NOT a fiscal cliff.
I’m so glad someone thought to do this. There are simply some words we need to STOP using. They’re overused, ineptly used, and to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, sometimes they just don’t mean what people think they mean. So here you go, the list of banished words for 2013 as selected by the students at Lake Superior State University. Check out their website–especially if you have some thoughts about what words to banish in 2014.
- Fiscal Cliff – If we never hear it again, it will be much too soon.
- Kick the can down the road – If only we could all agree to stop doing it.
- Double down – poker term gone wild. I’m not even sure what it’s supposed to mean.
- Job Creators/Creation – Another topic we’ve absolutely worn out.
- Passion/Passionate – It’s like awesome or amazing–used to the point that it just doesn’t mean anything anymore.
- YOLO – Honestly, I wasn’t familiar with this one–You Only Live Once–but now that I know about it, I agree–banish it!
- Spoiler Alert – So often used after the movie/book/idea has already been spoiled.
- Bucket List – Please stop talking about it and please don’t ask me if I have one. I don’t. Though there is some cool stuff I plan to do one day.
- Trending – One of the many words we’ve tried to turn into a verb–unsuccessfully.
- Superfood – It’s the low fat of 2012. Seems like anything good for you is suddenly labeled SUPER.
- Boneless Wings – Ummm. Chicken nugget/tender/piece anyone?
- Guru – Anyone who specializes in anything seems to be a guru these days. Stop it. The Buddhists want their word back.
Q4U- So what do you think? Any other words in need of banishment this year?
Definitely some good ones on this list. Happy New Year!
A happy New Year with only regular cliffs, please!
Please don’t take ‘epic’ away!!
Hmmm. I haven’t run into that one over much. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing ; )
I just learned what YOLO meant last week! And I’m with Jennifer. Don’t take “epic” away. I like that one. 🙂
I blame all the nutty abbreviations on texting. Which I’m no good at!
Epic post. You are such a friggin awesome word guru. Sick.
Over use of “like” and “um” every other word or phrase drives me nuts, but that’s a different thing. I’m tired of bucket list, but I still like it. Can’t say I’ve heard #2 or #3 at all. Boneless chicken wings is just stupid. Get a chicken breast; wings are supposed to be messy to eat. 😉
Oh, and I’m tired of “man cave,” “blowback” and “ginormous.”
I think man cave got banned last year–as well it should!