I've said before how much I love all the words and idioms in the English language. Consider this list, they all mean more or less the same thing.
Annoys me
Irritates me
Infuriates me
Gets on my wick
Gets on my nerves
Gets on my tits
Gets my goat
Gets my back up
Rubs me up the wrong way
Puts my nose out of joint
Makes me fed up
Jars me off
Pisses me off
Fucks me off
Boils my blood
Boils my piss
There are probably more.
The wonderful Youtube man called Technology Connections has added "Forces my lute" to this list. It comes from a letter that some amateur chemist wrote to Robert Boyle (yes the gas laws chap) about making coal gas. The chemist said that the process "forced my lute" and the Youtube man wondered aloud whether it meant the same as "Ground my gears" - which is American for anything in my list above. The good people of the internet have since worked out that "lute" was a colloquial term for a jointing compound used in glassware, and the expression meant "blew my gaskets" – literally not figuratively, but it2s such a wonderful phase that Technology Connections has started using it to mean "annoyed" and I suggest you do the same.
Richard "Susie Dent" B
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