Andre Yoskowitz
8 Oct 2009 13:10
According to the AP, a new survey of Americans showed that about half of those polled believed the word "whatever" was the most annoying English conversation word and hated when it was used during a conversation.
The poll was conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion and shows that "whatever" received 47 percent of the votes. Second and third place went respectively to "you know" and "it is what it is."
The word was made popular in the early 90s by the movie "Clueless" and by the band Nirvana and has not left the everyday English vocabulary since.
"It doesn't surprise me because 'whatever' is in a special class, probably," added Michael Adams, author of "Slang: The People's Poetry." "It's a word that — and it depends how a speaker uses it — can suggest dismissiveness."
The poll used 938 U.S. adults from around the States.