Let's status on that

Status is not a verb. I've heard it too many times now at work, and I'm getting concerned. "Let's status on that tomorrow." Or even worse, "We need to status up on that." Status up?

acronyms

Oy, here's one that drives me mad. People referring to abbreviations as "acronyms." Just because it's in all capital letters does not make it an acronym! "NAACP" and "NRA" are abbreviations. "NOW" and "BART" are acronyms. Why? Cause you can say them like a word. Like "NARAL."

Oddly, "MIT" is treated as an abbreviation, even though you could technically say it like a word.

From Merriam Webster:
"acronym: a word formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term"

xox,
gertrude

I could care less

Just a quickie addition to the Inconceivables list - the well-known misuse of the dismissive, "I couldn't care less." Why some people insist on saying "I could care less" I don't know. It's shorter? Cooler? Wronger?

Irregardless, it's annoying. : )

gertrude

Congratulations, it's a Mandatory!

Companies all want projects done immediately. Fast-moving e-businesses (are there any other kind?), web development consulting firms, branding outlets, ad firms, etc, all want to do more than these companies want, because they have profit margins and employ self-starters who can grow their businesses. At the intersection of what the company needs, and what the contracts want to overcharge for are what both agree MUST be done (and in reality will be all that ever gets done). Some people call these must-haves, mission-critical elements, or low-hanging fruit. Lately, though, companies call them Mandatories:

Mandatory (nout)(plural: Mandatories) = an element of a project or task that must be completed or the project / task fails.

Sounds nice, but that's not what the noun "mandatory" means. From Merriam-Webster.com:

Main Entry: mandatory / Function: noun / plural man·da·to·ries / Date: 1661
: one given a mandate; especially : a nation holding a mandate from the League of Nations

And surely, companies don't want nations holding mandates from the League of Nations to approve their word, do they? That's rhetorical, dummy.