I was driving around St. Petersburg today, looking for apartments and listening to the radio. I shouldn't do this. I always regret it later. (Listening to the radio, that is. The living quarters remain a necessity.)
Anyway, a talk show host used a word that nearly drove me off the road through sheer revulsion.
"Efforting."
As in, "I'm efforting to get that done." "We're efforting to call him up." "I'm efforting to come up with the most offensive, needless word ever."
What drives me batty about this is substituting a jargony, verbed noun for the simple, wonderful, economical "try." "I'm trying to get that done." "We're trying to call him up." "I'm trying to make my word choices less offensive."
If you hear anyone use this word, slap them. They must pay.