Lake Superior State University Releases 45th Annual “List of Banished Words from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness”

From Lake Superior State University:

The influencers in the English Department at Lake Superior State University have announced LSSU’s 45th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.

“These days, ’living your best life’ is ‘literally’ impossible with ‘influencers’ making us ‘totes’ ‘jelly,’” an LSSU spokesperson ‘chirped.’ “‘I mean,’ the least they could do is watch their words.”

OK, boomer.

The Word Banishment tradition, created by the late W. T. Rabe, former public relations director at Lake Superior State University, is now in its fifth decade. For every new year since 1976, LSSU — also known for premier programs in nursing, engineering, robotics, and Great Lakes freshwater research — has issued this list.

Rabe and fellow LSSU faculty and staff came up with the first list of words and phrases that people love to hate at a New Year’s Eve party in 1975, publishing it on Jan. 1, 1976. Though he and his friends created the first list from their own pet peeves about language, Rabe said he knew from the volume of mail he received in the following weeks that the group would have no shortage of words and phrases from which to choose for 1977. Since then, the list has consisted entirely of nominations received from around the world throughout the year.

Direct to Complete List of Banished Words, 2020

Additional Resources

• The History of Word Banishment
• Submit a Word to Banish
• Banished Word List Archive
• Complete List of Banished Words
• Archived Banished Word List Posters
• Unicorn Hunters

Filed under: News, Publishing