'Perfect storm' of overused expressions
LYNNETTE HINTZE
Those of us who write for a living know something about overused words. We spend a fair amount of time thinking of new and interesting ways to say things.
Covering public meetings doesn't help our quest for entertaining prose. It's difficult to get inspired when the same tired phrases are uttered over and over again. Everyone thinks "outside the box" to come up with "win-win" projects. We don't carry out projects, we "implement" them. And we don't want any "unintended consequences" from folks who aren't "team players." By all means, don't "throw the baby out with the bath water."
And just when I'm feeling like I can't possibly deal with anymore bureaucratic mumbling and governmentese, Lake Superior State University has published its annual List of Banished Words. The small Michigan college has been compiling the list since 1976, releasing it each New Year's Day.
Overused words and phrases are chosen from thousands of nominations sent from around the world.
"Perfect storm" topped this year's banished-word list. I'll admit I've used this phrase on occasion and probably thought I was clever in doing so, at least the first time I used it.
Perfect storm refers to the simultaneous occurrence of events which, taken individually, would be far less powerful than the result of their rare chance combination. Guess I'll have to take this one out of my lexicon. As nominator Bob Smith put it, "it's time for 'perfect storm' to get rained out."
The word "organic" also made the overused list because it's used to describe not only food but everything from T-shirts to human behavior. Come to think of it, I am feeling pretty organic today. The word often is misused to describe natural food, the banished-word committee noted.
"Give back" was another of my favorites on the list. People are forever wanting to give back to their communities, and that's a good thing. It's just been kind of overused lately. As Richard Ong of Carthage, Mo., so eloquently put it when he nominated the phrase: "The notion has arisen that as one's life progresses, one accumulates a sort of deficit balance with society which must be neutralized by charitable works or financial outlays. Are one's daily transactions throughout life a form of theft?"
Some words worn out by teens made the list, including "random" and "sweet." And the younger generation's use of the phrase "back in the day" also made the cut because, as Liz Jameson pointed out: "Back in the day, we used 'back-in-the-day' to mean something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as 'Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.'"
"Decimate" is one banished word my husband will approve of. He's claimed people have misused it for years. The word means a 10 percent reduction, but typically it's used to describe widespread destruction.
"Under the bus" got dinged for overuse in the sports world, where coaches and players wrongly blamed for something are thrown under the bus.
My favorite on the list: "It is what it is." Meant to describe acceptance of the status quo, the tired phrase has made its way from sports to general use, and as Doug Compo so aptly put it: "It means absolutely nothing and is mostly a cop-out or a way to avoid answering a question in a way that might require genuine thought or insight."
I'm wondering if one of the most popular phrases from 2007 - "Don't Tase me, bro" - will make next year's banished-word list. Not long after it was yelled out in a University of Florida lecture hall by a student protesting at a Constitution Day forum, the phrase became one of the year's most memorable quotes and a touchstone for the "pop-cultural lexicon," bloggers noted. You can order T-shirts with the saying.
The Taser incident created a "perfect storm" of controversy, and university police probably are wishing they'd thrown the young man "under the bus" instead.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com