Every year, Lake Superior State University publishes a list of overused words that should be banned:
Word "czars" at Lake Superior State University "unfriended" 15 words and phrases and declared them "shovel-ready" for inclusion on the university's 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.
"The list this year is a 'teachable moment' conducted free of 'tweets,'" said a Word Banishment spokesman who was "chillaxin'" for the holidays. "'In these economic times', purging our language of 'toxic assets' is a 'stimulus' effort that's 'too big to fail.'"
Former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and friends created "word banishment" in 1975 at a New Year's Eve party and released the first list on New Year's Day. Since then, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which includes words and phrases from marketing, media, education, technology and more.
Word-watchers may check the alphabetical "complete list" on the website before making their submissions.
Here are the 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselesness:
- Shovel-ready
- Transparent/Transparency
- Czar
- Tweet
- App
- Sexting
- Friend as a verb
- Teachable moment
- In these economic times ...
- Stimulus
- Toxic assets
- Too big to fail
- Bromance
- Chillaxin'
- Obama-prefix or roots
Sammich
Fail
Pwn/owned
Plox
DIAF
zomg
Phrases I wish would go away:
"Cool Story Bro"
"What is this I don't even"
Fads I wish would go away:
Zombies (brains)
Bacon
Social networking bs.
"Going forward" always makes me barf.
@Dervid: I'd always been taught that "cities comprise neighborhoods," and not the other way around, but Merriam-Webster, at least, lists both uses and says the "neighborhoods comprise cities" sense has been in use at least since the 18th century.
Language isn't static and we all know it. It's exactly for that reason that some want to prevent the encroachment of slang that they see as bringing down the language, or why some people are sensitive about punctuation. I'm of two minds on the subject, since "usefulness" might be why things stick around, but it doesn't always mean "clarity of expression." Words like "like" might be useful to replace mumbling "umm," but they also make expressions even less clear than throwing some "umms" around would. This is the same reason that they'd like to see "its" and "it's" used correctly. Language isn't static, and if we justify sitting idly by out of an argument against prescriptivism, the language can lose a lot, as other languages have in the past.
Literally, everyone uses this word to describe literally every event that's ever literally happened in their life. Literally.
Sick of it!
At the end of the day, I need you to stop saying "at the end of the day".
I don't hear it much in everyday speech but seems to be the buzzword of football analysts this year. Drives me crazy. Especially since it was often used to describe my team right before they went on a losing streak.
I feel for ya, but then, I don't watch much sports.
One I would add: the phrase "save the date".