If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
I could hear the baby crying. Everyone within a hundred yards could hear the baby cry…but it was not the sound of the baby’s crying that irritated me, it was the mothers words. She kept repeating the words “shut up, it’s okay”.
Shut up? How were the words supposed to comfort and calm the crying child?
I find it very rude and uncaring to use the phrase. And I have heard people say it to others a lot. Often, they mean no harm…but I don’t think it is harmless. There may be different ways to tell a person to stop speaking but I don’t think ‘shut up’ should be our first choice.
Even though it’s not a word, ‘shut up’ is one phrase I believe should be kept under lock and key because we really do not know when to use it.
