Another Botheration

[brogine]

Pre s. I always thought Chuck Berry - he was quite a wordsmith - coined that word, but it’s in the OED, going back well over two hundred years.

I periodically check a few automated phone lines for credit card or other kinds of balances. They’ve always been natural-sounding.
Lately, a couple are using that annoying robot-ish voice.
I don’t know enough about this kind of tech to have an informed opinion as to whether it’s more efficient or cheaper, but I suspect someone thinks it sounds more high tech, modern.
Look at the design of US coins for another example of the perils
of modernization.

[Slava]

FWIW: Etymonline has botheration dated to 1788. Bother goes back to an Anglo-Irish pother, which isn't the same as our current pother, which comes from somewhere.