Words and Phrases I Want Kicked Out of the English Language
The suffix -aholic used to signify any sort of addiction It started with the term "alcoholic" meaning someone suffering from alcohol addiction. The word alcohol had the suffix "ic" added to it, and so we have the simple term alcoholic. It makes sense, doesn't it? The next thing we know we have phrases like "workaholic" for someone who enjoys or feels compelled to work too hard, or "chocoholic" for someone who really loves chocolate obsessively. The first issue I have with these words is that they make no grammatical sense. We drink alcohol. We don't eat chocohol or go to workohol. Why are we then chocoholics? The next issue I have is that it makes light of addiction. Alcoholism is a very serious condition. To incorporate the terminology for alcoholism into addictions that are far less serious and life threatening seems rather tasteless to me. It makes light of something that is dangerous and deadly. If your only addicti...