Michigan University Says You Should Stop Saying These Words in 2023
As we say goodbye to 2022, are there any words or phrases you'd like to see disappear for good?
See if you're sick of any words on Lake Superior State's new "Banished Words" list below - or do you think some should stick around?
Lake Superior State University's Announces 2023 Banished Words List
For the 47th year, Michigan's Lake Superior State University's has released it's annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness".
The tradition, which started as a publicity stunt to bring attention to Michigan's smallest university, has been going strong since 1976.
Over the years, LSSU has received tens of thousands of submissions. To date, over 1000 words and phrases have been officially "banned".
LSSU says that out of the vast majority of the 1,500-plus nominations this year, "reveled and wallowed in the erosion of fundamental expression."
Nominations for words that should be banished came from around the globe, including most major U.S. cities, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, India, China, Canada, and more.
LSSU Says You Need to Stop Using These Words and Phrases in 2023
Here are the list of the banished words and terms for 2023 and the reasons for their banishment:
1. G.O.A.T.
Acronym for Greatest of All Time. One nominator said, "Applied to everyone and everything from athletes to chicken wings. How can anyone or anything be the GOAT, anyway?” LSSU points out that records fall and time marches on...
2. Inflection point
Mathematical term that entered everyday parlance and lost its original meaning. LSSU sys its this year's year’s version of “pivot,” which was banished in 2021. One nominator described it as a "pretentious way to say turning point.”
3. Quiet quitting
LSSU says its "Trendy but inaccurate. Not an employee who inconspicuously resigns. Instead, an employee who completes the minimum requirements for a position." One nominator claims it's it's "nothing more than companies complaining about workers refusing to be exploited." Another says “it’s not a new phenomenon; it’s burnout, ennui, boredom, disengagement.”
4. Gaslighting
Nominators say overuse disconnects the term from the real concern it has identified in the past: dangerous psychological manipulation that causes victims to distrust their thoughts, feelings, memories, or perception of reality.
5. Moving forward
As one nominator points out, “Where else would we go?”... ya know, siince we can’t, in fact, travel backward in time. It's the sister to “going forward,” which was banished in 2001.
6. Amazing
Amazing was initially banished in 2012... LSSU calls it a “worn-out adjective from people short on vocabulary.”
7. Does that make sense?
Nominators say this phrase is filler and reeks of insecurity and passive aggression: “Why say it, if you must ask? It just doesn’t make sense!”
8. Irregardless
Very simply - it's not a word... or as LSSU points out, at the very least, "it’s a nonstandard word, per some dictionaries." Nominators say it's a double negative, as "regardless" on its own suffices.
9. Absolutely
Originally banned in 1996... but LSSU says it deserves a repeat given its overuse. One nominator describes it as “the current default to express agreement, endemically present on TV in one-on-one interviews.”
10. It is what it is
Another repeat. "It is what it is was originally banished in 2008 for overuse, misuse, and uselessness, described as “pointless,” a “cop-out,” and an “excuse not to deal with reality or accept responsibility.”
Are you guilty of using any? I'll admit, I sent an email yesterday that was just "Absolutely!" with a smiley face... I wonder if the recipient was annoyed? "Irregardless" though definitely deserves to be banned, as it's a phrase that fills me with rage, much like "supposably" - They. Are. Not. Words!
Check out more on LSSU's banished words list, or make a nomination for 2024 here.
