My one pet peeve is the phrase ‘pet peeve’. Why should we describe something we dislike as our ‘pet peeve’? The word ‘pet’ brings to mind of a loyal dog or fluffy cat. It certainly won’t be something we dislike for a simple reason: we get pets by choice and because we like them. To say it is a ‘pet peeve’ suggests that we acquire our dislike quite deliberately and we like our dislike.

The way it is put, a ‘pet’ peeve, suggests that one need to nourish the dislike. One would need to feed it, play with it, clean it and generally spend a whole lot of time on that dislike. It would be highly unlikely for anyone to ever bring out something and say: ” This is my pet peeve, Dislike of internet language. I spend three hours a day playing with it. It likes beautifully spoken or written language.” Thinking about it give me the creeps.

Why can’t people say something without resorting to cliches? Especially when the cliche isn’t so great in the first place. I dislike a lot of the cliches, but this. This is one thing that really get on my nerves. My ‘pet peeve’ if you would, nourished through reading it every time, played with through ranting, though no cleaning could be done.