The worst word I’ve ever come across is bucketise – what’s wrong with categorise? Every time someone says bucketise I have to run for the next bucket … it’s disgusting.

Christ on crutches chucking bins, on the other hand, is brilliant.

My feeling is that many of the above have been spawned by marketing executives in various attempts to inject excitement/drama into presentations/campaigns. Incentivise, leverage, competencies, obligate and roll-out are all cases in point.

Of course, as a grumpy old bugger I have a few I really detest, but here’s my latest:

‘Learnings’. ‘We have gained some valuable learnings’. No, you’ve just learned something.

On the other hand, I still welcome new words and new uses and do think that we, as a writing community can get a little too hot under the collar about how others communicate. That said, it still drives me insane when you hand over a perfectly well nurtured apostrophe to a grocer so I guess some things never change in my copy world!

Anyone noticed how ‘follow’ has become a noun on Twitter as in ‘many thanks for the follow’?

In their defense, some of now-reviled words and phrases began as shorthand. They carried meaning and nuance within certain industry, professional or academic cliques.

When I write healthcare copy, for instance, doctors often insist I describe their equipment as “cutting-edge” and their colleagues (appropriately used here) as “world-class.” Surgeons “pioneer” certain “innovative” procedures and teach them to “next-generation” physicians.

These words mean something specific in doctors’ specialized circles. Not so much when speaking to patients.

Yes, I’ve tried taking the high road and educating world-class scientists and specialists–the irony–about jargon use.

In the end, if they keep penciling in “futuristic” and “premier,” it’s going to stay in the final copy.