Is there any way in the world, without coming off as an absolute pill, to ask a friend to stop using an expression that just makes me wild ?

I have tried ignoring (totally ineffective because it conveys nothing to her, and I can’t overcome my revulsion); joking about it (no effect); and reacting with exaggerated mock horror (no effect). When it’s in a message from her, I can’t even stand to read the message. The word jumps out at me in screaming neon, and I just close the e-mail. I am trying to make a lunch date with her right now and I can’t bear to look at the message again.

Alternatively, is there any possible way to desensitize someone as crabby and fuss-budgety as I am to an expression that is as revolting to me as finding mashed caterpillar slime in my salad?

There are many words and expressions I find distasteful, but this one is in a class by itself. And the hell of it is, she uses it innocently and probably even with humorous intent. The expression itself is not a so-called bad word. It’s just a corruption of an ordinary word, and it’s the corruption that bugs the hell out of me.