IT has dominated our lives for nearly a year, but it seems the world is tiring of hearing about Covid-19 as it leads an annual list of recommended words that ought to be banished from common parlance.

 

Covid-19 takes the top spot?

It started all of this early last year and now it is number one on Michigan’s Lake Superior State University annual List of Banished Words, as determined by submissions to the poll. The University said: “A large number of nominators are clearly resentful of the virus and how it has overtaken our vocabulary. No matter how necessary or socially and medically useful these words are, the committee cannot help but wish we could banish them along with the virus itself.”

 

Most of the “banished” words are related to the virus?

Seven of the 10 words and terms that LSSU is banishing for 2021 are connected to the virus - in fact, out of 1,450-plus nominations, upwards of 250 of the words and terms suggested for banishment for overuse, misuse, or uselessness related to the coronavirus.

 

What else do we want to get rid of?

In second place in the top 10 is the phrase "social distancing", with LSSU saying "we'd be lying if we said we weren't ready for this phrase to become 'useless'...Many others clearly feel the same”.

 

“We’re all in this together”?

A phrase likely intended as a way of keeping everyone feeling safe and calm at the start of the pandemic garnered enough votes for third place, with the feeling that we are now all dealing with Covid-19 in different ways and as a result, “its usefulness has faded”.

 

Anything else?

In fourth place is the term “in an abundance of caution”, followed by “in these uncertain times” and “pivot”, with their vagueness put forward as reasons for their need to be “banished”. The list coordinators said: “The committee agrees that Covid-19 has upended everyday life and wishes this weren’t so. But putting things into imprecise context doesn’t help matters.”

 

Unprecedented?

This word was on the banished list back in 2002, but has been among those used extensively in virus coverage, “nominated many times this year for misuse in describing events that do have precedent” so LSSU felt its inclusion was again warranted.

 

What were the words not virus related?

“Karen”, which began as an anti-racist critique and broadened into a "misogynist umbrella term for critiquing the perceived overemotional behaviour of women" is in the seventh spot, followd by "sus" which is a shortened version of "suspicious" used in the video game, Among Us. It is included because "how much effort does it take to say the entire word”?

 

I know, right?

Described as a “relatively new construction to convey empathy with those who have expressed agreement”, “I know, right?” rounds off the 2021 top 10 because “if you know, why do you need to ask if it’s correct or seek further approval”?

 

The banished list captures the zeitgeist?

“It should surprise no one that this year’s list was dominated by words and terms related to COVID-19,” said Peter Szatmary, executive director of LSSU’s marketing and communications. “LSSU’s Banished Words List has reflected signs of the times since debuting in the mid-1970s, and the zeitgeist this year is - ‘We’re all in this together by banishing expressions like ‘We’re all in this together.’ To be sure, COVID-19 is unprecedented in wreaking havoc and destroying lives. But so is the overreliance on ‘unprecedented’ to frame things, so it has to go, too.”

 

The list is decades old?

LSSU has compiled an annual Banished Words List since 1976 to "uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical—and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating". Over the decades, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which now totals more than 1,000 entries. This year, nominations came from most major U.S. cities and many U.S. states, as well as from Australia, the Czech Republic, England, and Canada.