For years Michigan’s Lake Superior State University has released its “List of Words Banished From the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse & General Uselessness”.
Lake Superior State University has unveiled its 50th annual “List of Words Banished From the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse & General Uselessness.” In honor of this golden anniversary, here’s this year’s freshly exiled batch of words – and why they’ve officially worn out their welcome…
✗ 6-7: A vague numerical cop-out that explains nothing and somehow still gets used everywhere. Enough already. (Finally! 6-7 is officially 86’ed!)
✗ Demure: Once meaningful, now endlessly repeated until it’s meaning quietly packed up and left. (Not “very demure, very mindful”, it’s “very done, very tired”…)
✗ Cooked: If hearing it makes your brain feel “cooked,” congratulations – you get the point. (We’re hoping use of this word will become “rare”. See what I did there?)
✗ Massive: Overused, often incorrect, and no longer impressive. (Massively overused?)
✗ Incentivize: A noun awkwardly forced into verb duty. (The word “motivate” is right there, waiting for you…)
✗ Full stop: Redundant punctuation pretending to be emphasis. (Period. Oh, wait…)
✗ Perfect: Rarely accurate, especially when said by customer service – as in: “OK, perfect.”
✗ Gift/gifted (as verbs): Another noun transitioning to a verb.
✗ My bad: An apology that somehow apologizes for nothing. (Oh. My bad…!)
✗ Reach out: Once a heartfelt way to show you care, now it is corporate filler. (You’re not helping me – you’re just CC’ing me…!)
Repeat Offenders: These words have made the list in previous years, but apparently, we all could use a reminder: Absolutely, At the end of the day, Awesome, Game changer, Hot water heater.
