Annual list of words people want to banish in 2016

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 41^st 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).