Drop these terms from your vocabulary: “Perfect storm” of cliches make bad English list.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A “surge” of overused words and phrases formed a “perfect storm” of “post-9/11″ cliches in 2007, according to a U.S. university’s annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned.
Awful phrases on the list include “wordsmithing” - used in place of writing - and “the absurd comparisons commonly phrased ‘x is the new y,’ as in ‘(age) 70 is the new 50′ or ‘chocolate is the new sex.’ ‘Fallacy is the new truth,’ commented one contributor.”
Why stop with the list? What words and phrases would you like to see driven from use? I’d start with “proactive.”
12 responses so far ↓
Dan // January 2, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I recently attended a corporate seminar/love fest; you know, one of those morale building, team-focusing (scream-inducing) workshops. Less than an hour into the meeting, I realized I had forgot my Corporate-to-English dictionary so I would love to see phrases like “outside the box” and “win-win” be banished forever.
prospectus // January 2, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Can I please, please “give a shout-out to” our old friend “democracy-and-the-rule-of-law”?
It’s not all bad though. Every now and then I still remember when every clown in the circus was running around talking about shizzling nizzles. “For shizzle!” Then I sigh with contentment and dance on its grave.
Snart // January 2, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I’d like to do away with most if not all superlatives: best movie ever, funniest comedian ever, worst storm in history, etc.
“Cutting edge” and “state of the art” can also leave the room, thank you.
Jeff // January 2, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I was going to suggest “leverage” and “upsell” get the axe, but then I remembered these are sure-fire winners for me at bullshit bingo.
Phil // January 3, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I for one hate it when people use the expressions ‘full disclosure’ or ’speaking truth to power’. Gah! You instantly come across as a precious yet slimy confidante! Get back!
prospectus // January 3, 2008 at 5:43 pm
It’s quite interesting. Some phrases, you hear them and they strike you as particularly original or colourful and add a bit of life to the language. Other phrases were once like that, but are now so much a part of the language we don’t really notice them being metaphors any more. Eg, “where do you draw the line?”
Just at the crossover between these two states is the no-man’s-land* where they stick out like a sore thumb and grate like a blender.
*I use “no-man’s-land” advisedly - because of the urge they bring on to feed another belt into the gun.
Meg // January 3, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Prospectus, cliches become cliches precisely because they originally described something with freshness and precision. (As my dad used to say, just because it’s trite doesn’t mean it isn’t true.) They’ve simply become worn out through overuse.
Phil, “speaking truth to power” is an expression that’s especially debased when declaimed by Americans. Waving a placard with one hand while sipping a mocha decaf latte with the other doesn’t require a whole lot of courage. If you’re a Buddhist monk in Rangoon, on the other hand, it means you have an almost fatal bravery.
prospectus // January 3, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Oh yes, I get that bit. What I’d never really thought about before is that there’s a zone of fury in between the fresh true and the trite true.
Meg // January 3, 2008 at 7:35 pm
“Zone of Fury” - there’s a thriller title if I ever heard one. I may have to use it.
mimi // January 4, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I vote to throw out any verb created from a noun without getting the noun’s permission. For instance, a liason must liaz for a living. Really?
Meg // January 4, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Mimi, my son is solidly in your corner. All December my husband drove him crazy by saying - as he hung holiday decorations - that he was “Christmassing.” This made the kid nuts. “Dad, no - Christmas is a noun. Noun. Noun.”
Which only encouraged my husband. Lord knows what’ll happen when Easter rolls around.
Jeff // January 7, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I’m always late to the party, but I’d like to add “drink the Kool-Aid” to my list of hated cliches and business jargon. I guess if we’d just drink the Kool-Aid, we’d stop worrying about such things.
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