Sunday, January 04, 2009

Out of Style Words


Our minister of music asked me to sing in church tomorrow (today), and I decided (since the song is rather slow) to sign as I sing--that's sign language, BTW.  Anyway, I'm fortunate in that the words are easy and I already knew most of the signs, but I'll probably walk around humming and flying my fingers for the next few hours.  :-) 

On to the subject of the day: 

Michigan's Lake Superior State University compiles a yearly list of words that have been over-used . . . probably with the hope that we will avoid them in the coming year and restore them to ordinary status.  So these are the words and phrases that were overused, misused, or useless in 2008.  Use them at your own risk in 2009: 

green
carbon footprint or carbon offsetting
maverick
first dude
bailout
staycation
monkey (because of it's use as a suffix on the Internet, a la grease-monkey.) 
winner of five nominations (ha!) 
Wall Street/Main Street
not so much
game-changer
icon or iconic
it's that time of year again
desperate search 
and finally, the emoticon <3>

Enjoy! 

~~Angie

8 comments:

SmilingSally said...

How I wish I could hear that song, but I will be listening to my baby boy sing this morning in church.

Mocha with Linda said...

Oh, I'd love to hear you sing. You'll have to post a video sometime. And I LOVE sign language with songs. It's so expressive and adds such beautiful meaning.

I agree that many of those words are way, way too over-used. Although I had never seen the emoticcn <3 for a heart until I saw the list the other day. That's actually kinda cute. Since it's still new to me, of course!

Kay Day said...

Most of those words/phrases I haven't heard at all. Or at least not to the point of overuse. green, carbon footprint, and bailout are the exceptions.

What I do hear too much of is:
random
awkward
but...

Kathy Cassel said...

One of my sons informs me that "green" means "cool" or "awesome." Funny. Here I thought it was a color!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of "green" - permit me to make you all green with envy. I heard her sing this morning.

Angie, please allow me to use these comments to say, "She...sang...bea-u-ti-ful-ly!" Wish you all could have heard her.

Using Kathy's son's definition of green, it was awesome - to hear and to watch.

Angela said...

Thank you, Patti. You're too sweet. :-)

I think the "green" that's been overused is the ecological meaning--as in green shopping bags, green appliances, etc. And I'll second that motion!

I'd never seen the heart emoticon used, either, but am grateful that no one has (yet) blasted the smiley face. Not sure I'd know how to type without it!

Pamela S. Meyers said...

Angie, I didn't know you signed to music. You should've joined me up there at ACFW. I bet it was lovely :-)

Anonymous said...

wish i could have heard your song this morning! i bet it was beautiful, and especially so with the added signing! which song did you sing?
my husband and i often refer to the word/words we hear way too often as "the word(s)of the month!" it seems that once you hear some key words, everyone picks up on them! gets to be kind of funny sometimes.
jan