The Most Annoying Word Of 2014 Is …

The most annoying word or phrase of 2014 in casual conversation is “whatever,” according to the Marist College annual poll.

“Whatever” has now grabbed top honors (43 percent this time around) for the sixth consecutive year in the survey. The staying power of “whatever” could be because it seems like a very dismissive, if not rude, way to end a discussion. “Whatever” may have entered the popular culture after the 1995 comedy film Clueless, which starred Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash.

Finishing in second place as most annoying in the national landline and cell phone poll of about 1,000 American adults taken earlier this month was “like” (another perennial), followed by “literally,” “awesome,” and “with all due respect.” Last year, “you know,” “just saying,” and “obviously” rounded out the top five.

As far as which word was the most overused or worn out, a separate category in the survey, “selfie” won with 35 percent, followed by “hashtag,” “twerk,” “YOLO,” Twittersphere,” and “hipster.”

Summarizing the results, the Marist Institute for Public Opinion explained that “Americans under 30 years old, 36%, are less likely than older Americans, 46%, to consider ‘whatever’ to be the most annoying” and “While a plurality of Americans 30 and older, 38%, say ‘selfie’ is the most overused word of 2014, 32% of younger residents think ‘hashtag’ was used too much.”

Although not included in the Marist polling data, additional annoying/overused words that may come to mind include “absolutely” (instead of just saying “yes”), “amazing,” “basically,” and “honestly.”

Sometimes, certain familiar phrases do appropriately match the situation to be sure, but as the year ends, do any of these that have entered the everyday lexicon get on your nerves?

• “to be honest with you” [immediate red flag, as with “honestly” noted above]
• “no problem” [instead of “you’re welcome”]
• “throwing [someone] under the bus”
• “I mean” or “so” [dropped in at the beginning of a sentence]
• “my bad”
• “it’s all good”
• “you know what I’m saying”
• “it is what it is”
• “at the end of the day”
• “singing Kumbaya”
• “I have your back/you have my back” or other iterations of same
• “step up your/my game”
• “bring it”

While on the subject of annoying conversational techniques, you may very well have noticed the rampant practice of “uptalk”(officially known to linguists as “high rising terminal”). This is the very bothersome tendency for a speaker to end a declarative sentence as if it is a question. In other words, finishing a statement with an imaginary question mark. This way of conversing apparently started with the San Fernando “Valley Girls,” but has spread across the country, if not the world, and all genders and demographic groups like a virus.

Even as far back as 1994, news correspondent Connie Chung reported on uptalk.

What words or phrases do you find the most annoying and/or overused in casual, day-to-day conversation?