaking of a personal strength, it is prounounced simply 'fort'.
And don't even get me started on folks who want to ax me a question.
Jon

 

[Paul_D]

Sorry, just a lil pet peeve of mine that sends me into fits.

Misuse of the words too and to sends you into fits? That's just to much!
Seriously though, I think an examination of life's priorities are in order!

 

[Ralph Summa]

I get frustrated when people say "fusstrated". I guess "supposibly" it could be worse.
An old friend always said "Don't you question me! I'm college edjimicated!"

 

[Mark Kalzer]

Wanna know what I hate? It's when people use the word, "S'up!" S'UP? What the HECK does s'up mean? I know they actually mean, "What's up?", but CAN'T THEY SAY IT CORRECTLY? How lazy are we people? Apostraphee's are meant to discard one, maybe two letters, BUT NOT A WHOLE FREEKEN WORD! Next time someone says that to me, I'm just going to look up, and continue to look up until they ask, "Why are you looking up?"

 

[nolesrule]

Mine is the use of "on accident" instead of the correct "by accident".

My wife used to say "on accident" but I corrected her so much that she now gets it right.

 

[Ike]

You people, with all due respect, are picky bastards. I mean, seriously, who cares if she says By accident or On accident? To and too are easily confused. And if iregardless has taken meaning in our society, then it's a real word. Words are just sounds that have a specific meaning in our culture.
And, according to the definition that Scott posted,

Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs

Alanis's song, as much as I hate her, would have many examples of irony.
My pet peeve: people with too many pet peeves.