AAR

[Tee]

Michigan's Lake Superior State University has released its list of suggested words to be banished from the English language. Have to agree on most of them.

Amazing (isn't that the most overused word these days?)
Baby bump
Ginormous
Huge (they didn't list it, but I hear it everywhere)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45824680/ns/local_news-detroit_mi/#.Tv3YDPK4J3k

[Nicole]

My vote would go to preternatural. I must be reading too much urban fantasy because I feel like it is way over used. Ilona Andrews seems to be a big fan of this word, because I swear it's in every book I've read by them.
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[robiform]

My vote for a word that should be banished in 2012?

"Awesome"

Practically everyone I know who is under the age of forty uses that word at least once every five minutes! If everything is "awesome", then how can anything be really "awesome"?

When I was a child, my mother had a sure-fire method for getting me to stop overusing words. If I repeated a word or phrase the way folks use "awesome" these days, privileges for me were gradually removed until I learned that using a thesaurus was preferable to losing dessert, time to go out with friends, etc. Also, because I expanded my vocabulary, my English grades went up!

And on that note, a happy and healthy New Year to all!
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[stl_reader]

Totally awesome and amazing thread!

A word I'd like to see used less frequently in romance novels is "fisted," as in "He fisted his hands in her hair" and "His hands fisted at his sides." If I'd had a drink for every time I saw a variation of "fisted" in Archangel's Blade, I think I'd have been plastered by the end of the novel.

And at the risk of veering off topic, I'd like to suggest some syntax/punctuation I'd like to see banished from romance novels in 2012: The use of a period after each word in a strongly felt declaration by the hero or heroine. It. Drives. Me. Nuts!

[xina]

[jc]

My vote is for , "it is what it is" and "whatever." Maybe they are just used in New Jersey (?) but over used to the extreme!

[Tee]

[dick]

Like "like," the pause-in-thought of a few years ago, they'll likely die a like death.

[stl_reader]

I don't know...I'm on board with most of the ones mentioned, but I've really learned to respect "it is what it is." Pithy, yet quite profound in some contexts.

[jc]

[stl_reader]

jc - I see your point. I wonder if the usefulness of the phrase is related to age. I'm in my 50s, my mom is in her 80s, and one thing we notice--as we go through decade after decade of life's little foibles, relatives who continue to mystify (and annoy), etc.--is that sometimes a succinct "It is what it is" says a lot.

[Tee]

[Nana]

"Wow factor." I watched a little too much TV over the holidays and heard that term applied to everything from wedding dresses to foyers. "Wow factor" is the new "It really pops."

[xina]

This reminds me of something that one of my Twitter followers said yesterday.
When did we start saying "sorry" instead of "excuse me" to each other? Her example was, when we are getting out of each other's way..we say, "sorry". What are we sorry for?
So for me...another word is "sorry". Bring back, "excuse me". That's my vote.
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"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Linda in sw va]