Yes this may be a pretentious post, but it makes my skin crawl when I hear these words and I must share my disdain for these terms as well as find a way that they can be assassinated immediately.
1. Conversate
LL Cool J recently used this word in his controversial duet with Brad Paisley called Accidental Racist. I think I was more offended by the use of the word "conversate" than I was with the actual song. I remember when I was 15 years old, I wrote a play in my drama class and I used the word conversate. My drama teacher put a large red circle around it and wrote in red ink
Conversate is not a word. Use the word Converse.
It was that day I never used the word again in a sentence. Yet hip hop artists and Beyonce still use the word and the Merriam Webster Dictionary has now adopted the word conversate in our lexicon. Why?
2. Ratchet
This is the slang term, not the definition of a socket wrench. When I first heard the word, I was curious to know why women of color were being referred to as a tool? Then I thought about the other tool referred to women called hoe and I connected the dots. Why do I hate this word? This word typically describes black women especially and now its progressing into a word that means all things tacky or ghetto. Yet another racial stereotype being accepted and used by everyone.
3. Irregardless
I hear and see this word all of the time! I once read a very reputable online publication appreciated by millions across the world and the editor-in-chief had the audacity to allow their writer to use this word in their literary piece. Seriously? This word which I believe is a portmanteau for irrespective and regardless is now accepted? Here is a tiny hint: if you use MS Word, its underlined in red, and the spell check does not correct the word...it's not a word!
4. Basically
I watch a ton of Judge Judy. She shares the same contempt for this word as I do. Whenever a plaintiff or defendant recall the events of their case and they start with "Your Honor, well basically what happened was..." My hero Judge Judy immediately cuts them off and says..."No basically. Just tell me what happened." Its simply a filler word in my opinion.
5. Refudiate
I'm going all bias on this word. Sarah Palin made up the word, it was added to the Oxford American Dictionary, and therefore it must die a terrible death. Pretty much sums it up right there. Moving right along...
6. Hipster
I've been guilty of using this word more times than I care to admit, but this is another one that has got to go. It's one of the most overused words to describe a culture of people who are not nerds and chose to follow trends. I personally don't find anything hip about being a follower, but to each is own. In the meantime, maybe we should come up with another word other than hipster please.
7. Snoop Dogg's Vernacular
For shizzle my nizzle is so 2002. If you are still saying these words and phrases, then you might as well use other archaic slang like "Word Up" and "Solid"!
8. Chickenhead
I remember when I first heard this word in undergrad and nearly choked on my own laughter that this was a term to describe a foolish woman. The fact that this word is actually in Wikipedia is beyond ridiculous, but again its Wikipedia, I guess I shouldn't set my expectations very high.
9. Using words in the past tense incorrectly
Here are my examples: Blowed up (blew up), Growed up (grew up), Tooken (taken), Stoled (stolen) and the list goes on and on folks.
