I
like to think I keep fairly up-to-date with new word creations but
have to admit I only came across "YOLO" by accident when half-watching
The
Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2012
on Channel Four at the end of last year.
A
week into the New Year and I'm reading about a
recent study in the US by Marist, revealing “YOLO” is one of
America's least favourite words
(http://metro.co.uk/2013/01/07/seriously-there-are-literally-millions-of-words-that-are-basically-annoying-just-sayin-3338395/).
Since reading the Metro feature, I'm unable to stop saying “whatever”
(unsurprisingly another word voted “most annoying”) for several
days afterwards and actually experience someone saying “YOLO” to
me in all seriousness – a student asks to borrow a pen and I warn
him it'll lead to an “equipment comment” to which he replies: “Oh
well, YOLO!”
I'm
well aware words like “basically” wind a lot of people up but
realise I have no idea what these types of words are called.
Virtually every phenomenon in the world has a name, especially in
linguistics, so I'm surprised it takes me so long to uncover the
information I seek. A friend suggests “earworm”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm)
but this term seems to exclusively be applied to music that sticks in
the head without any obvious prompting, not isolated words.
The
answer finally surfaces and sounds somewhat misleading... Words like
“literally” are called “crutch words”, a term
referring to expressions peppered throughout our language that act as
verbal or written pauses, allowing us time to think or accentuate our
meaning. Sometimes these words have somehow lodged in our brains,
resulting in repeat usage, adding little meaning. Sometimes we use
them incorrectly but even if we don’t need them at all, we're
likely to unintentionally and quite irritatingly persist in churning them out.
To
check how many crutch words you use, for an extensive list visit:
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