The things I hate the most have to do with re-defining things just because.
1. The complete rebranding of the term "GOAT". For 100 years, Goat meant you were the worst, the loser, the fault bearer. But who cares about that usage and history, we can make it into a hip new acronym and hashtag it!
2. The term "Walk-off". This term had an original meaning, coined by Dennis Eckersley in 1988 and referred to a pitcher walking off the mound after allowing a homerun that wins the game. But then we had walk off doubles, walk off singles and walk off fielders choices, and sometimes now "walk off goals" in hockey. We've taken a phrase that was meant specifically as a pitcher's walk of shame, and now use it for the since scrubbed "Game-Winning" term in sports vocabulary.
3. Using the word "Tempo" to describe a fast offense in football. "Looks like they are going Tempo". The word "Tempo" means "a speed". Not "Fast speed". Tempo can be slow or fast equally. Any use of the word "Tempo" should always use words like "up" "fast" or "slow" to describe what the tempo is. Or say "They are changing the tempo".
4. The transfer portal. I don't know how this is what is became called. But it's really the Transfer Database. The "Portal" is how you enter the transfer Database.
5. moving away from sports and working into Technology, the word that makes me want to vomit is "Leverage" when used as a Verb, or "Leveraging". First, this is a made-up word, probably by a sales guy who was trying to make himself sound smarter than he really was.
1. Lever (noun): a bar resting on a pivot, used to help move a heavy or firmly fixed load with one end when pressure is applied to the other.
2. Lever (verb): to lift or move with a lever.
3. Leverage (noun): the advantage gained by the use of a lever
What I hear all the time is "I want to leverage this new software for our HR department". Which, according to grammar, makes no sense.
The proper use would be "I want to lever this new software for our HR department.". But apparently this does not sound cool enough, so someone decided to change the use of the word leverage.
Here is a comparable example I found.
Verb: + age = Noun
Lever + age = Leverage
Advance + age = Advantage
Spill + age = Spillage
You DO:
Advance the ball down the field. (verb)
Spill your beer (verb)
Lever your software. (verb)
You DO:
Gain an advantage (noun)
Determine the spillage (noun)
Develop some leverage (noun)
You don't:
Advantage the ball down the field (LOL)
Spillage your beer. (LOL)
Leverage the software (But we accept this? See how ridiculous this is?)
Unfortunately we are too far gone to ever go back, and I think these new made up words are even finding their ways into some dictionaries.