Thread: 19 affronts to the English language make list of overused words

"Perfect storm" of cliches make bad English list

By Andrew Stern Mon Dec 31, 6:19 AM ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - A "surge" of overused words and phrases formed a "perfect storm" of "post-9/11" cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned.


Choosing from among 2,000 submissions, the public relations department at Michigan's Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie targeted 19 affronts to the English language in its well-known jab at the worlds of media, sports, advertising and politics.


The contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence.
"Webinar" made the list as a tiresome non-word combining Web and seminar that a contributor said "belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything."


Similarly, the list-makers complained about the absurd comparisons commonly phrased "x is the new y," as in "(age) 70 is the new 50" or "chocolate is the new sex." "Fallacy is the new truth," commented one contributor.


Some words and phrases sagged under the weight of overuse, contributors said, citing the application of "organic" to everything from computer software to dog food.
In the same vein, decorators offering to add "pop" with a touch of color need new words, the list-makers said.


Such phrases as "post 9/11" and "surge" have also outlived their usefulness, they said. Surge emerged in reference to adding U.S. troops in Iraq but has come to explain the expansion of anything.
Other contributors took umbrage at the phrase to "give back" as applied to charitable gestures, usually by celebrities.


"The notion has arisen that as one's life progresses, one accumulates a sort of deficit balance with society which must be neutralized by charitable works or financial outlays," one said.
"Back in the day" raised hackles for being applied to recent trends rather than historical events.
Other teenage linguistic indiscretions such as the often meaningless use of "random" and "sweet" raised the ire of list-makers, as did the pointless "it is what it is."


Reporters were chided for skipping out on detail by describing an event or parting as "emotional," and for misapplying "decimate" when they mean annihilate or destroy, not the word's true meaning of to lose a fraction.


Sports announcers were urged to drop "throw under the bus" when assigning blame to a player. "It is a call for the media to start issuing a thesaurus to everyone in front of a camera," a contributor said.


And finally, any self-respecting writer would groan at being labeled a "wordsmith" who engages in "wordsmithing," the list-makers said.

" how about closure. The victim is seeking closure.......

My personal bitch is with the term "I need to vent" which means I need to bitch a lot and you need to hear it. Blah!

^ an example contained in a comment.

How about this one -

You've got issues.......

Hate that one. Not that I have heard it a lot or anything

^It's gotten worse than that with "Issues." My nephew came to visit me in Thailand last year, and the CD player wasn't working. He said "Dude, your stereo has issues."

Should have bitch slapped him silly right then and there.

"like a war zone "
"at the end of the day" - the sun goes down

the word "grotto" has always bothered me.

People who use the adverb basically at the start of a sentence.

I guess this shows my age: irregarless.

Example:

"Irregardless of the consequences of getting Reds, I continue to pick on Stroller."

The fact that a word has not been added to a dictionary does not necessarily deny its existence.

Languages existed for a long time without any dictionaries, or without being written down at all.

^Yes, good point. Languages should evolve and grow. The damn French tried to muzzle that growth in their famous crackdown against English words and Frenglish/Franglais, and suppressed free thought.

Let language free.

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

The fact that a word has not been added to a dictionary does not necessarily deny its existence.

That was my argument mate, but they'd hear nothing of it.

Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr

Oh yeah, my pet hate is "no problem", whenever I hear it (especially from Thais) it gets me thinking that there must be a problem.

Hate that one myself but "no worries, mate".

^Spaced-out post.

"If you will" and "awesome" !!!

"whatever"

I hate "and I was like.....and then she was like........."

Awesome is another word that sets my teeth on edge.

"Get a life" and "Loser" really piss me off (define a life, define a winner)

....know what I mean? Makes me cringe.

When I see middle aged fat women in Chicago in a group talking and one of them bellows in her loud Chicago voice "You go girl", I just want to puke.

I want to ask where the "girl" is that she was saying it to.

^Inside the belly of the fat woman.

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

^Inside the belly of the fat woman.

Yeah really. None of them are girls, they are women, old ladies, WOMEN - nothing feminine or girl like about them.

Originally Posted by keda

....know what I mean? Makes me cringe.

Or "you know what I'm saying" tacked onto the end of every sentence.