Each
year Lake Superior State University in Michigan, America, publishes a 'List of
Words Bannished' for misuse, overuse, and general uselessness of the Queen’s
English. The 2016 list is the 41st annual list. The list isn’t
official in the sense that the words are not actually banished – it’s a list of
currently annoying words in people’s written or spoken communication that are
commonly seen or heard throughout the previous year.
W.T.
Rabe, a former public relations director at LSSU, first created the list in
1975, publishing it on January 1, 1976. Originally a list of words derived by
university staff, it now includes public input from around the world – people can
nominate words through the LSSU website. Since its inception LSSU has received
tens of thousands of nominations for the list of bannished words, which it
culls. Their list now contains 800 words. The 2016 is further culled to
include the nominations that were most popular on its university website. LSSU states that ‘word-watchers target pet peeves from
everyday speech, as well as from the news, fields of education, technology,
advertising, politics, and more. A committee makes the final cut in late
December each year.’
The
most popular words on the LSSU list include: so, conversation,
So is listed, but it was already
documented in the 1999 list. In 1999 ‘so’ was found to be an annoying
replacement for ‘very’ – I am so disappointed
in this! In 2016 the objection is for the word ‘so’ as a sentence
starter – So I can say that this was a
good idea.
Conversation is listed due to social
media requesting people to ‘join the conversation.’ It has replaced discussion,
debate, chat, discourse, argument, lecture, talk – everything is ‘join the
conversation.’ Even email threads are called ‘conversation threads.’
Problematic is found to be well,
problematic, for some. It is used instead of saying that something is a
problem. Anything undesirable is called ‘problematic.’
Stakeholder is a word listed for its
overuse. It is a word that has expanded from describing someone who may
actually have a stake in a situation or problem to being overused in business
to describe all customers.
Price Point is an example of using
two words when one will do. It replaces ‘price’ or ‘cost’ but businesses use
the two words together. It should be just the word ‘price’ – the price is marketed for the general
public.
Secret sauce is listed because it is
used as a metaphor for business success.
Break the Internet is a phrase that is
annoying ‘online word-watchers around the world.’ It is ‘an annoying bit of
hyperbole’ meaning that a social media post or video has caused excessive
Internet traffic making it ‘break the Internet.’
Walk
it back is often used by politicians meaning to ‘retract a statement’ by
walking it back.
Presser is a shortened form of ‘Press
Release’ and ‘Press Conference’ but people find it unimpressive.
Manspreading is a word that is used
in large cities to state that seats on the bus or subway are sometimes
difficult to find. A nominee said it was ‘stupid’ and ‘ridiculous’ because ‘the
problem is with people taking up too much space on the subway’ and not just men
spreading themselves out across the seats.
Vape and vaping are used to describe the
act of smoking e-cigarettes since the products emit vapour instead of smoke.
Giving Me Life is a phrase that refers
to anything that may excite a person or something that causes a person to
laugh – the cat emoji was giving me life
and then it broke the Internet.
Physicality is overused in
describing sportspeople and their physical strength – there isn’t really a word
such as physicality.
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/
MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The
Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012),
Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse
(2009).
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