Banished Words

Link to Lake Superior State College List of 2010 Banished Words.

Excerpt: Word "czars" at Lake Superior State University "unfriended" 15 words and phrases and declared them "shovel-ready" for inclusion on the university's 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

"The list this year is a 'teachable moment' conducted free of 'tweets,'" said a Word Banishment spokesman who was "chillaxin'" for the holidays. "'In these economic times', purging our language of 'toxic assets' is a 'stimulus' effort that's 'too big to fail.'"

Former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and friends created "word banishment" in 1975 at a New Year's Eve party and released the first list on New Year's Day. Since then, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which includes words and phrases from marketing, media, education, technology and more.

The complete list:

Shovel-ready

Transparent/transparency

Czar

Tweet

App

Sexting

Friend as a verb

Teachable moment

In these economic times...

Stimulus

Toxic assets

Too big to fail

Bromance

Chilliaxin'

Obama-prefix or roots?

If it hadn't already been included on the list in 2002, I would have included "athleticism", a word that sportscasters remain incapable of removing from their vocabularies. It's instructive to note that this word tends to be used in reference to black athletes.

Banished words archives found here.