Overused terms/words

[rockmanj]

Genius is, and for that matter "retard". Those terms actually are supposed to be very limited in scope; and not every other person is one or the other.

[Animeniax]

I have to agree with "retard". It's pretty sad how much that word is overused to describe even the mildest of brain farts. I personally do not use it, as I do not wish to incur the wrath of karma resulting in my first born having a mental handicap because of my insensitivity.

I think the term "hero" is overused. I don't have a problem with people calling firefighters and police officers "hero", but I think it's a stretch. Really they're just doing their jobs or what is normally (un)common decency.

[samsonlonghair]

I think the term "hero" is overused. I don't have a problem with people calling firefighters and police officers "hero", but I think it's a stretch. Really they're just doing their jobs or what is normally (un)common decency.

When I was in high school some famous NASCAR driver died, and the next day every redneck was calling him a "hero". He was just a damn race car driver; he didn't cure cancer.

"you're going to have to fix it for me, I'm not computer literate." Biggest cop-out I've ever heard. You don't tell your mechanic to fix your car because he's the "mechanical guru" and you're not "mechanically literate". Why is it ok to tell your IT tech that bs?

Fucking A. I'm an IT guy and I hear that nonsense all the time. "I'm not computer literate" really means "I'm a grown adult who thinks it's alright to live in the twenty-first century and not know how to use a computer, so I expect you to do it for me".
This reminds me; I'd like to add "fucking A" to the list of overused expressions.

In instant and text messaging I find it quite acceptable.

I have to pay five cents for every text I send whether its five characters or eighty-eight characters. I never abbreviate in text messages unless I'm running out of room.

[Buffalobiian]

I have to pay five cents for every text I send whether its five characters or eighty-eight characters. I never abbreviate in text messages unless I'm running out of room.

Well I pay 25c.

[Animeniax]

When I was in high school some famous NASCAR driver died, and the next day every redneck was calling him a "hero". He was just a damn race car driver; he didn't cure cancer.

Fucking A. I'm an IT guy and I hear that nonsense all the time. "I'm not computer literate" really means "I'm a grown adult who thinks it's alright to live in the twenty-first century and not know how to use a computer, so I expect you to do it for me".
This reminds me; I'd like to add "fucking A" to the list of overused expressions.

I have to pay five cents for every text I send whether its five characters or eighty-eight characters. I never abbreviate in text messages unless I'm running out of room.

I think we'd be best friends if we ever hung out. Or we'd get sick of each other.

I also get charged 5 cents per text message and I do not abbreviate, ever. I also use correct punctuation in my texts, which is actually a pain since I only have the numerical keypad and not a qwerty keypad so I have to hunt for every letter and symbol.

Another term I dislike: "emails". Email is the same as mail, there is no plural form. Why is it ok to say "emails", but not "mails"? I've started saying "deers" and "foods" just to piss people off who say "emails". Not that big a deal, but I get annoyed with these little exceptions people make because it's computer related.

[Munsu]

Another term I dislike: "emails". Email is the same as mail, there is no plural form. Why is it ok to say "emails", but not "mails"? I've started saying "deers" and "foods" just to piss people off who say "emails". Not that big a deal, but I get annoyed with these little exceptions people make because it's computer related.

Because email and mail are not the same?

For example, you don't say "I'm going to send you a mail", though you say "I'm going to send you an email"... in the former you would've simply said, "I'm going to send you a letter by mail" or something along those lines. In the case above, email's usage is closer to that of a letter than of mail.

If email doesn't have a plural form officially, then the rule should be changed because it's completely dumb.

As far as I know, "mail" is considered a mass noun, while "email" is not (while it can be used as one in certain occasions).

No one is taking exceptions because it's computer related in this case. They're two different words, and should be treated as such.

[Animeniax]

Because email and mail are not the same?

For example, you don't say "I'm going to send you a mail", though you say "I'm going to send you an email"... in the former you would've simply said, "I'm going to send you a letter by mail" or something along those lines. In the case above, email's usage is closer to that of a letter than of mail.

If email doesn't have a plural form officially, then the rule should be changed because it's completely dumb.

As far as I know, "mail" is considered a mass noun, while "email" is not (while it can be used as one in certain occasions).

No one is taking exceptions because it's computer related in this case. They're two different words, and should be treated as such.

The correct form for "e-mail" is with the hyphen, which denotes it's roots as an abbreviation of "electronic-mail", so any usage rules that apply to "mail" apply to "e-mail" as well.

E-mail has evolved, so it's ok these days to say "I'm going to send you an email." Whether that usage is appropriate or not doesn't seem to matter to your average user at this point.

In counter-point to your example, I've rarely ever heard "check your emails." People say "check your email", so it seems they apply the usage rules willy-nilly, at times treating it the same as "mail", and at times treating it like a special computer jargon word with its own rules.

[XanBcoo]

It's not a matter of it being a computer word, as he already said. It's just that "email" is treated both as a mass and a count noun. So saying both:

"Check your email" and
"He just sent me 4 emails"

is acceptable. This occurs with some other words as well, though usually it has to do with containers. Like "I love beer" and "I had 4 beers last night". Email is just treated as a countable noun, so unless you want to start saying "e-letter", then you'll have to accept that "email" can be pluralized. There is no "correct" way to say it other than what is popularly understood or accepted.

[Munsu]

The correct form for "e-mail" is with the hyphen, which denotes it's roots as an abbreviation of "electronic-mail", so any usage rules that apply to "mail" apply to "e-mail" as well.

E-mail has evolved, so it's ok these days to say "I'm going to send you an email." Whether that usage is appropriate or not doesn't seem to matter to your average user at this point.

In counter-point to your example, I've rarely ever heard "check your emails." People say "check your email", so it seems they apply the usage rules willy-nilly, at times treating it the same as "mail", and at times treating it like a special computer jargon word with its own rules.

It doesn't matter wether it's e-mail, electronic-mail, or email... these words are not exclusively mass nouns as the word mail is. The reason being that you can actually count units of e-mail as you would count letters (you can't count mail as units).

Let me put you similar examples. Beer and water are both mass nouns, you would say "I'm going to drink water" or "I'm going to drink beer". But just the same you can say "I want four waters and four beers" because in this case you're reffering to bottles of water/beer, units you can count.

Just the same you can count the number of e-mails and just the same you can use e-mail to mean the collective at the discretion of the speaker.