If some words are shovel ready for a conversation, but using them could lead to accusations that you're not giving 110%,

then should you stick a pan in them?

Or perhaps you could read the room better and send thoughts and prayers to redeem these words.

Are we adulting now?

Grammar girl here. I'm a Nyan Fog Fog your friendly guide to the English

language. We're starting with this piece about cliches written by Kirkhason and

Jordan Lovejoy and stick around because after this we'll answer a question about the word

organic, a question about the phrase bully pulpit, and learn about a man who

was selling words on the street in the 1950s and 60s.

Overused phrases seem to bother people,

even professional word nerds like us, a linguist and a folklorist.

When it reaches the point of aggravation, they're called cliches, with or without the acute accent.

As November 3rd is National Cliche Day, what better time to clear up some confusion

about clicheness? What makes a cliche, a cliche? And why do we find ourselves rolling our eyes when we hear certain ones?

When it comes to identifying what these words and phrases are there are three terms

that bump into one another a lot, idiom, slang, and cliche.

An idiom is a word or phrase that has a meaning different from the composition of its parts, like

kick the Bucket. Slang is different.

Slang is a word or phrase that's a synonym for another but that's also used as a

reference to a social group.

Chugi, for example, is Generation Z slang for out of date,

especially for things that used to be trendy.

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