GOT AN AMAZING baby bump? Best keep it to yourself – both of those terms feature on a US university’s list of words “banished” from the English language.
Using nominations submitted from across the globe, Lake Superior State University today released its list of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.
‘Amazing’ topped the chart with more than 1,500 nominations. Word fans complained about its trivialisation through overuse. “The word which once aptly described the process of birth is now used to describe such trivial things as toast, or the colour of a shirt,” wrote JP from Canada.
University spokesman John Shibley said he and his colleagues were surprised that “amazing” hadn’t already graced the archive of about 900 banished words.
“The simple ones are always the ones that get through the cracks – until this year,” he said.
Also on the list were ‘baby bump’ – which got its own publicity bump after Beyonce’s much-hyped appearance – and ‘man cave’.
Contributors also hated ‘Thank you in advance’. “Usually followed by ‘for your cooperation,’ this is a condescending and challenging way to say, ‘Since I already thanked you, you have to do this,” wrote Mike Cloran from Ohio.
Even the Occupy movement got a mention, with criticism of its catchword’s overuse in the wake of the protests in cities around the world. Michigan man Bill Drewes complained:
It should be banished because of the media overuse and now people use it all the time, i.e. ‘I guess we will occupy your office and have the meeting there.’ ‘We are headed to Grandma’s house – Occupy Thanksgiving is under way.
The LSSU list comes in the wake of TheJournal.ie‘s own compilation of your most hated terms – which included ‘amazeballs’, ‘literally’, and ‘totes’.
The full LSSU list is as follows:
- Amazing
- Baby bump
- Shared sacrifice (as used by politicians imposing cuts)
- Occupy
- Blowback (meaning the reaction to an event)
- Man cave
- The new normal
- Pet parent (as another term for pet owner)
- Win the future (another politicians’ favourite)
- Trickeration
- Ginormous
- Thank you in advance
- Additional reporting from AP
