Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education, loves to use the word incent, and for reasons I don't understand it drives me crazy. Up until now I've always heard incentivize. Maybe it's the frequency with which Duncan uses the word that bothers me, as well as the policies implied by it. I'm getting tired of hearing for decades that the way to fix the problems with education is to incent teachers, principals, students, and parents, and the way to do that is with money. I heard Duncan say that even the school janitors need to be incented. Why? Do clean restrooms make better students?

I suppose the logic is that when teachers are rewarded for good results that provides some extra incentive to do the extra work in order to get good results. But I still hate the word incent, while I don't have a problem with the word reward, even though in the example provided they pretty much mean the same thing. I didn't really mean to stir up issues about education!

I think that my top two current most-hated words are "excetera" and "anywho."

Etymology, you didn't say why you hated etcetera and anywho. Just curious! Personally, I enjoy hearing anywho, because it is almost always done with a dramatic flourish. But it's rare that I hear it. Maybe I'd feel differently if I heard it all the time.

Stephanie (and hoppy), for whatever it's worth, some people say irregardless to add emphasis to the relatively diminutive regardless. The ir, especially if prolonged and done with a slight growl, is audibly engaging. Those who won't learn to appreciate the effect will continue to wince, I suspect.

Samaphore, the word that I hate isn't “et cetera,” (which is two words) it's “excetera.” There's something about people mangling Latin phrases that bugs me a little bit (I'll admit that I'm probably being inconsistent by overlooking other manglings of Latin in the English language). I think my dislike for “excetera” was stoked by repeatedly hearing a radio ad for a business called “Brakes Etc.” in which people keep saying “excetera.” One reason that I hate “excetera” may be that it reminds me of “excrement.”

As for my hatred of “anywho,” I don't really know what to say about that other than that it seems like a somewhat forced attempt to be clever. When I was in a public speaking class in college, I had a classmate who kept saying “anywho” during his presentations, and it definitely rubbed me the wrong way.

Now that dmonfils mentions it, I'm not crazy about “panties” either. It seems slightly strange that womens' underwear has this somewhat infantile, childish name when mens' underwear doesn't. Well, maybe it's not that unexpected when you consider our society's history of patriarchy and all that, but it still seems a little strange to me.

I hate to figure out if I am going to lay down, or lie down. I'm just taking a nap.

The "excetera" post reminded me of "exscape"...i can't help but notice when people add that extra letter and it makes me cringe.

The other word that gets me is when someone consistently says "utilize" in place of "use". Is there a useful difference between these terms or just personal preference?

I just came from a meeting. I finally have an answer to this question.

I hate the word “mentee”.

I know. It's in plenty of dictionaries. But there are lots of words in lots of dictionaries that make lots of people wince. Granted, usually only people who care about words and language would wince at words in dictionaries. But that's why I'm doing my wayward whinging here.

I usually enjoy word-formation oddities a lot. However, this one rubs me the wrong way, and how. Mentor was a great person, who guided another great person. The application of his name in this situation is a beautiful metaphor. The beauty of the metaphor is shattered by the mere existence of the word “mentee”.

A mentor is still not someone who *”ments”. I don't want to be a mentee, now or ever. I don't want to have a mentee. Now, if I had the opportunity to be an odyssean, I might be willing to fight for that! If I had an odyssean who wanted my guidance, I would be honored.

One of my colleagues who attended the same meeting hates the word because it seems so passive, as if the mentee is having the *menting done to him or her.

If you get a dozen mentees into a room and serve them diet coke, should you duck?