Shorthand Words to Eliminate From our Vocabulary…Now
I’m a writer. I like words. I also hate words. What people say in daily conversation rarely makes sense on paper. Using acronyms and emoticons are infuriating—especially to an editor.
Here’s an example: I teach undergraduate journalism courses at a couple of universities in the area. I once had a student hand write me a note and used a colon and parentheses to create a smiley face at the end of her letter. How did shorthand typing evolve into writing?
Another pet peeve of mine is when I get emails (usually from college students looking for an internship) using strange shorthand and emoticons. Talk about unprofessional!
I recently wrote a post listing words that should be banned in 2012. I’ve found en even better list on PR Daily by Arik Hanson on 28 shorthand words to eliminate from our lexicon forever. I had to share—and add my own two cents of course!
“29 terms we obvi need to totes elims from our lexi forevs.”
Did you understand that? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
I know we’re turning into a texting culture full of shortened and unintelligible words. But we’re destroying our language. At some point, we need to draw a line in the sand. Today’s the day. —PR Daily
Shorthand
- Totes: Shorthand for “totally” which should have stayed in the 80s where it belonged in the first place.
- Tweeps: A conjunction formed from Twitter and Peeps, which is shorthand for people.
- Jelly: Short for jealous. I have never heard this one before—and I hope I never do.
- Obvi: Meaning obviously.
- Ridic: Meaning ridiculous.
- Vacay: If you are going on a vacation, just say it.
- Adorbs: The full word, adorable, is so much nicer. And the omitance of three measly letters is just ridic.
Twitter Ridiculousness
- Twitterview: A Twitter interview. Can that even be worth it?
- Twesume: Sounds like something Tweetie Bird would have.
- Tweetheart: If you have a tweetheart, I feel like you should get off of your mobile device right now and make a real friend.
- Twinkedin: You met someone on Twitter and connected with them on LinkedIn.
The Unintelligible
- Noms: Urban Dictionary says this word in an expression of eating or the sound of someone eating. Gross.
- Amazeballs: Amazing made the last list of words that should be banned in 2012. Clearly it had to be expanded upon.
- For realz: Really?
- Awesomesauce: My husband uses this word a lot. I can’t wait to tell him it’s been banned in our house.
- Coinkydink: This word is still being used in place of coincidence? The last person I heard say it was my grandmother, 14 years ago.
- Tradigital: Refers to art that combines both traditional and computer-based techniques. Sounds awesomesauce to me!
- Yummers: The same person that uses this word also uses ridic, obvi, and adorbs. Slap them in the face next time.
- Stabby: Again, I had to turn to Urban Dictionary for this one. It means the feeling someone has when they are in a particularly bad mood and feeling hostile—usually due to stress. I feel stabby a lot. I think I’m actually going to start using this one…
Acronyms
- FTW: Are people still this angry?
- FML: Again….so angry.
- BRB: Be right back.
- LMAO: I’d like to combine this with LOL…is that really what you’re doing on the other side of the computer? Prove it…
Other terms that just need to go away
- Guru: I have never met a guru in real life. Do they exist?
- Maven: This word is totes overused. It’s becoming a cliché.
- Justsayin: This is a popular hashtag on Twitter and I don’t really get it.
- Fail: Another popular hashtag. Does anyone really look these hashtags up?
- Epic: The new amazing. Combine it with Fail and you have a real couple of losers.
Now it’s your turn. What words do you want to add to this list? I know you have some tucked away in your brain…we want to know what they are so leave a comment. We promise we’ll work on eradicating them from our vocabulary.
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by PixelsAway.
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I don’t think FTW means what you think it means…
I think she thinks it means F*** the world. When it most commonly (and all the time I’ve ever seen it used) means “for the win”. But there’s a few up there I don’t think she knows exactly what they mean.
Also, “preggers” for “pregnant” … it’s the same number of letters, even.
Also, “prego” for pregnant..
Most Def needs to go. It makes me stabby.
I think FTW could also be used as “For the Win”. That’s how I’ve been reading it… And even though awesomesauce is lamesville x 2, I think it’s a noun. “Sounds *like* awesomesauce to me”. I can’t tell if that’s an intentional error to highlight how ridiculous that word is.
This is such a weird (but good, don’t get me wrong) post to see on a freelance forum. The only word I refuse to give up is Jelly. I love that one.
FTW = FOR THE WIN!
It’s a happy one!
Actually people use FTW differently these days. “For The Win” rather than “F The World.” Kind of funny that the “younger” generation doesn’t realize what we think they are saying when they use that one. Even more funny is all the people with FTW tattooed on them are now regarded in a different light.
psst: FTW is most commonly used as “For the Win!” not F- the World. It’s used to praise specific things, like, “Hot Chocolate FTW!”
I know you’re thinking that “FTW” means “F the world” but that’s usually not the case anymore. Nowadays if someone says “FTW” it means “For the Win”, so it’s a phrase that connotes victorious jubilation.
This article is double plus good
Welcome to Orwelian 1984
On a serious note though, languages change old words fall from grace and new ones instantly replace them… but text speak should never, ever fill that gap.
Next time I hear an intern actually say aloud “OMG” in response to a client request I think im going to give her a warning.
I thought FTW was used more online to mean “For The Win” instead of Expletive-ing the world…
FTW is angry? I thought FTW means “For The Win”… ?
I think most of the people I know in my industry use these as more of playful sarcasm, whereas other people use them to mask their terrible spelling.
I’ve noticed a few new ones cropping up on Facebook recently such as “SMH” which I guess means “Shaking My Head” or “So Much Hate”. Also “HMU.” I Googled it and Urban Dictionary’s first result was “Hold My Unicorn,” but in the context of it being used on Facebook it really meant “Hit Me Up.” Annoying.
A quick correction – FTW is actually, “For the Win”, apparently coined from a US TV Quiz Show where the final responder would answer the question, “For The Win”.
Personally, I’d like to remove PMSL (Pissing Myself Laughing). For the first point – it should be PML, not PMSL. Secondly, it makes no sense – sure, it’s supposed to be a step up from LOL, ROFL, LMAO, etc., but it’s even less likely to actually be occurring on the other side of the screen when you read it.
This list cracked me up, Melanie. Although I will continue to say “amazeballs” until it officially drives my mother crazy and she threatens to get “stabby.”
To be honest, most of these terms don’t bother me, but if I ever see “tradigital” in a respected publication, I will boycott them until they apologize for assaulting my mind. And I’ve never heard of any of the words under Twitter Ridiculousness. I must run in different circles.
By the by, I think “FTW” stands for “For The Win.” What do you think it stands for?
I first heard “FTW” in a Tiger Army song called “F–k The World” but I do hear it much more frequently meant as “For the win” as Candace said.
Oh, wtf. You are overdoing it. lol.
I’m heavily using social networks like Twitter or Facebook, but I never came across so many “shorthand words” that it annoyed me.
Yes, some are lol’ing and rofl’ing often while being epicly ridic of other tweeps fails – but hey – it’s the Internet. That’s part of it.
FTW used to mean F$%# The World, I was quite confused when I started seeing it used as For The Win… Still throws me off sometimes
I was just about to comment on FTW. I can remember either meaning, but it’s been for the win for quite a while (at least on the side of the internet I use).
Probably shouldn’t be using it in everyday conversation though.
FTW is more commonly known as “For The Win” than whatever else you think it stands for. And “Nom” isn’t that gross—it is just a playful way of saying something tastes good! (Thanks, LOL Cats!)
I understand the frustration with the shorthand stuff seeping its way into written communication, but I think context dictates how/when it is ok to use Internet shorthand. (I feel sorry for your husband if you are stifling his sense of humor by banning use of words across the board. He should be able to say whatever he likes if the timing is appropriate!) For example, I am tempted to toss in an emoticon or a three letter acronym in this comment, since this is a casual online conversation—and normally I would here. But, to respect the author, I will refrain since it doesn’t feel appropriate considering the context. (Smiley face would have gone here.)
Eh, this article sounds like it was written by my 75-year-old mother. This kind of stuff is annoying in business conversation, and I agree most of it should absolutely not be used there. But for informal conversations, like those occurring on internet message boards or via text? Nothing wrong with any of these, IMO.
By the way, “FTW” usually stands for “for the win,” so I’m not sure why that comes across as angry.
Clearly I got FTW mixed up! I graduated high school in the 1990s — can I use that as my excuse? Guess I need a good acronym dictionary…
If we’re getting stabby about language, may I just point out that an acronym is a word you can say made up of initial letters, such as Aids or Unesco, and should be written with an initial capital letter and subsequent lower-case letters. FTW, FML etc are not acronyms. The one place you really have to get these subtle points right is in a post about the mangling of language!
Remember our whole correct vocabulary is made up of words that were not in it before or words that have different meanings. There was a time when the word “cool” only meant temperature of climate and not attitude. There are many others just do a little research and stop being so old fashion. There is a place for it sure, but live a little and prosper.
I’m not on board with this diatribe filler piece that doesn’t really help freelancers be better at what they do.
It seems to me to be a bit more of a rant than an analytical informational piece, which is what I was expecting.
One thing I do have to point out is your quote, you’ve used as support.
“I know we’re turning into a texting culture full of shortened and unintelligible words. But we’re destroying our language. At some point, we need to draw a line in the sand.”
If you delve into some basic linguistics you would find people complaining about the degradation of [insert language] here going back over a thousand years. Language used, that communicates, is generally correct language. There is no committee who decides what is and isn’t appropriate in a language.
Some organizations have tried to become this committee (by intention or accident), such as dictionary publishers and the FCC, they’ve really only excelled as selling books for a while, or censoring certain vulgarities.
However, the basic take home message from linguistics is that how the mass populace speaks is always correct as long as effective communication is occurring. If I say “totes” and you understand it as totally then I’m correct in that situation. Languages evolve with societies, they change.
So a better objective would be to ensure better communication between people rather than “black-listing” certain words, phrases, acronyms, etc. This being that language can be contextual. I can use “fail” with certain social groups that I can’t with others.
I would hope that anyone acting in a professional capacity would have the common sense to judge the best linguistic context to speak within. I don’t see many CEO’s writing a letter to the stockholders and including “We had an epic fail of a fourth quarter.”
Have to agree with almost everyone who has posted. A lot of these are slang, not shorthand. Old people always complain about how young people talk in informal situations, that’s just the way life is. Soon enough today’s young will age and there will be a whole new crop of words to annoy us.
And I’m sorry to have to mention this but it’s my biggest pet peeve and I can’t help it – a person is a “him or her,” not a “them.”
u mean a acronary
For the record…I do not think that I have yet abbreviated anything on twitter. Does that make me less of a twit?
I used to teach college and for essays, 5 points off for each txtspk that you used! A friend of mine in the English department ACTUALLY gave a negative score once for it!
I’m so with you. Especially “justsayin.” However, I think “tweeps” is perfectly descriptive and actually – forgive me – cute.
The behavior that I hate most is when people think they need to use the word “Fuck” in at least every sentence they speak or write, in order to make them look cool, though, hipster or whatever.
It’s also a bad trend in video games that make overuse of swearing. Total turn-off for me!
I’m okay with shorthand for the most part. I only have a problem if it shows up in a context that requires slightly more refined speech. When I see shorthand in say, an essay, it makes me feel stabby.
I admit to using EPIC on a regular basis. Mostly to express my enthusiasm for the new story I’m writing and/or planning. But all those other words are completely new to me. Maybe I hang out in the wrong parts of the Internet…
As many already denounced, some words are the result of an extended process of worldwide interactions and the rise of a culture in its own right –the meme. Epic, Fail, FTW are full and complex concepts to denote very defined ideas. Noms and For Realz are the result of a dialect invented originally for Lolcats which eventually became widely used. A simple Google search would have told you this. Not to mention as a journalist you should research the topic you are writing about.
While I agree with the notion of cleansing the language from certain words, I do believe that some are the product of a genuine and valid linguistic process: Epic and Fail already existed, they only gained a deeper meaning. And dialects are just dialects, you can’t say one is better than the other.
In my opinion the Shorthand aren’t that bad but the rest should be avoided as they just doesn’t make sense but people want to be “modern” and uses these words even though many people doesn’t know the meanings.
The word “cray” (for crazy) is like nails on a chalkboard… Especially when used in the sentence “that sh*t cray”.
If I see LOL one time I’ll go insane. But even more annoying are phrases like:
- let’s touch base
- i’ll just pop in
- drop by
- at the end of the day
- i have too much time on my hands
- thanks in advance
- well this is it
- take care
Context, context, context.
When I write ad copy, edit an article, or write a letter, I use “good” English and I wholeheartedly agree that in professional and academic circles where longhand is being used that is a must.
However, when I am on Twitter, I write in Twitterese when I must because the 140 character limit makes it necessary to convey the message in a different language. I am ok with that.
Maybe it’s because I am a former linguist and now do design and copy for marketing, but I see it this way: The message needs to be written for its intended audience.
Perhaps the “spillover” problem stems from lack of education among a generation growing up without learning about the proper use of language according to context.
And yet, some of the most erudite people I have met in recent years are on Twitter. I rarely see unintelligible tweets, but maybe that’s due to my choice of whom I follow.
Personally, I am far more annoyed by the absence of periods and misuse of apostrophes.
I agreed with the beginning of this article. We are destroying English as we know it. I think that being so connected to the entire world is what does it. People get influenced to start using words. Quite a few words need to be cut out of the vocabulary. Epic has been overused to a point that it doesn’t mean what it is supposed to mean anymore. And fail is so overused that it doesn’t even make an impact anymore. I knew it was completely overused when the video game industry began using it. Battlefield Bad Company 2 if you accidentally kill yourself pops up the message “Epic Fail”. I would not have been surprised if they would have put an emoticon after it like ”
”
It does seem however that as the world gets older people have become much more stupid over time. Hopefully, this will also pass or else people will get nearly unintelligible over time.
Hi Melanie,
Great list of words. Gosh I always thought jelly referred to the filling in a doughnut. (Yes, that’s how we spell the word north of the 49th parallel.)
The word that drove me crazy every time I heard the commercial on TV was “awesomer” (courtesy of a certain Canadian doughnut store), used to describe the frappuccino drink that was being advertised. If you thought awesome was bad, awesomer was definitely “worser”.
Guru is a term that is horribly overused–and misused. Yes, there are a few genuine gurus in the world: They are usually spiritual teachers in the Vedic/Yogic tradition and busy helping their students to discern the truth from the illusion.
I’m wondering if listing all the examples of atrocious words that should be banned because they’re either abbreviations or strange fusions ended up getting to you a little bit. Regarding your comment on “adorbs”, I think perhaps you meant the omission of three measly letters?
I like using FTW (For The Win). The rest of the words in that list should get banned.
I agree with RJ.
SMS and Twitter make it difficult to articulate a message effectively with limited characters. I often have to edit a Tweet or SMS to stay within the character limit.
The poor level of adult literacy I see every day is what amazes me. For example:
His – instead of – he is or he’s
Teh – instead of – The
Than -instead of – Then
Then – instead of – Than
There – instead of Their or They’re
Your – instead of – You’re
Over use of exclamation marks!!!
Using both ?! to end a sentence
Ending punctuation one space from the end of a sentence !
I think we need to accept some shortened words in Twitter and text messages. It’s the abbreviations that refer to gutter talk that annoy me most.
We have a radio station here in Sydney, where the DJ’s are actually saying LOL, WTF, LMAO and BRB in conversation on air. I guess it’s a cheap shot at linguistic profiling.
Avalon – I think you meant to use “tough” rather than “thought”, it’s difficult to look thought. And, using F*** is a courtesy to all readers thank you.
Melanie’s article is a good reminder to everyone writing for business purposes. A well written email to a prospect might be the difference between eating out or eating leftovers!
Okay, there’s the bell. Recess! Everyone back here in 20 minutes!
Cheers,
Paul
I couldn’t resist popping back in during the break.
Can anyone see the error in the “Freelance Freedom” promo in the right column?
The first person to point it out gets an an extra ten minutes with the Lego.
Paul, why do you use a deprecating tone? Do you find it funny to make fun of people like that?
Incongruent reply Marcelo.
You stated; “A simple Google search would have told you this. Not to mention as a journalist you should research the topic you are writing about.”. That’s not deprecating?
I have a pretty strong feeling that Melanie did all the research that was necessary to write this tidy little article. But then, I am not going to make any assumptions.
We are talking about writing for business, which seems to be the general consensus here and I believe, the main focus of this website. I make no apologies for bringing the abundance of poor literacy skills on a business level to the fore. It may help someone realise their mistakes and get their proposal across the line!
“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
I thought my sense of humour, sounding like a teacher, was obvious. If anyone else is upset or didn’t get a turn on the Lego, let me know. Anyway, FTW I get chocolate ice cream!
Cheers,
Paul
Speaking of incongruent replies, nobody said it was wrong for you to talk about poor literacy skills.
And kudoz for noticing the mistake in the ad. Can’t I do the same with the article your friend wrote? Just because you have a feeling she thoroughly researched her topic, I can’t bring up the obvious fault in the point she was trying to make?
Dialects are part of the normal evolution of language and modern languages are formed by the mixture of these dialects. Latin is a very good example of this. Some tones and verb conjugations of modern Spanish also derived from dialects used for those in power to speak to the masses or viceversa. And I sustain that a simple search in Google would have shed light on some of the uses she so readily disregarded as down-home hokum.
So basically what you are saying is that you disagree with my comments.
Cheers,
Paul
Wow. How the hell do you manage to do that? I was talking about the article and specifically about the lolcat dialect and the meaning of epic and fail. You, on the other hand, talked about grammatical mistakes like “your” instaed of “you are”, “teh” instaed of “the” and so forth. If you read my first comment, you will see that I agreed with the the author’s main point but not with her examples.
I agree with all of Melanie’s pet peeves, because they are mine too. Pointing out some often overlooked mistakes is important too, because livelihoods may depend on being correct. That’s all I care about anyway. If someone gets a heads up and succeeds, that’ Epic!
Although you were the initial winner of my find a mistake competition, I have to put the Lego blocks away and give the prize to the next correct entry. Only because you have used “instaed” instead of “instead”.
Cheers,
Paul
I apologise for my spelling in a language that is not my own. Please, please put a hammer to my hands, I beg you.
ROFL!
Hmm … I have to disagree with a lot of the ideas in this article. Some of the above is annoying when used in professional writing, but when talking to mates/ using the internet etc I think they are acceptable.
The English language is always changing/evolving and sitting there moaning about it is just silly. If it didn’t change and move with the times we would all still be using words like thy, dost, thou etc.
And what, exactly, does “For The Win” mean? Is it a new “State of the art”, which also didn’t really mean anything?
It may have something to do with the concept of “winning” (not just the one known to everyone but the internet’s version), “epic win” and so forth.
According to Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary, FTW is something spectacular and sure to succeed. Maybe —at least to me— the concept has a little bit more meaning taking into account the last chunk of this definition: “sure to succeed”.
They say that a sentence, as long as it is grammatical, has to have context where it shall be meaningful. Time to play some exquisite cadaver, I guess…
I guess I’m not the only one who slowly writes texts, FB posts, and Tweets, to make sure I’ve added all the apostrophes and commas, etc. in the right place. And usually spell out the words. What can I say, I’m an editor through and through.
This is hilarious! The Internet has caused the demise of the English language. Between using shorthands and spell check…
This has been an interesting experience. I found this article because I was so sick and tired of seeing “hmu” on Facebook that I looked it up, found that it means “hit me up”, and am now trying to find out what the hell “hit me up” is supposed to mean. Instead I find more slang I don’t understand. “For the win”? What the Sam Hill Hell is “for the win” supposed to mean?
I understand that our language is dynamic rather than static, but as it changes, it should be evolving instead of degenerating into nonsense, in my honest (not necessarily humble) opinion.
As for words I’d like to add to the list to get rid of, the very first is “friggin”. I hate it possibly more than the word it supposedly is meant to replace. And I agree with Paul on his list of misused words, and add “bring, instead of take”. “Please TAKE me to town with you when you go, and BRING me back here before dark.”
We have school teachers in East Texas and over in Louisiana that can’t get that simple distinction. And I’ve been in a court of law and observed the judge trying to get it clear in his mind which direction the witness was going when he told about “passing” someone on the highway. I was taught that when you are driving West, and I’m driving East on the same road, I “meet” you somewhere along the way. It confuses me to hear about “passing” someone going the opposite direction as well as someone going the same direction slower.
“Got” is also overused as well as misused. “I got clobbered yesterday” is correct, but “I got the bruises to prove it” is not. We’ve come to the point that when we want to sound less uneducated we’ll use “I’ve got” or even “I have got” instead of “I got” when we should be simply saying “I have”.
So….. now, I have finished. I’m through. But I am NOT “done”, thank you!
Oh, btw, (see, I tole u I wuzn’t done) down here in thu South we use “y’all” and their ain’t nuttin rong with it attal. Juss thu way weunz talk, thassal. K?
Thu mainest thang is that u unnerstan wat I’muh sain, doncha cee?!
I am sorry to hear that your biggest pet peeve is the use of the word “them” in the singular. I support this linguistic change because the distinction “him or her” promotes the gender binary (that there is only “male” or “female” and a person is always one or the other), which excludes genderqueer, intersex, and some trans people who identify as both, neither, or fluid. Where some people see this change as degenerative, I think it fills a very real need for a gender-neutral pronoun where the English language does not currently have one.
wow, melanie, you’re a bitter, bitter, woman