When Words Get On My Last Nerve

I have a few blogs I like to read on a regular basis, as I'm sure all we do. And, every once in awhile, I'll see a word that grates along my last nerve. You know that particular nerve. It's the one left after all of the other ones have been used up. 

The first one is curate. This is how the dictionary defines it:

verb (used with object), curated, curating.

3.to take charge of (a museum) or organize (an art exhibit):

to curate a photography show.

4.to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation, as music or website content:

“We curate our merchandise with a sharp eye for trending fashion,” the store manager explained.

Curate is pretentious when words like organize, select or collect would do. Leave curate to the museums. They're allowed to be pretentious. 

The kind of blogs I read tend to curate Pyrex bowls and vintage colorful pressed-glass vases. These objects are not ostentatious enough for curate, so let's just use little words to present your collections. My last nerve would feel better for it.

The second word is gifted, as in My friend gifted me a tea cup. The dictionary I used here (Merriam-Webster.com) defines gifted as:

1 : having great natural ability : talented

• gifted children

2 : revealing a special gift

• gifted voices

See? It doesn't even come close to describing how it is used in my example. Gifted means gave, so why not just use gave? Gifted may just sound pretentious, but it's just plain wrong. Perhaps a dictionary will give it the status of New Word for 2017 and will include it in a future update. Doubt it, and please don't. Last nerve and all that.

The third and final word is actually the phrase Without further ado. I have seen it written as Without further adieu, which is wrong. The first phrase means without further fuss, and the second means without further goodbye, in French, of course, because everything sounds a little pretentious in French. It's obviously wrong, but I see it used frequently enough for it to get on that particular last nerve.

Sooo...What word or phrase do you hear frequently enough to get on your last nerve? Do tell, but please don't name names, otherwise I will end up on someone's last nerve, and that's not where I would want to be.

From plain to pretentious ... and everything in between...