LSSU's Banished Words of the Year

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Every year since 1976, Lake Superior State University has released a “List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness” on New Year's Day. While the school cheerfully admits that the tongue-in-cheek tradition is meant to draw publicity to Michigan's smallest public university, the list is widely enjoyed, and hundreds of nominations are received every year.

LSSU's Banished Words: 2015

BAE
Polar vortex
Hack
Skill set
Swag
Foodie
Curate/curated
Friend-raising
Cra-cra
Enhanced interrogation
Takeaway
-nation

LSSU's Banished Words: 2014

Selfie
Twerk/twerking
Hashtag
Twittersphere
Mister mom
T-bone
_______on steroids
-ageddon (car-ageddon, budget-ageddon, etc.)
-pocalypse (see above)
Intellectually/morally bankrupt
Obamacare
Adversity
Fan base

LSSU's Banished Words: 2013

Fiscal cliff
Kick the can down the road
Double down
Job creators/creation
Passion, passionate
YOLO
Spoiler alert
Bucket list
Trending
Superfood
Boneless wings
Guru

LSSU's Banished Words: 2012

Amazing
Baby bump
Shared sacrifice
Occupy
Blowback
Man cave
The new normal
Pet parent
Win the future
Trickeration
Ginormous
Thank you in advance

LSSU's Banished Words: 2011

Viral
Epic
Fail
WOW factor
A-ha moment
Back story
BFF
Man up
Refudiate
Mama grizzlies
The American people
I'm just sayin'
Facebook/google as verbs
Live life to the fullest

LSSU's Banished Words: 2010

Shovel-ready – ready to implement or begin
Transparent/transparency
Czar
Tweet
App
Sexting
Friend as a verb
Teachable moment
In these economic times...
Stimulus
Toxic Assets
Too big to fail
Bromance – a friendly relationship between two men
Chillaxin'
Obama as prefix– Obamanation, Obamacare

LSSU's Banished Words: 2009

Green
Carbon footprint/carbon offsetting
Maverick
First dude
Bailout
Wall Street/Main Street
-monkey – adding "monkey" to the end of a word to make it more attractive and interesting
– in electronic communication, resembles a heart, used to mean "love"
Icon/iconic
Game changer
Staycation
Desperate search
Not so much
Winner of five nominations
It's that time of year again

LSSU's Banished Words: 2008

Perfect Storm
Webinar — a seminar on the web about multiple topics
Waterboarding
Organic
Wordsmith/Wordsmithing
Post 9/11
Surge
Give back
Black Friday— referring to the day after Thanksgiving that retailers use to keep themselves out of the 'red' for the year.
Back in the day
Sweet
Decimate
Emotional
Pop
It is What it is
Under the bus

LSSU's Banished Words: 2007

GITMO — military shorthand for the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Combined Celebrity Names — e.g., Bennifer, TomKat, Bragelina
Awesome — diluted from its meaning of “inspiring awe”
Gone/Went Missing
Pwn or Pwned — gamer slang for “own,” originally a typo
Now Playing in Theaters
We're Pregnant
Undocumented Alien
Armed Robbery / Drug Deal Gone Bad
Truthiness — coined by Stephen Colbert as the quality possessed by a belief one feels is true, in defiance of facts or logic
Ask Your Doctor
Chipotle
i-Anything
Search
Healthy Food — as opposed to “healthful”
Boasts — as in “the apartment boasts hardwood floors”