Banished Words List: No More <3 or Mavericks

It’s that time of year again — time to put a handful of iconic words into the ground for good. Lake Superior State University has released its annual Banished Words List, featuring all the terms used to death over the past year.

So be a maverick and use the following words as much as you can tonight. Then, once midnight strikes, never speak them again.

• Green
• Carbon footprint or carbon offsetting
• Maverick
• First dude
• Bailout
• Wall Street/Main Street
• Monkey
• click here to see the complete story. It includes the user-submitted nominations detailing the woes of the words.

Is the list a game changer? Not so much. But hey, it beats a staycation. Don’t you think so, my fellow language monkey?