It bugs me when people say “the thing is is that” (if you listen for it, you’ll start hearing it… or maybe that’s something that people only do in my area.) (“What the thing is is that…” is fine. But “the thing is is that…” bugs me.)

Also, “just because <blank> doesn’t mean <blank>.” That sentence structure invites one to take “just because <blank>” as a noun phrase which my brain really doesn’t want to do. Just doesn’t seem right. But that sentence structure is very common.

And I’m not saying there’s anything objectively wrong with either of these. Language is weird and complex and beautiful. It’s just fascinating that some commonly-used linguistic constructions just hit some people wrong sometimes.

Edit: I thought of another one. “As best as I can.” “The best I can” is fine, “as well as I can” is good, and “as best I can” is even fine. But “as best as” hurts.

  • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
    61·
    7 months ago

    So the first thing is definitely pulled from corporatespeak, so you sound very professional like you know what you’re doing.

    As for a washer specifically, there isn’t really a known etymological origin, that’s just what they’ve been called since the 1300s. The thing about English is that it’s like 5 languages stack on top of each other and eating parts of other languages for sustenance.