3,2,1! Happy New Year! The time where all problems go away and promises that are never kept are made. Students at Lake Superior State University decided to make a change and update people’s vocabularies.
According to an article on CNN, Lake Superior State University has banished the following words and phrases from 2013: fiscal cliffs, kick the can down the road, double down, job creators/creation, passion/passionate, YOLO, spoiler alert, bucket list, trending, and super food. The reason for banishment came from scholars that felt the words and phrases were useless, overused, and even misused.
These words are not necessarily banned from the English vocabulary. This list includes words that have been used since the 1900s, “Kick the can down the road”, is one of those expressions that just doesn’t relate to their definitions. The meaning of the expression is a problem or issue will go away or someone else will make a decision. It was usually used in politics when government officials did not get their way.
“Fiscal cliffs”, is a media term to describe expiring federal trade cuts and across-the-board government spending cuts. So whether or not Congress uses the popular term, word lovers want it out ASAP.
As crazy as these scholars are, they had the intention to ban a food word. The famous sandwich, double down, tops the list. Like having fun, some people come along a ruin it for everyone. The term was also used to define a repeating pattern and was repeatedly used throughout 2012.
“Singing is my passion.” There is nothing wrong with being a passionate person or to have passion, but the word itself has lost its own passion. Celebrities and politicians are to blame; they used this word to describe their own careers and how important it is to them. Stick with using enthusiasm instead.
Job creators/creation is the oddball on the list. Why? When addressing someone as a creator, it seems too godlike or a title for parents, because they actually created something. The actual job creators have already decayed in their graves, so there aren’t many “creators” that are currently living right now. To avoid using this word, replace it with “the people.”
The scholars have great reasoning to add “spoiler alert” and “bucket list” into the list. First of all only people that lived on this planet for over 30 years should be able to use the word “bucket list.” Teenagers have no business in making a list before they die because it wouldn’t have an ending and it is complete irony. Spoiler alert is also high on the list. Spoiling a moment is never cool. People do not need to know trivia; they made game shows for that.
If one thing changed on planet earth, is that people actually started to eat healthier. But food and words shouldn’t even blend; just leave it at the basics. Super food? Does it give you super powers? Does it make you taller? Does it keep you cleaner? Wrong. It is just food power housed with nutrients.
“Trending” is probably one of the most misused words of all. Twitter thinks they know the true meaning, but they should have read a dictionary before they created the widely popular website. To them a trend means what is in at the moment. Incorrect. A trend is a direction in which something is changing or developing. Just because Taylor Swift and Harry Styles “broke up”, it is not changing anything. The word should be respected by using it properly.
And last but not least, YOLO. The excuse for misbehaving. The word is annoying, but people once again take advantage and stretch the definition. The true meaning was to let loose and have fun, not to destroy your own life by bad choices. YOLO contradicts itself, of course a person only lives once and the world would be happy if they lived without hearing YOLO.
As years go on the English vocabulary will change, but if it changes to this these types of words, well it seems America will be doomed.