2012 List Of Banished Words

Hold your tongue before you say a banned word. Uh. I mean the 12 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University's 2012 List of what it says are "Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness". Lake Superior, as usual has released its (33rd) annual during the last week of the year. It selected this years "winners" from about 2,000 nominations. In practice we should never, ever use any of the words in the coming year. Here is the complete list of banned words:

Amazing
Baby Bump
Shared sacrifice
Occupy
Blowback
Man cave
The new normal
Pet parent
Win the future
Trickeration
Ginormous
Thank you in advance

I'll spare you commentary on all of them but reference a few of the more annoying words or phrases I am glad to see have been banned. The "baby bump" phrase was a cutsie reference to celebrities who are pregnant. Some claim that the entertainer Beyonce was the one first labeled as a baby bump, but it got out of hand later in the year and became as annoying as "saving the planet" or some other phrases that make sensible people climb walls.

As for "amazing", what isn't amazing anymore. Even the most mundane and routine accomplishments are labeled as amazing. Although I am extremely happy to no longer hear the word 'awesome' used incorrectly and way too often, it appears to me that amazing was a replacement for it.

What about "occupy"? The use of occupy went too far when alleged abused protesters claimed they were occupying private or public property for their own use to protest some cause, either real or ridiculous. When someone wants to have his or her way he or she now "occupies" some place in the name of others who don't really agree with the protester and don't want them to "occupy" anything for them.

Oh, I so hate hearing "The new Normal". Maybe it's because I am not now nor was I ever normal, but probably because it implies that trendy things must be accepted by everyone, even people with a brain. "New normal" is used most often to justify bad trends in society and to convince people that they are powerless to slow or to reverse those trends. I'll have you know I am not new or old normal. I'm just abnormal, and will continue to be!

"Ginormous", in case you haven't figured it out, is the combination of the real and still better words, gigantic and enormous. It seems that those two are not good enough for some people, so they combine them to make the bigness of something seem even..well.bigger. I say it just makes the user of the term "ginormous' seem like a bigger idiot.

Ok, enough. I will "thank you in advance' if you promise not to use any of these 12 and can assure you that you will "win the future" by abstaining from them.