LSSU Publishes 2010 Banned Words List

Posted on January 21, 2010

Reuters reports that Lake Superior State University wordsmith's have published a list of banned words for 2010. The phrase "shovel-ready" topped the list. Obama-related terms are also out for 2010.

Tops on the Michigan university's list of useless phrases was "shovel-ready." The term refers to infrastructure projects that are ready to break ground and was popularly used to describe road, bridge and other construction projects fueled by stimulus funds from the Obama administration.

And speaking of stimulus, that word -- which was applied to government spending aimed at boosting the economy -- made the over-used category as well, along with an odd assortment of Obama-related constructions such as Obamacare and Obamanomics.

Multiple Twitter terms also made the LSSU banned list. There were countless versions of Twitter terms used in 2009 so they are out in 2010. These include "tweet, tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere."

"People tweet and retweet and I just heard the word 'tweet' so many times it lost all meaning." - Ricardo, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Mikhail Swift of Hillman, Mich. says the tweeting is "pointless-yet has somehow managed to take the nation by storm. I'm tired of hearing about celebrity X's new tweet, and how great of a tweeter he or she is."

"I don't know a single non-celebrity who actually uses it," says Alex Thompson of Sault St. Marie, Mich.

We can certainly understand why many of these terms made the list. Unfortunately, people are highly likely to keep on using them this year. You may not like Twitter but people on Twitter need certain words. We can't imagine people on Twitter not using the word tweet. They also need to use the word retweet. However, they don't need to use "twittersphere."

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