{"id":58261,"date":"2023-01-02T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=58261"},"modified":"2023-01-02T08:10:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T13:10:14","slug":"lssu-2023-banished-words-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/02\/lssu-2023-banished-words-list\/","title":{"rendered":"LSSU – 2023 Banished Words List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan 2, 2023 at 08:00<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Stop resorting to imprecise, trite, and meaningless words and terms of seeming convenience! You\u2019re taking the lazy way out and only confusing matters by over-relying on inexact, stale, and inane communication!<\/p>\n

Language monitors across the country and around the world decried the decrepitude and futility of basic methods to impart information in their mock-serious entries for Lake Superior State University\u2019s annual tongue-in-cheek Banished Words List. LSSU announces the results of the yearly compendium on Dec. 31 to start the New Year on the right foot, er, tongue.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of the 1,500-plus nominations of words and terms for banishment for misuse, overuse, and uselessness for 2023 reveled and wallowed in the erosion of fundamental expression.<\/p>\n

Ranked No. 1 as the best of the worst: GOAT, acronym for Greatest of All Time. The many nominators didn\u2019t have to be physicists or grammarians to determine the literal impossibility and technical vagueness of this wannabe superlative. Yet it\u2019s bestowed on everyone from Olympic gold medalists to Jeopardy!<\/em> champions, as one muckraker playfully deplored. Meanwhile, other naysayers remarked on social media posts that brandish a photo of, for instance, multiple cricket players or soccer stars with a caption about several GOATs in one frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords and terms matter. Or at least they should. Especially those that stem from the casual or causal. That\u2019s what nominators near and far noticed, and our contest judges from the LSSU School of Arts and Letters agreed,\u201d said Peter Szatmary, executive director of marketing and communications at Lake State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey veritably bleated their disapproval about the attempted nonpareil of GOAT because the supposed designation becomes an actual misnomer. The singularity of \u2018greatest of all time\u2019 cannot happen, no way, no how. And instead of being selectively administered, it\u2019s readily conferred. Remember Groucho Marx\u2019s line about not wanting to join a club that would accept him as member?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nine additional words and terms banished for 2023\u2014from new no-nos \u2018inflection point\u2019 at No. 2 and \u2018gaslighting\u2019 at No. 4 to repeat offenders \u2018amazing\u2019 at No. 6 and \u2018It is what it is\u2019 at No. 10\u2014also fall somewhere on the spectrum between specious and tired. They\u2019re empty as balderdash or diluted through oversaturation. Be careful\u2014be more careful\u2014with buzzwords and jargon.\u201d<\/p>\n

LSSU has compiled an annual Banished Words List since 1976, and later copyrighted the concept, to uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clich\u00e9d, illogical, nonsensical\u2014and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating.<\/p>\n

Over the decades, Lake State has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which now totals more than 1,000 entries. Examples of the winners (or should that be losers?) to make the yearly compilation: \u201cdetente,\u201d \u201csurely,\u201d \u201cclassic,\u201d \u201cbromance,\u201d and \u201cCOVID-19,\u201d plus \u201cwrap my head around,\u201d \u201cuser friendly,\u201d \u201cat this point in time,\u201d \u201cnot so much,\u201d and \u201cviable alternative.\u201d The Banished Words List has become such a cultural phenomenon that comedian George Carlin submitted an entry that made the annals in 1994: \u201cbaddaboom, baddabing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, nominations came from most major U.S. cities and many U.S. states, plus Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, India, China, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, American Samoa, Malaysia, the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and throughout Canada.<\/p>\n

Here are the list of the banished words and terms for 2023 and the reasons for their banishment:<\/p>\n

1. GOAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The acronym for Greatest of All Time gets the goat of petitioners and judges for overuse, misuse, and uselessness. \u201cApplied to everyone and everything from athletes to chicken wings,\u201d an objector declared. \u201cHow can anyone or anything be the GOAT, anyway?\u201d Records fall; time continues. Some sprinkle GOAT like table salt on \u201canyone who\u2019s really good.\u201d Another wordsmith: ironically, \u201cgoat\u201d once suggested something unsuccessful; now, GOAT is an indiscriminate flaunt.<\/p>\n

2. Inflection point<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mathematical term that entered everyday parlance and lost its original meaning. This year\u2019s version of \u201cpivot,\u201d banished in 2021. \u201cChronic throat-clearing from historians, journalists, scientists, or politicians. Its ubiquity has driven me to an inflection point of throwing soft objects about whenever I hear it,\u201d a quipster recounted. \u201cInflection point has reached its saturation point and point of departure,\u201d proclaimed another. \u201cPretentious way to say turning point.\u201d Overuse and misuse.<\/p>\n

3. Quiet quitting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trendy but inaccurate. Not an employee who inconspicuously resigns. Instead, an employee who completes the minimum requirements for a position. Some nominator reasons: \u201cnormal job performance,\u201d \u201cfancy way of saying \u2018work to rule,\u2019\u201d \u201cnothing more than companies complaining about workers refusing to be exploited,\u201d \u201cit\u2019s not a new phenomenon; it\u2019s burnout, ennui, boredom, disengagement.\u201d On the precipice for next year\u2019s Banished Words List as well for ongoing misuse and overuse.<\/p>\n

4. Gaslighting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nominators are not crazy by arguing that overuse disconnects the term from the real concern it has identified in the past: dangerous psychological manipulation that causes victims to distrust their thoughts, feelings, memories, or perception of reality. Others cited misuse: an incorrect catchall to refer generally to conflict or disagreement. It\u2019s too obscure of a reference to begin with, avowed sundry critics, alluding to the 1938 play and 1940\/44 movies.<\/p>\n

5. Moving forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Misuse, overuse, and uselessness. \u201cWhere else would we go?\u201d wondered a sage\u2014since we can\u2019t, in fact, travel backward in time. \u201cMay also refer to \u2018get my way,\u2019 as in, \u2018How can we move forward?\u2019 Well, guess what? Sometimes you can\u2019t,\u201d another wit stated. Politicians and bosses often wield it for \u201csemantic legitimacy\u201d of self-interest, evasion, or disingenuousness. Its next of kin, \u201cgoing forward,\u201d banished in 2001, also received votes.<\/p>\n

6. Amazing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNot everything is amazing; and when you think about it, very little is,\u201d a dissenter explained. \u201cThis glorious word should be reserved for that which is dazzling, moving, or awe-inspiring,\u201d to paraphrase another, \u201clike the divine face of a newborn.\u201d Initially banished for misuse, overuse, and uselessness in 2012. Its cyclical return mandates further nixing of the \u201cgeneric,\u201d \u201cbanal and hollow\u201d modifier\u2014a \u201cworn-out adjective from people short on vocabulary.\u201d<\/p>\n

7. Does that make sense?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Submitters rejected the desire, perhaps demand, for clarification or affirmation as filler, insecurity, and passive aggression. \u201cWhy say it, if you must ask? It just doesn\u2019t make sense!\u201d tsk-tsked one. In this call for reassurance or act of false modesty, enquirers warp respondents into \u201cco-conspirators,\u201d deduced another. Needy, scheming, and\/or cynical. Let me be clear, judges opined: Always make sense; don\u2019t think aloud or play games! Misuse, overuse, and uselessness.<\/p>\n

8. Irregardless<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sleuth confession: \u201cIt makes my hair hurt.\u201d As well it should\u2014because it\u2019s not a word. At most, it\u2019s a nonstandard word, per some dictionaries. \u201cRegardless\u201d suffices. Opponents disqualified it as a double negative. One conveyed that the prefix \u201cir\u201d + \u201cregardless\u201d = redundancy. \u201cTake \u2018regardless\u2019 and dress it up for emphasis, showcasing your command of nonexistent words,\u201d excoriated an exasperated correspondent, adding, \u201cWhy isn\u2019t this on your list?\u201d Misuse.<\/p>\n

9. Absolutely<\/strong><\/p>\n

Banished in 1996, but deserves a repeat nope given its overuse. Usurped the simple \u201cyes,\u201d laments a contributor. Another condemned it as \u201cthe current default to express agreement, endemically present on TV in one-on-one interviews.\u201d Frequently \u201csaid too loudly by annoying people who think they\u2019re better than you,\u201d bemoaned an aggrieved observer. \u201cSounds like it comes with a guarantee when that may not be the case,\u201d cautioned a wary watchdog.<\/p>\n

10. It is what it is<\/strong><\/p>\n

Banished in 2008 for overuse, misuse, and uselessness: \u201cpointless,\u201d \u201ccop-out,\u201d \u201cOnly Yogi Berra should be allowed to utter such a circumlocution.\u201d Its resurgence prompted these insights: \u201cWell, duh.\u201d \u201cNo kidding.\u201d \u201cOf course it is what it is! What else would it be? It would be weird if it wasn\u2019t what it wasn\u2019t.\u201d \u201cTautology.\u201d \u201cAdds no value.\u201d \u201cVerbal crutch.\u201d \u201cExcuse not to deal with reality or accept responsibility.\u201d \u201cDismissive, borderline rude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur linguists, editors, and philosophers, comics, gatekeepers, and pundits didn\u2019t succumb to quiet quitting when laboring over rife miscommunication. Rather, they turned in discerning opinions about rampant verbal and written blunders with equal parts amusement, despair, and outrage. But our nominators insisted, and our Arts and Letters faculty judges concurred, that to decree the Banished Words List 2023 as the GOAT is tantamount to gaslighting. Does that make sense?\u201d said LSSU President Dr. Rodney S. Hanley. \u201cIrregardless, moving forward, it is what it is: an absolutely amazing inflection point of purposeless and ineptitude that overtakes so many mouths and fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more about the Banished Words List and to nominate a word or term for banishment for 2024, go online to lssu.edu\/banishedwords<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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