12/30/2011

2012 Banished Words List announced; I helped banish "shared sacrifice"

It seems worn-out phrases and cliches are a "ginormous" part of "the new normal." If we want to "win the future," we must get out of our "man caves" and "occupy" the English language to stop this "trickeration!"

Lake Superior State University has an "amazing" tradition that dates back 37 years: The List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness, AKA the Banished Words List. Based on nominations sent from all over the world, this tradition is released just before the New Year.

"Worn-out words and phrases are the new normal this year, but with some shared sacrifice, we can clean up the language and win the future," said an LSSU representative.

LSSU wordsmiths emerged from their man cave long enough to release the new list, something the school has done since 1976.

...

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, politics, technology and more.

This year's list includes:

*Amazing
*Baby bump
*Shared sacrifice
*Occupy
*Blowback
*Man Cave
*The new normal
*Pet parent
*Win the future
*Trickeration
*Ginormous
*Thank you in advance

I was quoted in the list as saying the following about shared sacrifice:

"Usually used by a politician who wants other people to share in the sacrifice so he/she doesn’t have to." Scott Urbanowski, Kentwood, Michigan


I had the idea to nominate "shared sacrifice" after Gov. Rick Snyder and other Republicans used that term to justify their proposals to shift the burden of the state budget on to regular people while cutting corporate taxes.