When was the last time you called someone a GOAT? Or declared an “inflection point” or answered a yes or no question with “absolutely”?
A faculty at Lake Superior State University in Michigan puts out an annual list of words that deserve to be “banished” from our lexicon because of “misuse, abuse, and uselessness,” they said, probably recently. .
“Our nominee argued, and a judge from our Arts and Letters Department argued that promulgating the 2023 Banned Words List as GOAT equated to gaslighting. Will you?” said the university’s president, Rodney S. Hanley, in a very serious statement announcing the new list.
Hanley added, “Anyway, moving forward, that’s what it is. An absolutely amazing inflection point of aimless incompetence that passes many mouths and fingers.” .
Here is the complete list of school banishments for this year:
From more than 1,500 nominations from all over the country and as far away as New Zealand and Namibia, the jury declared this year’s top offender to be ‘GOAT’, the acronym for ‘greatest of all time’.
Appointees and faculty alike, both because of its impossibility (who can declare one of the all-time greats when another may come along in the future) and the liberal way recent titles In fact, I felt that the term was objectionable.
Lake State spokesperson Peter Sutmarley said: “The ‘greatest-ever’ singularity just can’t happen no matter what. It’s easily given, not selectively managed.” .
(In the spirit of full disclosure, a review of NPR’s records shows that in 2022 alone, there will be at least 17 nominees for “best of all time,” including footballers Pele, Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and long-distance runner Eliud. Kipchoge, U.S. track and field Olympian Allyson Felix, women’s tennis star Serena Williams and male colleagues Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal’s trio Quarter Back Tom Brady, hockey player Wayne Gretzky, NBA standouts Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bill Russell, surfer Kelly Slater, video game’s Elden Ring and Pakistan with very long ears the goat.)
A jury at Lake State University might argue that too many people (and not people) have been described as “the greatest of all time.” “Words and conditions matter, or at least they should,” said Sattmarie.
In addition to the banished ‘GOAT’, nine other words and phrases complained by nominators and judges are frequently used detached from their literal meaning, such as ‘amazing’. , and was concerned that nominator no longer meant “dazzling” or “awe-inspiring.” .”
“Not all are great. When you think about it, there are very few surprises,” said one nominee.
As a more serious example, some worried that overuse of the term “gaslighting” would undermine the language’s ability to describe certain types of dangerous psychological manipulation. Merriam-Webster says that when he announced “gaslighting” as the word of the year, searches for the term’s definition increased by more than 1,700%.)
Hundreds of words and phrases have been “banished” by the LSSU since 1976. Over the years, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for its annual list.
Frequent targets are “in these uncertain times” (as so many COVID-related messages began in 2020), the “information superhighway” (banished in 1995), Filmed in front of a live studio audience” (first such ban in 1987, then in 1990).
Joining them is the general verbal bugaboo. Frequently misused words like “impact”, redundancies like “exactly the same” or “completely empty”, or overly redundant phrases like “at this point”. (“Why don’t you say ‘now’ or ‘today’?” asked his 1976 nominee.)
Others are really offensive words and phrases. In 1982, one mother encouraged the banishment of the word “retarded” and said her mentally ill daughter “with the right stimulus…does far more than we believe possible.” It can be learned and understood,” he wrote.
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