Time running out to submit entries to list of words that should be banished

Public Radio 90, WNMU | By Nicole Walton

Published November 23, 2021 at 9:56 AM EST

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI— There’s just one week left to nominate a word or phrase for Lake Superior State University’s Banished Words List.

Lake State has compiled its yearly mock-serious list since 1976 to uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are hackneyed, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical—and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating.

Last year, COVID-19 terminology monopolized submissions.

The deadline to suggest words and terms to banish for overuse, misuse, or uselessness for 2022 is 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 30^th. Details are at www.lssu.edu/banishedwords.

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Nicole Walton

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.

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