Words to avoid this year

Lake Superior State University has come out with the banished words list for 2008. Here are some with my comments:


Perfect Storm: Apparently overused by TV pundits to mean any coincidence. Really? I thought it was the name of a book subsequently followed by the movie.

Webinar: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! This word is evil. This is in the same family as webex and web-anything.

Waterboarding: Huh? I'm not sure what gives with this word. I guess the peeps living on both coasts are out of luck on this one.

Organic – Overused and misused to describe not only food, but computer products or human behavior, and often used when describing something as "natural," says Crystal Giordano of Brooklyn, New York. Another advertising gimmick to make things sound better than they really are, according to Rick DeVan of Willoughby, Ohio, who said he has heard claims such as "My business is organic," and computers having "organic software."
Really now? I have stuff that's organic and is all natural but I wouldn't want to keep it.

Wordsmith/Wordsmithing
Author/Authored: What happened to good old-fashioned 'writing'. Like 'Hey, he's a good write!', or 'Wow, she writes eloquently.'

Post 9/11 – "'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You'd think the United States didn't have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, 'pre-9/11.'" – Chazz Miner, Midland, Michigan.
Nuff said.

Back In The Day: Back in the day, we used to walk on all fours, not back in the day, we used to use typewriters instead of keyboards.

Well, that's just a sampling of the banished words. There are more to be found at the above link. Enjoy!