I feel like I subconsciously understood this but never fully understood why that word irked me. It probably isn't surprising that given that I generally use British usage of most words, I generally mean "rather" when I use the word instead of "very".

It may be a regional thing, actually; some Americans may use it to mean "very" while others mean "rather". But I dunno. I think the word's lack of specifiicity has always irked me.