What is a “Pet Peeve”?

Wikipedia defines Pet Peeves thusly...

“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.”

Things We’d Like to See
in Future Pet Peeves ^TM Characters

Here’s our growing list of pet peeves. Have you got some to add?
Send us your favorite pet peeves and maybe we’ll add some of them to this page.

• PET PEEVES ABOUT CARS AND DRIVING
• People who drive too fast.
• People who drive too slow.
• People with really messy cars.
• People who drive while gabbing on the cell phone.
• People who take forever to back out of a parking space when you’re waiting for it.
• Commercials on the car radio that have sirens and horns.
• PET PEEVES ABOUT FOOD AND EATING
• People who chew with their mouth open.
• People who eat with their fingers.
• People who take stuff off other people’s plates.
• People who let their pets jump up on the dining room table.
• People who freak out when your pet jumps up onto the dining room table.
• Getting a spoon at a restaurant with crusty, dried up old food on it.
• Getting a fork at a restaurant with the tines all bent and misshapen.
• People who are picky about food.
• People who cannot decide on what to eat.
• COMPUTER PET PEEVES
• Shopping web sites that make you go through the entire checkout process before they tell how much it costs for shipping. (This web site tells you on the Store Policies page.)
• Getting email from someone who’s replying to something you sent and they say “I agree with your second idea” but they deleted your part of the message so you have no know idea what they’re talking about.
• Email with text so badly misspelled that you have to struggle just to figure out out what it says.
• Computer programs with pop-up windows that are supposed to explain things but they only make it worse.
• Calling up the Help Desk at some company and getting someone who has no sense of humor, cannot communicate well and has absolutely no interest in helping you.
• Web sites with blinky text.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE PET PEEVES
• Cashier that does not know how to use the register.
• Press 1 if YOU HATE VOICE MAIL SYSTEMS!
• Cashier that does not know that the $2 bill is legal.
• Cashier who doesn't greet the customer at the beginning of the transaction.
• Customer service representatives who fail to carefully read your question and e-mail you the answer to a different question.
• 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.
• When you do not need help in a store, the sales people stalk you and when you need help desperately, there is never anybody available to help you.
• MISCELLANEOUS PET PEEVES
• People who say “uh-huh, uh-huh” after almost every sentence you say.
• People walking outdoors while gabbing on the cell phone.
• People who shake your hand and squeeze way, way too hard.
• Not replacing the empty roll of toilet paper.
• Replacing a roll of toilet paper so that the roll comes off the back, and not the front.
• People who are always, always late.
• People who show up too early.
• Namedroppers.
• People who never have an opinion.
• People who like to listen to themselves talk.
• People who let their kids run amuck.
• People who get all uptight ‘cause your kids are having some noisy fun.
• People who have no trouble maintaining the perfect body weight.
• Loud talkers.
• Loud laughers.
• Leaving the toilet seat up after using the bathroom.
• People who say meaningless things in an attempt to make themselves look observant or intelligent.
• People who talk loudly in libraries.
• When the television channels interrupt a commercial break to tell you they will we return to their program after a few short messages.
• Commercials that don't make any sense.
• Comercials that are so bad that they are catchy and you remember them.
• People who talk non-stop during movies / TV shows.
• People who always complain about being cold.
• People who walk slow.
• People who refer to themselves in the third person.
• People who try too hard to be different.