'Surge' Makes Annual Banned-Words List

[rodeodance]

Source: ap



'Surge' Makes Annual Banned-Words List

By JEFF KAROUB (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 01, 2008 4:32 AM EST

DETROIT - Resist the urge to say you will "wordsmith" your list of New Year's resolutions rather than write one. And don't utter, "It is what it is" when you fail to meet your first goal.

Those are two of the 19 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University's annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. The school in Michigan's Upper Peninsula released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations.

Among this year's picks are "surge," the term for the troop buildup in Iraq. "Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power," Michael Raczko of Swanton, Ohio, said in nominating the word.

The list also included "waterboarding," "perfect storm," "under the bus" and "organic." Also: "It is what it is," which Jeffrey Skrenes of St. Paul, Minn., said "accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant."

Read more: http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080101/4779c8d0_3ca6_1552620080101-306717712

[Eagle_Eye]

1. I am sure Coca-Cola is overjoyed with that

<>

[Endangered Specie]

2. "Banning words"... sounds very 1984ish to me...

wasn't that one of the main goals of each new version of the newspeak dictionary... to shrink the word list.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "It is totally totalitarian. Smirk. That is why I am now banning the word 'AWOL.'"- Commander AWOL

"If I hear even one of you noisy proles using that word, then I am surging you off to a Halliburton Detention Camp. For your own good, of course." - Commander AWOL

[Flora]

14. Keyword in article

>>"Sadly for grammar's guardians, the lighthearted list isn't binding, as evidenced by the continued use of past banned words and phrases such as "erectile dysfunction," "i-anything" and "awesome."<<


Some were just pointing out the obvious overuse of certain words. I remember the days when we ate spaghetti, now it's only *pasta*.
:shrug:

Of course, we have the *right* to continue to parrot the popular words and phrases, just as they have the *right* to humorously point out the obvious. :-)

[alfredo]

29. Spageti.. Spagetti... spagetty..... Pasta.

[WittyUsername]

33. Light hearted totalitarianism is still totalitarianism... It's unacceptable...

:P

I kids of course.

[BuelahWitch]

17. Hey, it is what it is!

:rofl:

[slackmaster]

18. Stigmatizing overused words and phrases is the new New Year's Resolution for some people

:peep:

[syberyenta]

3. WTF

Lake Superior State Huh?

[POAS]

6. Didn't know they

had enough people of college age in the UP to have a college, maybe it's a one room school.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. Er...ever heard of Michigan Tech?

Isn't that in Houghton?

[parasim]

10. Not to mention Northern Michigan University in Marquette and...

Finlandia University in Hancock. Each with a few more than one room... :)

[harmonicon]

11. yep, and non-locals go there too!

Can you imagine that? Someone choosing their university because of the quality of education offered over location...

[dipsydoodle]

5. Sounds about right to me.

Broadly speaking it's list of words , most of which were thought up by some WH comedian, to encourage use by the media.

Misuse of words from their original context does indeed accomplishe the dual feat described. If, as I believe to be the case, the number of troop deaths in 2007 was an all time high then that was the only surge - unfortunately.

[POAS]

7. Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness?

Seems "Right to Life" fits the bill!

[Gman]

8. Sounds like they do a great service for the country

maybe mindless overuse of some of these terms will end and people will have to think through what they want to say to communicate better.

[santamargarita]

12. Why not, it didn't work anyway.

Lets SURGE Bush Out of Office!

[rodeodance]

13. it has become highly overused. boring!!

[FREEWILL56]

15. Add to it the word

'unelectable' because bush already proved that notion to be false twice.

[stillcool]

16. We need a new dictionary..

to re-define all those words that have been mis-used, over-used, and abused during the last six years. Like 'freedom' and 'democracy'...they sure don't mean what they used to. I still don't understand how a 'computer glitch' can manage to repeat itself in so many computers across the country on one day of the year...and remain a 'glitch'.

[slackmaster]

19. I worked for a bank in the '80s - Management Speak tortured me to madness

The phrase "...on a _____________ basis" was used in all kinds of horrible ways, beyond the basic accounting terminology that can convey useful information.

I once wrote a memo for broad distribution, in which I intentionally used the phrase "on a whenever you can basis" just to see if it raised anyone's hackles. Only my supervisor, an accomplished writer, got a chuckle out of it.

[ladywnch]

20. the one that finally drove me over the edge was....

'we have to solution this opportunity' !!!!! which translated to 'we have to fix this problem' but we were never allowed to acknowledge that problems existed. I never understood what they thought solutions were for if not for problems!!!!! :banghead:

[Forrest Greene]

21. Dang

I've never even heard somebody say "It is what it is.""

[robinlynne]

24. You must be over 40!

[Forrest Greene]

37. Yeah...

I remember "What it is?" in the interrogative...

I remember "You are what you eat" & I even remember "Who am us, anyway?"

But after that, it gets a little hazy. Where's my tincture of ginkgo biloba?

[LanternWaste]

22. If they'd put the word...

If they'd put the word "dis" on that list, I'd be a happier guy...

[robinlynne]

25. How about ax, as in Don't ax me that question.

[humbled_opinion]

35. How about Use as in

How use Doin....

lol

[robinlynne]

38. good, and use?

[Didereaux]

23. Please do not ban such words and phrases, they serve to...

quickly identify the 'weak minded'. If they ban then the retards will have to muddly about for new words to abuse and during the time it takes them to settle upon a new set, the others will have to waste additional time in indentifying the cretins. No, all in all as annoying as they are such words and phrases are useful...another example of the 'Law of Unintended Consequences' <- heheh

[maxanne]

26. so many missed opportunities

some of my pet peeves:

skill set - just wrong

troops - used to mean a large group of soldiers, now perverted to mean a single soldier - thereby minimizing the impact of "troop" deaths.

Universal health care - used to mean a single payer system - now perverted to mean universal health INSURANCE.

Know what I'm saying? - arrrrrgggghhh!

[alfredo]

27. Was "waterboarding", now it is "water torture."

[maxanne]

28. OMG

I forgot the one that annoys me the most - "war on terror"

There can be no such thing.

[alfredo]

30. OMG is passe. It is now OMD

Oh My deity, or OMIF, Oh My Imaginary Friend.

[maxanne]

31. damn

it's hard to accept becoming passe. :cry:

[alfredo]

34. Accept it. It happens to all of us.

[dipsydoodle]

32. Already officially

in dis-use in the UK. Government decided to drop any reference to it in future last month.

[humbled_opinion]

36. They forgot misunderestimate me...

[Perry Logan]

39. We can go back to saying "waterboarding" as soon as we can pin it on the Democrats.