2006 banned words list - Wordsmith.org

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Once again, Lake Superior State Univ. publishes its awesome annual list -- with no combined celebrity names and not coming to a theater near you:

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php

Awesome is hardly the word, AnnaStropic, this years list is better than awesome, this years list is actually quite good.

Now if someone will just ban "actually"; that would be awesome.

I look forward to this every year; it tickles me to see how many of the things that bug me also bug other people!

A few of these picked non-randomly:

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GITMO

The official Navy designation of th US Naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba is GTMO. It has been pronounced "gitmo" for at least forty years. It's only the excesses of recent times that have resulted in this pronunciation getting any wide spread recognition. If you don't like it get yourself elected Commander-in-Chief and change it. Otherwise just shut up and think of England.

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GONE/WENT MISSING

Long time British slang. If it's caught on in the greater Anglophonic world it's because communication has improved due to the influence of the world wide web and many people find it more expressive than just plan "missing". Sorry if getting yourself elected CinC doesn't help on this one. Maybe thinking of England won't either. Tough.

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NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS -- Heard in movie advertisements. Where can we see that, again?

At home on the direct to DVD edition you rented from Hollywood Buster.

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TRUTHINESS

Mostly nobody quite understood the real meaning of this term. If you did, you wouldn't be complaining about its existence, you'd be complaining about its misuse.

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CHIPOTLE

The word chipotle refers to a specific entity. That's the only word available for that particular entity. If you ban the entity you are going to get a lot of discriminating chili eaters unhappy and you don't want that to happen. Just relax and think of Mexico.

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SEARCH -- Quasi-anachronism. Placed on one-year moratorium.

"Might as well banish it. The word has been replaced by 'google.'" -- Michael Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

Weren't y'all complaing about "google" as a verb a while back? Make up your proverbial mind.

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HEALTHY FOOD -- Point of view is everything.

Someone told Joy Wiltzius of Fort Collins, Colorado, that the tuna steak she had for lunch "sounded healthy." Her reply: "If my lunch were healthy, it would still be swimming somewhere. Grilled and nestled in salad greens, it's 'healthful.'"

If there really were any logic to language "healthful" would mean "full of health," not the sort of thing you would say about a dead fish. "Healthy" now also means "promoting good health," a much more fitting thing to say about a tuna steak sandwich if properly made with mercury-free tuna.

Gee Mister Faldage, we were just having a little laugh.

Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed and start the new year by being a grump?

Shoot! All you need is a big bowl of back-eyed peas cooked with a hog jowl and a nice serving of cornbread and some clabber milk. This will pretty much gurantee you a year of good luck so you won't have to be a grouch.

Faldage, I sincerly hope that this coming year finds yourself a much happier person, and that I win the Lottery.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Weren't y'all complaing about "google" as a verb a while back? Make up your proverbial mind.

Yes, that occurred to me, too, but I just rolled my eyes.

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Gee Mister Faldage, we were just having a little laugh.

A little laugh?!

Y'all were talking about banning words! Attempting to force y'all's petty prejudices on the whole rest of the English speaking world!

BTW, boast, in the sense complained about is cited from 1697 in the B&M OED, and y'all're just now getting around to puling and micturating about it? I'm sorry, but the statute of limitations clicked in a couple hundred years ago.

Ok,ok,ok, we get your point. We are not stupid, you know.

But what about the cutesy ones on the list? Like COMBINED CELEBRITY NAMES?

Let say for example that you and dalehileman got married. Would it be ok with you if we started calling you two "Faldalehileman" ?

So you wanna ban just celebrity portmanteaus? Or are you gonna ban such atrocities as "smog," "brunch" and, yes, "portmanteau" itsownself?

And as far as banning "we are pregnant" any woman who has never said, "We have to clean out the garage," where "we" are the husband may feel free to complain about someone saying "We are pregnant."

Ok, thats it, I give up. You are determined to excuse any aberration of the English language. But don't you know, Mister Faldage, that certain parameters are necessary for the continuity of human communication.

And it is to these parameters that Elizabeth and AnnaStrophic and I are speaking. This is our chore as vibrant and prime members of our Culture.

And we will not shirk.

Thanks from afar for this combined good morning entertainment. It's 01/02 out here.
The saltmines are calling.(Any banneble word in this I will delete on request.)Even if it would mean all of them.

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... certain parameters are necessary for the continuity of human communication.

ic nunderstande �is ge�eode.

But, to be more serious, those banned words, most om them may be irritating , they do not seem to threaten to change much in ways of thinking.
What I've been fighting against actively several times is the use
of the word Top Criminel.It has been in use for at least five years here and I mailed TV News services and newspapers + political parties that it's wrong to equal a criminel to a Top Sporter, Top Scorer, Top Production. There should be no hint of heroism or merit to drugsdealers and other base criminals.
It really changes the way of thinking about right and wrong.(imo)

But no results. Fighting windwills. They use it still.

I enjoy the list of banned words because, as I said, it tickles me to see how many other people are bugged by some things that bug me. Can't take it too terribly seriously.
Aren't most of these words nominated mainly because of their misuse or overuse in print/audio media? How many of us actually say "Brangelina"? (Not like they're friends of mine anyway, not like Jennifer Aniston is.) And, as Fong pointed out, others are simply not in mainstream American use. I have no problem with "went missing", but I think Canadians use a little more Britspeak than Americans do.

> not like Jennifer Aniston is.

could you introduce her to me, please?

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Let say for example that you and dalehileman got married. Would it be ok with you if we started calling you two "Faldalehileman"

Now there's a frightening proposition!

is far preferable to "turned up missing." Was it the best of times or the worst of times, Mr. Dickens? You can scarcely have it both ways.

Creight,it's easy making fun of celebrity ignorant strangers . Who the hell's angles are Bragelina? And on top of that I can't seem to get out of this candlelight coma. Even though I changed them for a mojo in the form of a stylized snowflake.It took me four reads before I noticed some possible intentional typo in your post.
I don't mind.
Beeing laughed at is the best way to stay in touch with reality.
Fearsomely awesome.

What if we just banned "ban"...could we then ever ban anything?

I think the banning of words is mostly a very personal thing. A list is just a list. Maybe nice to know that you belong to a minority community that refuses to use this word or that, but it won't stop those trends and fashions that hollow out the meaning of some words.
(Don't ban your avatar picture, nice frosty image!)

You must remember this
A list is still a list, a strike is just a strike
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

([not really awake yet e])

No problem to comply with what you sy
A halve day wide awake am I let banners and the words pass by.

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A few of these picked non-randomly:

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GONE/WENT MISSING

Long time British slang. If it's caught on in the greater Anglophonic world it's because communication has improved due to the influence of the world wide web and many people find it more expressive than just plan "missing". Sorry if getting yourself elected CinC doesn't help on this one. Maybe thinking of England won't either. Tough.

On behalf of the 400 million or so English speakers whose flavour of choice is NOT American English, I thank you, M. Fong. Although I have long disliked this annual list simply for its prescriptivism, I have come to look upon it with more active antipathy for its assumption of the existence of "one true, Holy, and wholly American, English". If an idiomatic usage is not common in the US, it is, ipso facto incorrect, and to beviewed as an abomination. This viewpoint is deeply ingrained in many speakers of US English, so I salute the Fool for standing up against the twin evils of prescriptivism and cultural hegemony. As many English speakers in my part of the world would say, "kapai, mate!"

Such words from you, my dear M. Quordlepleen, are armo(u)r against the nattering of all the nabobs in the neighbo(u)rhood.

Hey Faldage...fool.

Would you please go tell TJMax that I agree that banning words is foolish.
Free expression is fundamental to the well being of mankind.
You go tell him, I can't. I am on his banned list.

Milo

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Hey Faldage...fool.

Would you please go tell TJMax that I agree that banning words is foolish.
Free expression is fundamental to the well being of mankind.
You go tell him, I can't. I am on his banned list.

Milo

If he's still around. He's been busy elsewhere these days.