Words that fail us

Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010 | 2:06 a.m.

Since 1976 a committee of logophiles at Lake Superior State University in Michigan has been reviewing lists of tired words, clichés and overwrought phrases nominated for the trash heap, and it then votes to banish the offenders. The university’s list of banned words is a fun read and a good indicator of the times.

For example, the university’s 2009 list took on some of the buzzwords in politics, such as czar. The word made the list after President Barack Obama was criticized for the number of “czars” he has appointed to oversee specific issues, including terrorism, technology and the Great Lakes. (Perhaps the university’s banned words committee didn’t notice that czar.)

There is also a proposed ban on using the president’s last name as a prefix to make up words such as Obamacare, Obamanomics, Obamanation. “We say Obamanough,” the committee declared.

The committee would also like to ban “shovel-ready” and “stimulus” — which go together in the federal plans to jump-start the economy — and it would like to see the end of the use of “toxic assets,” “too big to fail” and the phrase “in these economic times.” (Oh, that we could banish those words and the terrible things that have come in these economic times.)

The university also added some computer terms to the list, including “app” — an application or program for the ubiquitous iPhone. (The committee would rather use a real word than an abbreviation. There’s also “tweet,” and all its variations, and the use of “friend” as a verb — no, Facebook, we’ll make friends, thank you.

The word “sexting” was also banned by the committee. Sexting is the sending of sexual images over cell phones that has bizarrely become de rigueur among teens and young adults and caused several scandals. One person who nominated the term aptly put it: “Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mash-up of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished.” To which we would add: “mash-up” should be banned as well because, well, it’s too clever for its own good.

Two entries we would have liked to have seen on the banned list are “death panel” and “birther.” We think the nation would have been much better without ever hearing those terms. Sadly, even if those had made the list, there’s little hope that it would have mattered. The university has largely been a voice in the verbal wilderness with few people listening.

The first list, in the wake of the Nixon era, included the still popular: “meaningful,” “input,” “dialogue” and “scenario.” (The committee was apparently tired of Henry Kissinger traveling around the globe to get input and have meaningful dialogues about various scenarios.)

Still, the list is a good reminder to us to use words properly — and judiciously. But that’s our take. Send your input. Maybe you can friend our word czar and have a dialogue. Or not.