pet peeve
A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that can instill extreme frustration in an individual. Typically each person has several pet peeves that aggravate them more than the average person. Another person may not react as negatively or at all to the same circumstance.
The term originated from the word "peeve". A "peeve," meaning something that is particularly irritating or annoying, is a relatively recent word. Its first printed usage was in 1911. The term is derived, however, from a 14th-century word -- "peevish," meaning ornery or ill-tempered.
The modified term "pet peeve," a uniquely personal irritant, first appeared in print in 1919.
Pet peeves are typically of common occurrences and a person may encounter their pet peeve up to several times a day. An example of this would be someone not using their turn signals while driving. Many people do not use their turn signals, and it does not bother some drivers that people do not. People that have a pet peeve of someone not using their turn signals would become very agitated and upset when they witness the practice. Many pet peeves associated with driving can result in road rage, where the person who has been peeved seeks some sort of retribution for the action.
Often a pet peeve will seem illogical to others. For example a supervisor may have a pet peeve about people leaving the lid on the copier up and get very upset. That same supervisor may witness employees coming into work late, and not react as they did with the copier.
To give a better picture of what a pet peeve is, below is a listing of some pet peeves.
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness. Revisions and additions are welcome.
Driving
Not using a turn signal when making a turn.
Signalling a turn too far ahead of time, then bypassing three or four possible turns.
Not using a turn signal when changing lanes.
Driving in the left hand lane slower than the traffic moving in the right hand lane. (The opposite in England, India, etc.)
Lingering unnecessarily in the (right) exit lane on the highway, not yielding to incoming vehicles.
Not coming to a complete stop at stop signs.
Drivers who make illegal turns at intersections.
Driving in a middle turn lane of a five lane road.
Following too close.
Not driving with headlights on at dusk, at night, or in the rain.
Waiting at a stop light with too much space between them and the car in front of them, or the stop line.
When there are two or more turn lanes, all of the cars stacking in just one of the lanes.
When there are two or more straight through lanes, all of the cars stacking in just one of the lanes.
People leaving their turn signal on too long.
Retreads.
U-turns.
Drivers who don't know how to properly use high beam headlights.
Drivers who speed from behind even if you've exceeded legal speed limit.
Drivers who talk on cell phones, especially when there is legislation forbidding it (New York, Germany, Russia, Japan, UK...)
Drivers who cut in a long line at the last minute for their exit when most drivers wait patiently their turn.
Drivers who throw trash out the window of their vehicle.
Drivers oblivious of speed zones for schools and construction zones.
Drivers that don't stop behind a school bus when it is picking up or dropping off children and the flashing lights are on the bus.
Drivers that want to share the fact that they have a loud radio in their vehicle.
Drivers that double park in a crowded parking lot.
Drivers that use handicapped parking when they shouldn't.
Motorcycle drivers that zoom past you like you were standing still.
Motorcycle drivers that cut between vehicles in high traffic (between lanes).
Drivers who do not understand how two lanes become one. It goes left, right, left, right. If you are in the existing lane, you do not have the right of way, and you are not being nice by letting several people in in front of you. People not from New York do not seem to understand this rule.
Smoking
People throwing cigarette butts on the ground.
People throwing cigarette butts out of car windows.
People smoking around the entrance of a no smoking building so non-smokers have to walk through the smoke.
Smoker breath.
Smoke odor on clothes.
Smoke odor in bars/nightclubs/restaurants.
Cigarettes on the ground next to ashtrays.
People who smoke when they have small children.
People who smoke while they are pregnant.
People who smoke while pumping gasoline.
People who smoke while driving.
Increased health insurance rates for non-smokers.
People who object to smoking bans because they think their rights are violated.
People that smoke outside and get ashes all over the clothes of those around them.
Significant other (man)
Leaving the toilet seat up after using the bathroom.
Stinking up the bathroom after a bowel movement and not using the air freshener.
Having a five o'clock shadow/beard/mustache.
Leaving hair messy and uncombed.
Wearing their clothes 2-3 sizes too big and hanging off their body.
Nostril hairs that need to be clipped.
Grabbing or checking themselves.
Significant other (woman)
Leaving cosmetics all over the bathroom sink.
Spending excessive time trying on various outfits in an attempt to achieve fashion perfection.
Hair on the toilet and in the shower.
Hugging with too much make-up, which leaves some make-up on the other person's clothing.
Kissing with lipstick, which leaves lipstick marks on the recipient's face.
Lipstick stain on a glass.
Not eating at a restaurant when you're really hungry.
Girls who act like they are royalty
Workplace
People who gossip more than work.
People who schedule meetings first thing in the morning.
People who use the internet as opposed to working.
People who have a really high salary and don't earn it.
People who have a title such as Director, Vice President, President, CEO, who didn't earn it and don't deserve it.
People who use the work phone more than their home phones for social calls.
People who come in late and leave early.
People who say meaningless things in an attempt to make themselves look observant or intelligent.
People that talk loudly in libraries.
People that bring their screaming babies to libraries.
Television
Breaking into a television program to give a thunderstorm warning.
Wasting five seconds at the beginning of the break to tell you that the program is being interrupted for a weather advisory.
Wasting five seconds at the end of the break to tell you that you will now be returned to the original programming.
After each commercial break, announcing a content warning before a program resumes.
Dubbing or deleting content of a TV movie to make it more "family friendly".
Frequent Emergency Broadcast System tests
Commercials that are so irritating they cause extreme, uncontrollable anger and the desire to strangle someone.
Distractive promos taking up the bottom of the screen.
Rating icons after every commercial break.
Reality programming and/or commercials of reality programming.
Sudden and unexpected images of Paris Hilton onscreen.
When the television channels interrupt a commercial break to tell you they will we return to their program after a few short messages.
Customer service
Cashier that does not know how to use the register.
Cashier that does not know that the $2 bill is legal.
People who do not understand the concepts of "dozen" and "half-dozen"
Customer service representatives who fail to carefully read your question and e-mail you the answer to a different question
Customer service representatives who call you daily to ask the same questions as if they are telemarketers.
Customer service representatives with accents that you can't understand, and who are impatient with you trying to understand their broken English.
Customer service automated call routing system that asks for your account information, passwords, mother's maiden name, etc...only to be asked for that information again when you reach a live person.
Cashiers who don't know what Gold Dollars are and will not accept them.
Telemarketing
Calling during dinner.
Recorded messages.
Surveys.
Sales pitches for things you don't need. (Vinyl siding when you live in an apartment)
Any telemarketer call.
Telemarketers that just hang up when you yell at them.
People who think telemarketers deserve to be yelled at for doing their job.
Calls that are a recorded message telling you to "Please hold for an important message."
Telling a 13 year old that they've been preapproved for a credit card.
Telemarketers who call ON SUNDAY!!! DONT U DARE!
If u are a telemarketer u deserved to be YELLED at, find a new job!... If people WANT or NEED something from YOUR COMPANY they will contact YOU!
Neighbors
Mowing their lawn too early.
Mowing their lawn too late.
Not mowing their lawn often enough.
Mowing their lawn too short.
Letting their dog bark outside.
Letting their dog run loose.
Letting their dog defecate in your yard.
Letting their dog mark your property as its territory.
Leaving their junk outside.
Parking vehicles on the grass.
Parking in front of your house when their house has no car in front.
Not parking in their garage because they have too much stuff stored in the garage.
Storing a motor home at their house.
Storing a boat at their house.
Parking anything that blocks the sidewalk.
Not maintaining their house or property.
Cutting down trees and limbs that previously blocked the view of their poorly maintained property or that of another neighbor's.
Draining their pool so chlorine gets on your property.
Playing music too loud.
Having too many parties.
Revving the engine of their Harley-Davidson.
Revving the engine of their Hot Rod.
Not respecting property lines.
Leaving holiday decorations out too long.
Putting holiday decorations out too early.
Not using curtains or blinds.
Staring at you when you are outside.
Staring at you when you are inside.
Being in a rock band that practices loudly at all hours.
Telling you what you should do on your property.
Mobile phones (cell phones)
Everything about them.
People who talk too loudly on the phone.
People who talk about things that should be kept private when other people are around.
People who use a hands-free headset in public, which makes it look as if they are talking to themselves, or to you.
People who consistently have to be using it, either by text messaging or talking.
People who change their cellphone ring in public, especially as they pass time on the train or bus with TOTAL disregard for everyone around them.
People who refuse to get a cellphone on principle, and then give out the cellphone number of the people they will be with instead.
People who play games on their phone in public with the volume on
Grammar and Punctuation
People who use "whom" as a fancy form of "who" without regard to the fact that it's an object and not a subject.
Similarly, people who say, "between you and I," instead of "between you and me", in an attempt to sound smart.
People who leave a space between the end of their sentence and one or more exclamation marks !!!
People who say "is you" as opposed to "are you" when asking a question.
People who ask a question, but have actually made a statement ie. "Everything's in the bag?"
People who cannot pronounce a word properly, but continue to use the word.
People who type and don't use any commas or periods so their paragraph ends up being a big run-on sentence.
People who say "I did good," instead of "I did well."
People who go comma-crazy.
People who say "atomic" when they mean "nuclear", e.g., "atom bomb", "atomic energy", and so on.
People who think that hydrogen bombs were dropped on Japan.
People who type the word "you" like "u", "are", like "r", "to" like "2", "before" as "b4", "great" as "gr8" and so on.
People who spell words incorrectly, such as "receive" as "recieve" or "weird" as "wierd."
People who use apostrophes incorrectly. i.e., 1950's, CD's, "it's" instead of "its" and vice versa.
People who, after I use a big word during a conversation with them, use the same word shortly afterwards, as if they always knew the word, but do not use it in the correct context. This especially bugs me if I already know the person has a limited vocabulary and should have no reason to be using one of mine in a sentence.
People who use adjectives where they should use adverbs (and vice versa): "He walks slow," "I feel badly."
People who mix up "i.e." and "e.g.": "a dog, i.e. Rover."
People who use "myself" and "yourself" inappropriately: "Fine, how 'bout yourself?"
The phrase "Pet Peeve" to begin with.
Computers
Getting chainmails
Smears on the monitor
When Windows XP indicates that any system restore may be undone but it turns out that the restore having been done from safe mode, it didn't back it up first.
People who "broke," "lost," or can't "download" the Internet.
Users who think they're being tech savvy by always pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL when they get in trouble because they saw someone else doing it.
People who don't know how to type and "poke" the keys.
Chatspeak/Netspeak
People who think using the computer is "difficult" when confronted with a pop-up message of any sort.
Forum users that make frequent typos and won't take 5 seconds to paste it into a word processor and do a spell check.
Relationships
People who always complain about being cold.
People who are picky about food.
People who walk slow.
People who cannot decide on what to eat.
People who refer to themselves in the third person.
People who penny pinch to the extreme.
People who whine after losing $20 or less at a casino.
People who try too hard to be different.
People who try too hard to be friendly.
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