"Lake Superior State
University Word Banishment selection committee emerged from its
spider hole with its annual List of Words Banished from the
Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
LSSU has been
compiling the list since 1976, choosing from nominations sent from
around the world. This year, words and phrases were pulled from
more than 5,000 nominations - a record. Most were sent through the
school’s website.
Word-watchers pull
nominations throughout the year from everyday speech, as well as
from the news, fields of education, technology, advertising,
politics, and more. A committee gathers the entries and chooses
the best in December. The list is released on New Year’s Day.
The 2006 list
includes:
PERSON OF INTEREST
– Found within the context of legal commentary, but seldom
encountered at cocktail parties. "Does this mean the rest of us
are too boring to deal with?" – Patricia Johnson from
Mechanicsville, Va.
BREAKING NEWS –
Once it stopped presses. Now it's a lower-intestinal condition
brought about by eating dinner during newscasts. "Now they have to
interrupt my supper to tell me that Katie Holmes is pregnant." —
Michael Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.
PASS THE SAVINGS ON TO
YOU! – Marketing catch phrase that became a lost-leader long
ago. "Read: Pass the markup along to you." – C. W. Estes, Roanoke,
Tex.
AN ACCIDENT THAT
DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN – "This means some accidents need to
happen, for whatever reason, I can't figure." — Thomas Price,
Orlando, Fla.
GIT-ER-DONE – (Any
of its variations) It's overdone. "There's no escaping it. It's
everywhere, from TV to T-shirts," says Amanda Tikkanen of
LaGrange, Ind. "Please tell me when we're DONE with this one."
DAWG – Someone
should wash out this Spot. "Don't call me ‘dawg'! I'm not your
pet!" – Michael Swartz, Albuquerque, NM.
Clearly, God's Word declares that the words we speak are a powerful
force. Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and
death". A simple word search on "tongue", "lips", "words", and
"mouth" will yield a ton of Scripture that details what Proverbs
declares.
We can
never be reminded enough that some things just are NOT true! "Sticks
and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?" It's a
good mantra to do our best to live by, but only superhumans have the
ability to make it true all the time. Last time I saw one of those,
the mirror broke from the ugliness exposed!
Having
invested the first half of 2005 as a church learning about conflict,
may I encourage you to watch how you use the mighty tools of words
this year? Let me encourage you to dig into God's Word more than
ever before. There's no better way to have our own words transformed
and turned into a healing force!
Onward & upward ...
