Avoidance of Cliches & Common Expressions

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Do you find that you are sometimes annoyed by, or go out of the way to avoid, everyday expressions and cliches that people like to use? Or if do you do use them, you deliberately change them up to make the expressions more interesting and personal? For example, instead of repeating that old saying: "Give a man a fish...," I might mix it up by saying, "Give a stupid man a fish and he might choke on the bones; teach him how to fish and the probability of him doing so increases exponentially."

I kind of feel sorry for people who are so unimaginative as to actually recycle low-brow "funny" stuff. There's also that part of me that thinks that if I can't attribute the expression to its rightful originator, then I have no business using it. Like those sayings that apparently started as memes on social media, but stop being funny the 17th time you see someone post it.

I'd feel like a boring fraud if I repeated these sayings. Maybe I'm a snob for saying so, but if it's something that sounds like it was printed on a beer koozie, I want nothing to do with it.

I resist using contemporary cliches and other phrases, but I enjoy adding old colloquialisms to my mental list of interesting phrases. Only "a bunch of numpties" would think saying "soooo, s'up?" is cool.

I can definitely relate to what you wrote in your post.

I've always felt this way. I suppose most people feel they are bonding or relating by using common phrases, but I've often felt that they are behaving as if they invented the phrase or expression, and I find that dishonest. I don't think that's what they're trying to do, but it's how I respond. I will love the cliche in its original form, so I enjoy finding the well-known expressions from Shakespeare or the Bible, etc. I just don't like them repeated unoriginally or without regard to the source. I enjoy writing and really dislike when I see authors like Stephen King use cliches, since I feel it's their role to be more original.

Cliches?

I wouldn't touch them...even with a ten foot pole!

In fact I avoid them like the Plague!

I mean... a nation that can send a man to the Moon
oughta be able to do without cliches!

I don't necessarily agree with the OP. Cliches are tiresome, yes, but in some cases useful. For instance, if it's a common experience or saying, I like to think of it as conversational shorthand. When we all understand what the cliches mean, it really becomes more efficient to use the phrase than than to use longform, if you will. And I much prefer to use this shorthand in conversations, if only to raise my efficiency in social interactions and make them end more quickly.

I think the example given of "Give a man a fish..." -- while actually an idiom rather than a cliche -- is particularly useful. It's a lot easier (and more efficient) to say those 5 words than to explain the entire concept. Yes, it has been overused to the point of becoming a cliche... but that's because it's a useful shortcut in conversation.

Regular, stupid clichés don't bother me that much, even though they are unimaginative. What bothers me much, much more are the clichés that people misuse without realizing that what they just said makes no sense, or the ones that are trendy and extremely overused. If I see the phrase "Keep calm and xxx" one more time, I'm going to get very angry.

"I could care less"

"For all intensive purposes."

Any phrase that uses the word 'literally' when they mean 'figuratively.' ("I literally laughed myself to death.")

The use of Language in every day speech can be quite amusing - clichés and analogies can be very much so, as their meaning is quite obscure or perhaps in language don't make any sense at all but in speech their meaning is plain. Like 'Up sh*t creek' or 'Rolling sh*t up hill' or one of my favourites 'Rare as rocking horse sh*t'.

but then again I have a bit of a special interest in the use of language due to it being quite a mystery.

Cliches (old tired expressions) and buzzwords (current fad expression that may or may not become future cliches) are useful. Things become cliche for a reason- they communicate with velocity. And even the greatest writers can't be expected to mint shinning new phrases every time they open their mouths in daily conversation.

I use phrases like "cutting edge", and "where the rubber meets the road" because the vivid imagery does the job of conveying the ideas.

That said- it is desirable to try to be original once in a while.

I think you mean "For all INTENTS and purposes." That would make more sense.

I like some idioms and clichés; I don't care for others.

I like saying, if I really don't care about something: "I don't give a rat's tushey!"

I also like "All Quiet on the Western Front." Because the quiet is in contrast to the tumult of war, especially the First World War.

When I think about the term "wide-eyed and bushy-tailed," I feel happy.

"Like a bull in a china shop" is also very applicable, I believe.

Yes! I find most common expressions to be very annoying, especially when the saying creates a picture in my mind that is completely the opposite, or very unrelated, to what is meant. For example, the phrase "heads up" - intended to mean caution or something similar - causes me to picture people lifting their heads and hitting them on a bar.

Every article I read that involves listing annoying sayings has at least one person comment, "but what do we say instead?" The obvious answer is to say whatever the meaning behind the silly saying is. For example "Reach out to [insert name] and ask him/her for [insert request]" could be simply " Ask [insert name] for [insert request]" Similarly, "heads up, [insert what will be happening]" can be "[insert what will be happening]"

I could continue discussing this for hours so.... [insert 5 hour monologue about expressions I find annoying]