I'll admit that whenever there's a new meme, pop song, or viral vine with a new, catchy word or phrase, I'm one of the first to adopt it into my personal lexicon. But being the self-proclaimed queen of colloquialisms does have its downsides, with the top one being that people get a little annoyed with your constant use of slang. But hey, at least the problem is easily fixable: We just need to avoid using the most annoying slang words of 2015, because even I'll admit that the constant presence of a popular turn of phrase kind of startes to grate on your nerves after a while.
This list of annoying slang words comes from Metro, a UK newspaper that created a Twitter and Facebook poll asking users to determine the most annoying phrase of 2015. Over 1,500 users responded to create a exhaustive ranking of things everyone is hoping we'll all stop saying in 2016.
It's true that if you reflect earnestly on 2015, you will notice there was certainly no shortage of new words and phrases introduced into our vocabularies. We learned from Drake what it means to get lit, and Fetty Wap taught us all about the trap queen. We started to explore the nuances of a hypebeast and learned that GOAT doesn't just spell out the name of a beloved animal. We went deeper into one of my personal favorite phrases "Yas queen" (sometimes I get carried away and say "yas trap queen") and understood the very serious condition known as slangry.
But none of these words that gained popularity this year deserve to be dubbed the most annoying of 2015 — so what does? According to Metro, here are five words and phrases that might be worth retiring.
5. Awesomesauce
Back in August, the Oxford Dictionaries actually added "awesomesauce" as an official word. So why is it so darn annoying? Because it means exactly the same thing as "awesome." Why do we need the sauce? There are so many different kinds of sauces in this world — ketchup, honey mustard, barbecue — but there is no awesomesauce. Sorry to break it to y'all, but awesomesauce is weaksauce.
4. Twerking
Thanks to Miley's over-the-top twerktastic existence, "twerking" has become not only a widely accepted word, but also a widely accepting thing in general. If you did an cultural observation on the group chat my roommates and I have, you would find that no one worked in the year 2015, we only "twerked," and no one went to their jobs, they just went to their place of "twerk." The word, which has also been added to the Oxford Dictionaries, is annoying and overused at best.
3. On Fleek
OK, let's be real, what wasn't on fleek in the year 2015? Eyebrows were on fleek, Beyoncé was on fleek, Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly was on fleek, Kim Kardashian breaking the Internet was on fleek, that blue/black or gold/white dress was on fleek, Caitlyn Jenner was on fleek, feminism was on fleek... and while being "on fleek" is a good thing, meaning to be "on point" or "perfectly executed," its overuse might be a bad thing. It might even be... dare I say it... un fleek.
2. Netflix and Chill
Yes it's true, "Netflix and chill" is one of the most annoying phrases of 2015, because it seems like we won't stop Netflixing and chilling no matter what. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the concept of Netflix and chill — but let's not forget that you can do one without the other. Netflix actually has recently added some fantastic titles and continues to boast impressive original content; and on the other side of the spectrum, you can actually "chill" without Netflix. In fact, if you're trying to chill with someone, I recommend honest communication and clarity of intention rather than masking your desires with the viewing of a movie. Just saying.
1. Bae
And now we arrive at our most annoying word of 2015: The notorious "bae." A derivative of "babe" and "baby," the word is used to describe your significant other, friend with benefits, or casual fling. The irritating thing about bae is that it wants to replace to words that seem to be timeless — people have been calling their significant others "babe" and "baby" for a while, and those words don't seem to be going anywhere. So why try to bulldoze them and create something new? It's overused, it's unnecessary, and sometimes people call me bae when I'm not their bae.
Check out the full list of 2015's most annoying slang words over at Metro.
