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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Sing along with The Buzz 10/13/09   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 Survey says certain words are annoying? Whatever By Michael Hill Associated Press So, you know, it is what it is, but Americans are totally annoyed by the use of “whatever” in conversations. The popular slacker term of indifference was found “most annoying in conversation” by 47 percent of Americans surveyed in a Marist College poll released Wednesday. “Whatever” easily beat out “you know,” which especially grated a quarter of respondents. The other annoying contenders were “anyway” (at 7 percent), “it is what it is” (11 percent) and “at the end of the day” (2 percent). “Whatever” — pronounced “WHAT’-ehv-errr” when exasperated — is an expression with staying power. Immortalized in song by Nirvana (“oh well, whatever, nevermind”) in 1991, popularized by the Valley girls in “Clueless” later that decade, it is still commonly used, often by younger people. It can be an all-purpose argument-ender or a signal of apathy. And it can really be annoying. The poll found “whatever” to be consistently disliked by Americans. “It doesn’t surprise me because ‘whatever’ is in a special class, probably,” said Michael Adams, author of “Slang: The People’s Poetry” and an associate professor of English at Indiana University. “It’s a word that — and it depends how a speaker uses it — can suggest dismissiveness.” Adams, who was not involved in the poll and is not annoyed by “whatever,” points out that its use is not always negative. It also can be used in place of other, neutral phrases that have fallen out of favor, like “six of one, half dozen of the other,” he said. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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