2006 Banished Words

Lake Superior State University in Michigan has released its annual list of banned words and phrases. This year chose 17 of the more than 2000 nominations they received. Phew, none of them seem to form a part of my regular vernacular. Here's the list:

• Surreal
• Hunker down
• Person of interest
• Community of learners
• Up-or-down vote (I'm not sure I even know what this means)
• Breaking news
• Designer breed
• FEMA (notable quote: “If they don't do anything, we don't need their acronym.”
• First-time caller (notable quote: “I am serious in asking: who in any universe gives a care?”)
• Pass the savings on to you!
• 97 per cent fat-free
• An accident that didn't have to happen
• Junk science
• Git-r-done (again, I think I missed something on this one)
• Dawg
• Talking points (I may be out of a job if this one gets banned)
• Holiday tree (I say a big 'hallellujah' to this one!)

It's fun (in the geekiest definition of the word) to flip through their archives and see the banished words of years past (they've been at this since 1976). 1990's list included fax and messenger as verbs ("Could you fax me that?"), so I don't think the banishment 'took'!

What words or phrases would you banish? I'm thinking "whatever" has definitely had more than its 15 minutes of fame, and we've had more than our share of "(insert trend here) is the new black". I'm sure there are more, but I have two preschoolers crawling on me and I haven't had my first coffee yet. I'm amazed I can still type in sentences!