Word, I banish thee

I learned a wonderful thing today thanks to a good friend (you know who you are Christy). There exists a “List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.” It is compiled annually from nominations submitted by wonderful people all over the globe and is published on New Year’s Day. It’s been going strong since New Year's Day 1976.

I love it! How did I not know?

From the owner’s website:

The first list was dreamed up by Lake Superior State University Public Relations Director W.T. (Bill) Rabe and a group of friends at a New Year's Eve party in 1975. The following day, Rabe released the list (to the media) and the rest, as they say, is history. Since then, nominations for words and expressions to be banished have been invited and accepted throughout the year.

Brilliant.

Without looking, write down your guesses for what’s on the list for 2012. I wrote a blog post on buzzwords recently and followed it with individual posts on two words that I think are on the list: engaged or engagement, and innovate or innovation. Another word I expect made the list is social.

These three buzzwords may not be on the 2012 list, but I can almost guarantee you they made a list in recent years: disruption, best practice and collaborate.

Have you written down your guesses? Okay, so let’s check the list.

Did you make the same mistake I made? I wasn’t thinking about popular culture. I had my work hat on. The terms I chose I hear in professional work settings all of the time (and it’s nauseating). That’s probably too small of a sample.

Buzzword Bingo is the working world’s equivalent to the Banished List. This game has been around since the early 1990’s and is now 269 words strong and growing. Play it online during your next quarterly meeting or conference call. Just don’t yell Bingo or be prepared to suffer the consequences.

So back to the 2012 banished words list, how many do you hear on a regular basis? For me, the top two vote-getters, amazing and baby bump (groan) certainly, as well as occupy, trickeration and ginormous (dumb). Are any of these terms in your daily vocabulary?

Now that I am aware of the “List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness,” I will be sending in nominations for 2013 as this year progresses. How exciting would it be to see one of my submissions - with attribution - on the next list?

Of course, if the Mayans are correct….

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