Hot on the heels of unfriend becoming the word of the year 2009, we have an announcement from Lake Superior State University in Sault St. Marie, Michigan. Since 2010 is a new year, that means that it’s time to stop using friend as a verb. That’s one of the 15 words that have been banished for 2010 by the LSSU Word Banishment Committee. Originally the brainchild of former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe in 1975, the list leads like a what’s what of buzzwords from yesteryear. I haven’t looked at all of them, but I imagine buzzword is one of the words on the list.
I took a look at the list from the year of my birth, and amusingly/disgustingly, most of the banned words on the list are still being used on a daily (or at least quad-yearly basis). Apparently the Reagan election was a big deal then, because among the banned words from 1981 were moral majority and campaign rhetoric. Also on the list is de-plane, which they still used the last time I went on a plane flight and that I’ve never liked. At least fruitworthy has disappeared into the mists of time, so… score one for the banishment list?
Image: The Braintonary
Tags: Lake Superior State University, banished words, banished words list 2010, language, lexicon, the English language, Bill Rabe, Sault St. Marie, Michigan