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Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

Busaholic

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I still won't use the abbreviation 'uni' in speech. It wasn't in use when I first should have gone to university, but didn't, in the 1960s, nor when I actually got there in 1984. Of course, university attendance wasn't as great then, before other institutions had their status upgraded, but I think it downgrades the idea of it being a place of learning as opposed to a natural right-of-passage. Which isn't to say it has to be a purely ascetic, even joyless experience, far from it. In short, 'uni' grates with me.
 
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GusB

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I still won't use the abbreviation 'uni' in speech. It wasn't in use when I first should have gone to university, but didn't, in the 1960s, nor when I actually got there in 1984. Of course, university attendance wasn't as great then, before other institutions had their status upgraded, but I think it downgrades the idea of it being a place of learning as opposed to a natural right-of-passage. Which isn't to say it has to be a purely ascetic, even joyless experience, far from it. In short, 'uni' grates with me.
I've never been too keen on the word either. My first recollection of 'uni' being used was in the days when Neighbours was broadcast on BBC1 just before the news at six o'clock.
 

birchesgreen

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I dunno, i like the word uni personally. Maybe i am just used to working with young people, most of the others in my department were not even born when i left "uni" lol.
 

52290

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I dunno, i like the word uni personally. Maybe i am just used to working with young people, most of the others in my department were not even born when i left "uni" lol.
I think the word "uni" is only used by those who went there. Eleven plus failures, like me, never use it. At least "sec mod" taught me to capitalise "I"!
 

jfollows

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I think the word "uni" is only used by those who went there. Eleven plus failures, like me, never use it. At least "sec mod" taught me to capitalise "I"!
Maybe, but only more recently - for example since the turn of the century - if so. Not used when I went to university.
 

duncanp

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I presume “platinum jubilee” and, yes, it’s irritating.
As is “uni” but that’s because I’m an old fart and it was always “university” back when I went in 1980.

Can we just ban the use of "Crimbo" for Christmas, and "arvo" for afternoon.

Beyond irritating, both of them. <( <(
 

Richard Scott

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Can we just ban the use of "Crimbo" for Christmas, and "arvo" for afternoon.

Beyond irritating, both of them. <( <(
Whilst we're on Christmas also calling it "the big day". I find this highly irritating.
 

birchesgreen

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I think the word "uni" is only used by those who went there. Eleven plus failures, like me, never use it. At least "sec mod" taught me to capitalise "I"!
Eleven plus failures can use it, like myself. :lol:

I think it is just a generational thing, as i said earlier i work with young people and i'm not afraid to update the way i speak instead of making sneering comments on here. Language evolves.
 

Gloster

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Can we just ban the use of "Crimbo" for Christmas, and "arvo" for afternoon.

I have never heard of ”arvo”. The only one I have heard of is the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

(It took about ten attempts before speelchock would allow this: it kept giving me avro and argo or various bits of gibberish.)
 

nw1

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I presume “platinum jubilee” and, yes, it’s irritating.
As is “uni” but that’s because I’m an old fart and it was always “university” back when I went in 1980.

"Uni" comes from Neighbours, I think. Well, more generally it's Australian, but that's where I think it entered into UK language.

Even still, it took quite a while to filter through; I went to university some time after Neighbours started, and after I'd heard its characters use it, but it wasn't in use then.
 
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dangie

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The word ‘uni’ has two benefits over ‘university’
1. It’s easy to text
2. Many who go to university may struggle to spell ‘university’ but they can spell ‘uni’
 

D6130

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?

Point 2 makes no sense whatsoever. If it's a joke I fail to get it.
My wife is a retired university librarian and for the past fifteen/twenty years she has despaired at the poor standard of spelling exhibited by many students who were otherwise sufficiently intelligent to reach university. She often had to return emails sent to her by students requesting particular items of information....because they were so badly-spelled and constructed that she couldn't understand them.
 

dangie

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Point 2 makes no sense whatsoever. If it's a joke I fail to get it.
Not meant as a joke but a lighthearted comment. Having said that one only has to look at social media to see that spelling is often pretty poor. Too much reliance is given to spellcheck etc and abbreviated text speak doesn’t help.
 

Meerkat

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Fake night in TV and films. It’s so obviously not night, just daytime tinted blue and the contrast turned down a bit.
 

Ediswan

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Fake night in TV and films. It’s so obviously not night, just daytime tinted blue and the contrast turned down a bit.
"Day for night". It's one of those things many people don't notice, until somebody points it out, then you can't help but notice it.
 

52290

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Eleven plus failures can use it, like myself. :lol:

I think it is just a generational thing, as i said earlier i work with young people and i'm not afraid to update the way i speak instead of making sneering comments on here. Language evolves.
Sorry,I was trying to be comedic in line with the thread. Seems I failed at that too.
 

Box

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"Uni" comes from Neighbours, I think. Well, more generally it's Australian, but that's where I think it entered into UK language.

Even still, it took quite a while to filter through; I went to university some time after Neighbours started, and after I'd heard its characters use it, but it wasn't in use then.

I went to “Uni” before Neighbours existed and it was rarely called anything else, whether it came from elsewhere in Australia I have no idea
 

D6130

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When I was a teenager in the West of Scotland in the early 1970s, I frequently heard people talking about 'uni'....especially in connection with the older of the two universities in Glasgow.
 

nw1

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My wife is a retired university librarian and for the past fifteen/twenty years she has despaired at the poor standard of spelling exhibited by many students who were otherwise sufficiently intelligent to reach university. She often had to return emails sent to her by students requesting particular items of information....because they were so badly-spelled and constructed that she couldn't understand them.

Ah ok. My point really was that those that go to university are amongst the most intelligent of the population, so one might assume that, on average, their spelling would not be poorer than the rest.
 

Gloster

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Taking my daughter-in-law as an example, she is (or appears to be) extremely intelligent. However she has the common sense of a house brick :D

That is not new among students. However, in the old days they could express their stupidity grammatically.
 

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