Reader question:

Please explain "love to hate" in this sentence – Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate?

My comments:

Someone you love to hate is someone you hate the most, of all people – or things for that matter.

Yet… yet, you probably love them as well.

In most cases "hate to love" represents a love-hate relationship. A strong mixed feeling of both love and hatred.

The above-mentioned Jerry may have qualities you would love to have yourself but don't. For example, Jerry might be better looking than you are. He may have a lot of girlfriends. He may be rich and successful. He has influence. And yet he is naughty, irresponsible, and arrogant.

Rich and influential as he is, you truly believe he should be regarded as a perfect role model if he has only the good qualities mentioned above, that is, without the bad ones.

Anyways, you hate him either out of love or jealousy or genuine hatred. But one thing is for sure, it simply brings you pleasure hating him because Jerry is the kind of guy that really stirs up your emotions.

Well, we'd better go through more real examples (explanations in brackets after each example are mine):

1.    50 office-speak phrases you love to hate

"When I worked for Verizon, I found the phrase going forward to be more sinister than annoying. When used by my boss - sorry, "team leader" - it was understood to mean that the topic of conversation was at an end and not be discussed again."

Nima Nassefat,Vancouver,Canada

(In this case, "going forward" is the jargon Sassefat hates the most, pure and simple. Management speak – the way bosses talk – is just terrible, isn't it?)

- (BBC, June 16, 2008)

2. Top 10 Sports Teams We Love To Hate

San AntonioSpurs

You may be asking yourself, "How in the world could anyone hate a team like the Spurs - a team that is fundamentally sound and has some of the best character guys in pro basketball today?" Well, the primary reason is quite simple. The Spurs are a boring team. They play dull basketball. They don't have any in-your-face playmakers, no highlight-reel guys. Worse yet, they keep winning. Since Coach Gregg Popovich took over the team in 1996, the Spurs have made 10 playoff appearances and won four NBA titles. So that means basketball fans have been subjected to seeing them play their snore-inducing, fundamentally sound brand of basketball over and over again. That kind of suffering breeds a lot of contempt. Add to that the accusations of dirty play, most notably by Bruce Bowen, and you have a team that a lot of basketball fans love to see on the losing end.

(The Spurs are a good team. And they win. But they're not EXCITING! They do everything right, and how can you be more boring than that?)

- (Toptenz.net, undated)

3. John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

(John is too good to be real, tiresome old phony – and yet, you may secretly wonder: why can't I be like that?)

- Forum.wordreference.com.

Comfort zone?

Out of turn?

Excuse my French