She said
The words, or phrases, that I would ban this year are actually the stupid, childish things I say myself.
1) Like. I mean, like, how annoying is it when you, like, talk to other people, like, like this? No one sounds polished or professional when they use "like" as a buffer between words.
2) I heart. No, you have a heart. You may like something, and you may love it. But you definitely don't heart it.
3) Epic. An epic is a lengthy poem about heroes and legendary figures. It is not your night out at Boston Pizza and The Beef. It is not the sandwich you just made. Unless you tell a 10-minute story about the making of the sandwich, and that sandwich won many challenging battles and saved an entire village. Otherwise, just a sandwich.
4) Legit. So often I use this to describe something that I thought was really great. Like a fantastic play during an athletic event, or when I truly ace an exam. But to be legit, something must conform to the rules. So legit doesn't really fit in either of these situations.
5) Bieber fever. Justin Bieber has been around for a while now. He definitely has crazy fans. But I doubt many of them have actual fevers in the sense that they have a medical condition. Also it's really annoying that we seem to need to rhyme everything.
He said
Lake Superior State University released its annual banished words list, comprised of words that are nominated for their misuse, overuse or uselessness.
We don't think they should have a monopoly as the word police, so here are a few other words that we should be freed of in 2012.
Occupy made the LSSU list, but it should have placed in the No. 1 spot. You could occupy everything in 2011, not just Wall Street. Rather than boycotting a product, a group could Occupy the retailer. Don't like that the new iPhone only makes calls if you hold it a certain way? Occupy Apple.
Occupy was a huge story in 2011, and now occupy has picked up more connotations than it had in 2010.
And it should be banished for that. You couldn't go anywhere without hearing about occupy, as it became the new word for protest in a year defined by the cri de coeur. Time magazine even elected The Protester as its person of the year in large part because of Occupy.
Hearing the word grew tiresome, whether you supported the movement or thought the occupiers should get jobs.
Honourable mention goes to Dream Team. There were two in 2011, with the silver-medal-winning Miami Heat and the absolutely underachieving Philadelphia Eagles. It's time to end the dream teams, and just let play prevail.
Finally "planking" must go. It's not so much the word that is the problem, but more that it's the one thing that will make people who look back on 2011 say, "What were people thinking?"
