20 words, sayings and catchphrases I could live without in 2011
This is the time of year when all the lists are trotted out as a way to look back and tell us what we did, said, thought, ate, and wore in the past 365 days. You know, the list of “Bests” and “Worsts;” lists of things we will all remember, and what we should try to forget; lists of famous people who have died; trends that were in and are now out; best and worst movies; and on and on.
Most of us like lists and a recent NPR story explains why. Lists bring order to chaos, they relieve stress and focus the mind, and they can help make you famous, a la noted list makers such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Martha Stewart.
This year I have put together my own little list of buzzwords, catchphrases and overused sayings that I think need to be retired. Forever. I admit I think its pretty interesting when whole new sayings are created and they suddenly become a new norm in society. At first it feels cool to use new phrases that are emerging. But soon, everyone is getting “thrown under the bus,” “going green,” and picking the “low hanging fruit.” It just starts to sound, well, annoying, like the equivalent of fingernails scraping across a blackboard. Reeeeek!
So here in no particular order, are 20 words/phrases/sayings that could disappear and I’d be perfectly fine with that:
- Organic, organically, as in: “We’ll just have to let things develop organically.” “We’re implementing organic growth strategies.”
- Low hanging fruit: “Our company doesn’t have a huge marketing budget so we are going after the low-hanging fruit.” “He can’t get dates with the popular girls so he goes after the low-hanging fruit.”
- Synergy, as in: “Our team has great synergy.” “We work together synergistically.”
- Bandwidth, as in: “I don’t have the bandwidth to take that on right now.”
- Throw under the bus: “His company really threw him under the bus when they fired him.”
- Implement – why not just use words like “do, carry out, conduct, etc…”
- Using the word “utilize” instead of use.
- Green – hate to admit it but I am totally “Greened-out” on everything that has supposedly gone green.
- Using “individual” instead of person – “She is a very nice individual.” Ugh!
- “Thanks for the follow” as in: “Glad we connected on Twitter. Thanks for the follow.”
- No-brainer: “Can you take on this project? It’s a no-brainer.” (um, thanks for your confidence in me).
- Drink the Koolaid, as in: “He’s really drinking the corporate Koolaid at his new job.”
- FAIL, or Epic FAIL, as in: “I couldn’t find a parking space. FAIL.” “I didn’t stick to my diet. EPIC FAIL.”
- Proactive: “We’re going to deal with this crisis proactively.”
- Nuculer – instead of nuclear.
- “Thinking outside of the box” – totally overused.
- Peeps: “I’m going to meet my peeps for a drink.”
- Drill down: “Bob and I are really going to drill down on that project.”
- Tweeps, tweeple, twitosphere, etc – any cute “Twitter” word that has been created. Mashable has a good list, if you care.
- Incetivize, monetize – are these even real words?
Got any others? I’d love to hear them. Thanks for visiting Murphy Writes.
Thank Marylee for your comments! I found it funny how you describe the word “incent” as “verbing” the noun, but even the word “verbing” is a verbification of a noun. I would not want to have to learn the English language from scratch!
I was reading “The Key to Great Writing” and was called out (another bad catch phrase?) on a word I began using in the late 80’s – “incent.” I verbed the noun. But it made sense to me at the time. As the Incentive Manager for a bank, I was constantly looking for synonyms for changing behavior through incentives. The majority of the people who heard the word accepted it as legitimate. However, one in twenty told me it wasn’t a word. That didn’t stop me from using it though, and eventually others in the Compensation field were saying “incent” as well.
Love your blog, Patti.
Marylee