Overused Words In The Media
Gravitas is not particularly overused.
Words and phrases that are used incorrectly bother me.
Like "mutual friends" ( to mean a person who friends with two other individuals).
If you and I are both friends with Person X then person X is our "common friend". Person X is not our "mutual friend". But the phrase is constantly used in the media that way. You hear that so and so is was "their mutual friend". Granted the usage is bolstered by no less than Charles Dickens, who entitled a story "Out Mutual Friend". But that doesn't change the fact that its incorrect and illogical as heck. Its never applied to the opposite: you will hear the correct "Hitler was Churchill and Stalin's common enemy", and you never hear it said that he was their "mutual enemy". If person Y is your's and my "common enemy" then why not say that person X is "our common friend"?
"Mutual" means something that two parties do in tandem with each other. As in "lets stay together in the scary woods for mutual protection". If the two parties share something then that thing is something that they have "in common".
Why does all gunfire “ring out” in a “hail of bullets”?
Why do all fires “rage”?
Why do all tornadoes “tear through” things in their paths?
Why do all mass-murderers go on a “rampage”?
There are many other catch-phrases that journalists use, but these seem to be the most egregious.
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