I figured that last post was long enough.
The topic is actually phrases that "puzzle" not phrases that annoy, so let me ask our quilters across the pond about this set.
I'm read a mystery series set in England (the Daisy Dalrymple books by Carola Dunn), and I gather that saying "ever so" (Oh, I'm ever so fine!" Or, "He was ever so jolly.") is low class. It's posher (more posh?) to use "frightfully" or "fearfully" to mean "very" (She was frightfully well dressed. They had a fearfully good hike.) - at least back in the 1920s when the books take place.
So is it still that way, and why on Earth do people use "frightful" and fearful" when talking about things that aren't scary?