Don’t talk about your bae unless you want this reaction (Picture: Getty Images/Westend61)
As a nation, we have some pretty strict views on what’s considered unacceptable, from skipping queues to asking a woman’s age.
Using certain phrases will also put you in Brits’ bad books, as a recent survey showed that 80% of us are irritated by things people say.
According to the research by Perspectus Global, a quarter of people in the UK have sighed in disappointment upon hearing someone using a cringeworthy word, while 17% admit that their opinion of the person goes down.
On top of this, 13% go out of their way to avoid the culprit entirely after their faux pas, and a savage 7% immediately unfollow them on social media.
The most annoying term, according to a third of the 2,000 people surveyed, is amazeballs, which Oxford Dictionary defines as an informal adjective describing something ‘extremely good or impressive’.
In second place was holibobs, followed by awesomeness and LOLZ. Bants, nom nom nom, totes and bae were also hated by more than a quarter of respondents.
If you’re trying to woo someone, you may also want to avoid the terms hankie-pankie or nookie unless you want to put your potential partner right off.
Here’s the full list of 25 phrases and words that’ll turn you into persona non grata:
Amazeballs – 34%
Holibobs – 29%
Awesomeness 28%
LOLZ – 27%
Bants – 27%
Nom nom nom – 26%
Totes – 26%
BAE – 25%
Din dins – 25%
Chrimbo – 23%
Hankie-pankie – 23%
Wifey – 23%
Sorry, not sorry – 22%
Nookie – 21%
Happy Friyay – 21%
Drinkies – 20%
No problemo – 20%
Fur baby – 19%
Coolio – 19%
Methinks – 19%
Hot girl summer – 18%
No offence, but – 18%
Bossing it – 17%
Wine-o-clock – 17%
My bad – 15%
Commenting on the findings, neuroscientist Dr Rachel Taylor said: ‘If someone uses a word that we find embarrassing, as humans, we instinctively want to distance ourselves from them – hence the cringe, which can be seen as physically making ourselves smaller.
‘Our primitive brain cannot distinguish between a physical threat (a nearby predator) or a psychological threat, and any awkward behaviour from others can trigger a threat response.
‘Obviously the words that we find embarrassing are not objective, they are culturally specific. Our reactions are learned and have been created by our experiences from birth until now. Our judgement is environmental, yet the response is caused by an interaction with current status and learned behaviour. The brain combines it all and proposes a precision of what the word means, and then we experience an emotion.
‘So a word may have connections with all sorts of emotional relevance or it may be a shared hatred of it. I hate “moist”, as do most people – it feeds the disgust emotion. While “amazeballs”, the most cringeworthy word according to the poll, is likely to tap into the embarrassment emotion, because it’s seen as silly, old fashioned and uncool.’
Methinks a vocabulary update may be in order.
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They totes don’t care about your bae either.