Words Banished from the Queen’s English January 1, 2008
Lake Superior State University just announced its list of 19 Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use, and General Uselessness. My favorites are:
WEBINAR — A seminar on the web about any number of topics. “Ouch! It hurts my brain. It should be crushed immediately before it spreads.” — Carol, Lams, Michigan. “Yet another non-word trying to worm its way into the English language due to the Internet. It belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything.” — Scott Lassiter, Houston, Texas.
WORDSMITH/WORDSMITHING — “I’ve never read anything created by a wordsmith - or via wordsmithing - that was pleasant to read.” — Emily Kissane, St. Paul, Minnesota.
POST 9/11 — “‘Our post-9/11 world,’ is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You’d think the United States didn’t have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, ‘pre-9/11.’” — Chazz Miner, Midland, Michigan.
BACK IN THE DAY — “Back in the day, we used ‘back-in-the-day’ to mean something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as ‘Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.’” — Liz Jameson, Tallahassee, Florida. “This one might’ve already made the list back in the day, which was a Wednesday, I think.” — Tim Bradley, Los Angeles, Ca
IT IS WHAT IT IS — “This pointless phrase, uttered initially by athletes on the losing side of a contest, is making its way into general use. It accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant.” — Jeffrey Skrenes, St. Paul, Minnesota. The tradition started in 1976. A banishement word archive is available here.
