Words and phrases I detest for no good reason:

Nonagenarian. Not the meaning, just the sounds. Octogenarian is fine. Septuagenarian is even quite interestesting. But nonagenarian sticks in my head and drones. It’s a one-word earworm.

Literally. I began to actively hate it when an otherwise excellent makeup artist in New Orleans kept telling me to “literally just throw the eye shadow on. Quite literally!” She must have said the word at least 10 times during our session, and ever since I've noticed how much we all use it unnecessarily. (I myself am still repenting of this sin.) Please not to be liberal with the literallys.

At the end of the day. As in, “at the end of the day, what’s important is...” Pretentious and wordy; if it matters at the end of the day, doesn’t it just matter “in the end”? First instance of irritation: Larry Mullen Jr. in Rattle and Hum. Other instances: every single time I’ve run across it since. All members of U2 (and at least some of their spouses) are particularly guilty of this one.