Resolve to use these words less in 2023

... the annual list of overused, abused and plain stupid words published by Lake Superior State University.”

Each January, two lists are issued for word nerds. The first is the annual list of overused, abused and plain stupid words published by Lake Superior State University. Called “banished words,” the list was started by master publicist W. T. Rabe in 1976 as a way to garner attention to the tiny Upper Peninsula school. 

At the top of this year’s list, which includes several words culled from previous years, is the acronym “GOAT,” which stands for “greatest of all time.” Nominees said the acronym should be banned for “overuse, misuse and uselessness.” One nominee said, “It is applied to everyone and everything from athletes to chicken wings.” 

“Inflection point” was named as this year’s version of “pivot,” which was on the 2021 list — wouldn’t it make more sense to use “turning point” instead? “Quiet quitting” is another banned phrase that seemed to grow out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees came back to work not fully committed. It used to be called “checking out” or being “burned out.”

Lake Superior State wants the term “gaslighting” thrown in the trash bin. It’s been tossed around for several years now, especially by TV talking heads, but it’s a throwaway word meant to end intelligent discussion. We have enough trauma in the world without inflicting further insult by using “gaslighting” in our conversations; when folks say it, ask them to be more specific.

“Amazing” is another word we could use less. It seems to have grown in popularity on social media, but let’s face it: what does it really mean? I guess “amazing” would be discovering an alien in the closet.

My favorite banished word is “irregardless,” which, in all regards, is not a word. (Dictionaries disagree.)

Nothing is absolute, so you’ll find the word “absolutely” on the list this year. Why use it when “yes” is easier to understand and type?

Finally, closing out this year’s list is “it is what it is.” It might sound like a quote from one of Shakespeare’s dramas, but it’s a lazy phrase, and anyone who uses it deserves some produce in their face (an Elizabethan way of showing displeasure). 

Rabe, an avid Sherlock Holmes fan, would have loved another list issued annually: books entering the public domain under federal copyright law. On this year’s list is Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes” — the last Holmes book to enter the public domain. That means there will no longer be any valid legal claims against authors writing their own Holmes novel, and producers can adapt Holmes books for movies or create delightful spinoffs.

In addition to Doyle’s book, tomes of all stripes appear on this year’s list, including Ernest Hemingway’s “Men Without Women,” Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” Thornton Wilder’s “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” William Faulkner’s “Mosquitoes,” Agatha Christie’s “The Big Four” and Edith Wharton’s “Twilight Sleep.” There are also books in their original languages: Franz Kafka’s “America,” Marcel Proust’s “Le Temps” and Hermann Hesse’s “Der Steppenwolf.” One other book going into the public domain is Franklin W. Dixon’s “The Tower Treasure,” the first in “The Hardy Boys” series. 

Copyright law, which is noted for its “in the weeds” technical language, requires books and other creative works, such as movies, to enter the public domain after 95 years. At one time, the running calendar was 28 years, but a 1998 change in the law, known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, extended the protection. It is also known as the “Mickey Mouse” law, since it protected Mickey Mouse’s first appearance in “Steamboat Willie.” Copyright protection for the “Steamboat” appearance will end next year. 

I’m sure if Rabe was still alive, he would be plumbing this list for public relations opportunities. After all, he did dream up the SOB, or Stamp Out the Beatles, campaign in 1964. The inscription on his gravestone on Mackinac Island says it all: “Life is a grave matter.”