Bastardization of words

Any noun with "-wise" tacked onto it, especially when there's a perfectly good adverb already, such as "offensively." Yet how many times do we hear "offensive-wise" from athletes, coaches and the occasional sportscaster?

 

I have never heard the word "offensive-wise."

 

I think we have a general consensus on that.

I'm worn out from hearing "beg the question" used wrong, since it's a precise term from logic and doesn't simply mean "suggests that I follow up by asking..."

Also, I know editors who have so hammered people about the difference between ironically and coincidentally that, even when something actually is ironic, they change it to coincidentally. Knee-jerk-ish, y'know?

 

I was with a bunch of friends, heading out to eat at a place that was already agreed upon. Another guy wants to go to a different restaurant. I said it has already been decided and if you want to change it, you better take it up with the guy who made the plans.
He said, "Don't McCain on me."
I wanted to Tyson him.

 

awesome. As in "He did awesome."

I'll also vote for "on the season."

 

Massive, starving.

 

Aggressiveness. It's aggression.

And random. Unless you're talking about blindly selecting a choice or other mathematical probabilities, nothing is random. Not a conversation, not seeing someone in a grocery store, nothing.

 

I think it's funny how random has become a put-down of sorts with kids.

Some kid will bring something up out of the blue and others will ridicule him for saying something so "random."

 

Split infinitives bug the piss out of me, but no one else on my staff seems to care, so I throw up the white flag. Furthermore, on one major newspaper's blog an entry about split infinitives drew ire of readers along these lines:

Geez, newspaper people are so pretentious. You bring this up so your poor editors have something to do and feel important. Nobody cares. How about getting facts straight and making sure everyone's name is spelled right?

Well, all right.

 

Ehh. I'd rather split an infinitive than misspell a name. I've known too many copy editors who can catch all the comma splices but don't spot the hed bust.

 

Comma splice > hed bust

 

"Basically" is a great word to tip off a listener that a heavily biased statement is on the way and can be immediately discarded.