Banned Words and Phrases 2025

This is a very belated posting of my 2025 list. 

It’s time for the banned words and phrases for 2025. The popular list from Lake Superior State University is out. For the first time in years, there are no overlaps between our annual lists. So here comes mine.

 

Word Salad

Word Salad is one of my favorite entries this year. We hear it in the media all the time. A true word salad makes no sense to anyone, including the speaker. We take it to mean that he has spewed out a verbal potpourri. Maybe he thinks we won’t pay attention to something simple and direct, but we’re not likely to digest a word salad either. Best to just scrape it down the garbage disposal.

 

Bingo Card

Bingo Card is my other favorite entry. I may be the only one who has it on a 2025 banned list. My entry was inspired by its use by a lot of media personalities, especially during the election. The most common usage? When contenders perform beyond expectations, the speaker says, “I didn’t have THAT on my Bingo Card!” It also works when couples like Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck announce they’re getting a divorce.

 

Pale Pastels

As in previous years, some entries have political connections. Pale Pastels is one of these.  This appears on my banned list because Ron DeSantis used it to insult Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. Haley was wearing a pale suit. Unless the intent is to insult, just say “tint.” That’s all a pale pastel really is.

 

Nasty

Staying in the political arena, I’m banning Trump’s favorite word for women who disagree with him. He should bring a thesaurus when he moves back into the Oval Office because he won’t be allowed to use “nasty” any longer. This ban will probably get me labeled nasty. I can live with that.

 

Some People Say

Another favorite Trump phrase that we’ll likely hear more of is “some people say” (or “people are saying”). This is how Trump makes outrageous claims. He simply tells us he’s quoting some unspecified other person. As with “nasty,” I’m banning this phrase. Some people will say that makes me doubly nasty.

 

Misinformation

 “Some people say” is a good lead in to the next entry: misinformation (or disinformation). It was submitted by my friend Wendy and it accurately describes a lot of what is presented as what people have said (usually without attribution). Broadcasting misinformation is a bad habit of politicians on both sides of the aisle.

 

Coconut Tree

This entry began with Kamala Harris (or more precisely, her mother). Kamala and her sister did not fall out of a coconut tree, but the graphic image had legs. It’s sprouting up all over. It was fun when it started, but enough already. I’m banning it unless it’s part of a botany course.

 

My last three entries are examples of popular aphorisms.

 

Hope Springs Eternal

I should probably consider Hope Springs Eternal to be a political entry. I found myself saying it a lot during the presidential election when nothing seemed certain about the outcomes. But I think the phrase during a lot of non-political situations, too. Maybe if I ban it this year, I can purge my brain of the notion of hope except when it relates to health, where hope always springs eternal.

 

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

This phrase makes me cringe. It reminds me of an event I attended decades ago for company executives. I’d had too much to drink and started describing my latest systems project to the CEO. I was developing the support systems for his “pet” venture. Most of us knew it was doomed, but I told him—you guessed it—it was an idea whose time had come. I’d forgotten about this until the phrase became the tag line in a commercial for The Farmer's Dog fresh dog food. It’s a long way from a Fortune 500 CEO’s “pet” venture to fresh dog food.

 

God Willing

This aphorism is the last banned phrase for 2025. God willing has so many reasons to be banned. The corollary of “God willing” is that God wasn’t willing. Let’s not lay the blame on God for everything that’s gone wrong. A substantial percentage of folks either call their guiding entity something other than “God” or don’t believe in a higher power at all. Then there’s my former roommate from Kentucky who used to say “God willing and the cricks don’t rise.” Cricks or no cricks, let’s ban “God willing” altogether.

 

This completes our 2025 banned words and phrases list. Keep in mind that it’s never too soon to start collecting ideas for 2026!

 

Copyright 2025 Business Theatre Unlimited

Banned Words and Phrases 2021

 

This is my tenth foray into preparing my own list of words and phrases to be banned in the coming year. The fact that many of my previously banned entries are still in popular use has not dissuaded me from giving you ten new ones for 2021.

 

Every banned words list this year that has a shred of editorial gravitas should include “woke,” even though people seldom agree on what it means. If you’re woke, you supposedly pay attention to social and racial justice issues. As with anything controversial, the meanings of these aspects of justice change depending on your politics. During the 2020 election, pundits on both the far left and the far right hijacked woke for their own purposes. In 2021, wake up, folks, and stop woking!

 

I’m thrilled to toss into my lexiconic dumpster the catch phrase “tick tock,” the lazy man’s way of saying “the clock is running.” After years of popping up in TV programs, it’s wormed its way into media interviews. Newsflash. The clock is always running. Say what you mean: “We’re running out of time,” because—tick tock—time has run out for using that phrase.

 

I’m weary of people defending their prognostications and far out opinions by saying “I have a hunch.” As far as I’m concerned, you might as well just say “I have an itch.” Scratch it in private; don’t share it with us. Especially if you have no medical expertise and are publicizing your hunches about what to do during a pandemic.

 

My next three entries come courtesy of Senator Amy Klobuchar.

The question Who does that? started with Klobuchar and has been picked up by other politicians. We know “who does that,” because you just quoted their objectionable behavior.  If you mean no reasonable or sentient being would do that, say so.

 

Senator Klobuchar popularized the now banned word “receipts” to assure would-be voters she’d accomplished things she claimed to be capable of. “I have the receipts!” became the battle cry of many candidates who felt their CV wasn’t convincing enough on its own. It reached such a frenzy that I expected one of them to actually hold up a fistful of papers. As it turned out, that gesture was co-opted by a certain press secretary, brandishing a handful of affidavits to prove election fraud.

 

“I see you” is often heard from a politician trying to convince an audience that she’s “woke” when it comes to their concerns. According to the NY Times, actress Jane Alexander refused to use that phrase in the play Grand Horizons that opened in early 2020. Of course you see us if we’re in front of you. And don’t try to get around this ban by substituting “I hear you,” because I don’t feel you on this one.

 

Dog whistles employ coded language to get a target group to support a certain position while avoiding negative attention and without riling up the opposition. The whistles sound normal to most of us, but they communicate something else to the intended audience. “Defend family values” is a good example. Reverse dog whistles convey something that is not true, but evokes a knee-jerk reaction to a particular phrase or label. Used out of context, “defeat socialism” is one of these. Let’s put a plug in either type of dog whistling.

 

The phrase “circular firing squad” refers to people engaged in internal conflicts and mutual recriminations that are self-defeating. It must have been invented to describe Democratic primaries and I’d like to retire it once and for all. The only thing more self-destructive would be eating their young, which QAnon actually claims that they do.

 

Let’s stop using the truism “It is what it is.” Does anyone really think something isn’t what it is? True, something might not be as it appears. But if that’s what’s you mean, better to say so. I don’t expect total compliance on this, because well, whatever will be will be.

 

I can’t believe it has taken this long for me to jettison CNN’s famous catch phrase “Breaking News.” When all of your news is breaking and you repeat it all day long, pretty soon none of it is breaking. It’s like seeing “sale price” on a grocery shelf for months on end. CNN, if it ain’t breakin’, don’t “Break” it.

 

As a breast cancer survivor, I’ve been using the phrase “not my first rodeo” since my recent diagnosis with lung cancer. I’m determined to put this in my rear view in 2021, so I don’t plan to need the rodeo phrase much longer. Giving it up now is a small price to pay if Tom Selleck stops saying it in those reverse mortgage ads that carpet bomb the TV. A girl can dream, can’t she?

 

That’s my list for 2021. I trust I can count on all of you to comply.

 

 

Copyright 2021 Business Theatre Unlimited

Banned Words and Phrases 2020

Apologies to those who have been awaiting my annual list of banned words and phrases. An end-of-year crisis with the water in our house put me off my game. The winter concert for the community band I’m in consumed the first week of January. I’ve come up for air, but only just realized that I’m well past my due date for this post. As with the lists for 2018 and 2019, many of my 2020 entries come from the political arena and the media, which these days are pretty much synonymous sources.

My first and most obvious choice to ban is ‘quid pro quo’. There’s no way to deny the need to get rid of this phrase. Since I’m late with my list this year, I’m aware that Lake Superior State University has already claimed this as the single most suggested word/phrase to ban in 2020. Good on them.

I’m compelled to revisit (but not count for 2020) several words that were previously banned but are like those burs that stick to your clothes and you can’t get rid of them. We still have the ubiquitous ‘fake news’ and ‘collusion’ that I banned in 2018, and ‘witch hunt’ that I banned in 2019. This year, let’s pull the plug on another of 45’s favorites: ‘hoax.’ Like the other three, it’s been used so fraudulently that it no longer has any meaning. I want to give them all a mass interment.

Let’s face it. As long as 45 is in office, no list of my banned words and phrases is complete without a few hopeless entries. Here’s another one on my ‘wishful thinking’ sub-list. No more ‘temper tantrums.’ You can’t talk about them and our national toddler-in-chief can’t have them. I know. Good luck with that.

Here’s one without any political influence. I’m done with ‘Period. Full stop.’ This is a classic example of redundancy. Use one or the other. Make a decision. Period. End of story. Or end of paragraph anyway.

I’m begging Madison Avenue to find alternative ways to talk about issues ‘down there’. Stop tormenting us with Cottonelle’s “Down There Care.” Eeeuw! But it’s not just toilet paper commercials that use that. There are many other ads with this phrase, touting everything from better hygiene and manscaping to sexual performance issues. (I can just imagine the ads I’ll be seeing after researching this phrase.)

The expression ‘Excuse Me’ is a passive-aggressive response when used by someone who has been interrupted, especially during an interview. It means: “I’m asking you to excuse me when what I really want to communicate is that I have no intention of excusing you for interrupting me.” Oh, snap! (By the way, I love ‘snap!’ so don’t expect me to ban that anytime soon.) But fie on ‘excuse me.’

Here are two phrases that are over-used by candidates in the Democratic primary. I’m done with ‘The fact of the matter is…’ Sorry, Joe Biden. Find another way to bridge the temporal gap between your brain process and your mouth delivery. I’m also so over Elizabeth Warren’s ‘A Plan for That.’ It seems like she’s cut back on this recently, so maybe she’ll be cool with giving it up altogether. Unfortunately, in the final debate before the Iowa caucuses, Amy Klobochar picked up Elizabeth’s pet phrase. Pundits called her out on it, so let’s hope it was a one-off. (Ditto for 45’s term in office.)

As a fan of The View and Saturday Night Live, I should feel bad about my next entry on this year’s banned list. Thank you, Joy Behar, for providing ‘Who cares?’ and the variation ‘So what?’ I’m also including ‘Says who?’ which is close enough to join the other two in a single entry. SNL actors will have to find other ways to parody Joy, because I care. Anyone who worries about the state of the environment and any number of other important issues should also care.

Finally, I’m outlawing my personal bugaboo: ‘Chillax.’ Have you ever heard someone say: “I’m going to chillax today”? Of course not. This ‘chill’ and ‘relax’ hybrid is never used in the first person. It’s always directed at someone else. Especially someone openly decrying what’s happening to our world, our earth, our almost everything. When I’m told to chillax, I just get more riled up than I was to start with. No matter how well-meaning you might be, telling someone to chillax never deescalates the situation. Even though you'll want to use it a lot this year, just strike it from your verbal tool kit.

There you have it—this year’s list of ten deplorables. I trust it was worth the wait.

Copyright 2020 Business Theatre Unlimited

Banned Words and Phrases 2019

It’s time once again for my annual list of banned words and phrases. As per the past two years, politics, media and pundits have inspired most of them. Jumping right in…

Let’s start with ‘lock (anybody) up.’ I couldn’t believe I hadn’t banned this yet. I read through my four most recent lists and it’s not on any of them. I should be locked up for allowing this go on for so long, but I’m making amends by putting it in the number one spot on my 2019 list.

Let’s also prohibit ‘impeach’ and ‘impeachment’. I realize it’s tempting to fling those around as the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives. I’m in the camp of those who feel the mention of the “I” word is counter-productive. No matter how odious the language and behavior of our 45^th president have been, for now it’s a long way from likely grounds for impeachment. When the investigation dust has settled (including whatever the new House decides to look into), we can revisit this topic. For now, it just energizes voters who wouldn’t care if 45 shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue.

In a similar vain—I mean vein (Freudian slip), I have ‘narcissist’ and ‘narcissism’ on this year’s list. No matter how appropriate those words may seem, we must all refrain from using them. Those labels are reserved for licensed psychiatrists and psychotherapists, and only the ones who are professionally treating the person to whom the labels are being affixed. Considering the medical professionals recently in 45’s orbit, I don’t expect that diagnosis to come any time soon.

The previous two banned items protect our leader-in-chief. The next five have been provided by him. You’ll notice that although I’m banning ‘impeach’ and ‘impeachment,’ I haven’t prohibited the use of ‘investigation.’ We’d barely be able to have a conversation in 2019 without access to that word. I am, however, banning two ways that 45 describes the various forays into his potential wrongdoings.

The first of these, words that I’m delighted to put on the lexicographic ash heap, is ‘witch hunt.’ I have no idea how 45 is going to survive the rest of his first term without this phrase, but I’m eager to find out.

A related expression being tossed overboard is ‘fishing expedition’.  Some of those investigating 45 may indeed be on such an expedition. But experienced fishermen are careful to spend their time in waters that are well stocked with big ones.

I’m also putting the kibosh firmly on ‘rogue’ in 2019. No longer will you-know-who be able to refer to Robert Mueller as a ‘rogue prosecutor’. He likewise will have to find another way to describe the Saudis who murdered Jamal Khashoggi. They cannot be described as ‘rogue operators’. Perhaps MBS can provide alternative descriptions; 45 should have Jared find out.

Next I’m taking away ‘we'll see what happens’ and the closely related ‘wait and see.’ To see, or not to see… That is the question. We know from two years of experience that once these words have been uttered, we will almost definitely NOT see what happens; we will instead wait forever to see.

Another phrase favored by 45 that I’m refusing to allow is ‘maybe he did; maybe he didn't.’ On its face, this provides no useful information. It’s definitional when it refers to anyone’s behavior. It puts me in mind of a joke that went around in college. What did the masochist and the sadist say to each other? Masochist: Beat me! Beat me! Sadist: Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t. We can be quite certain that we’ll never find out from 45 whether anyone did or didn’t. It will take investigative powers to tell us that.

I’m also saying goodbye to the latest segue of choice favored by the media or those being interviewed, specifically ‘having said that.’ If we’ve been paying attention, we’ll know he just said that. If we’ve been doing a Sudoku and listening with one ear, we’ll wonder: having said what? and we’ll expect whatever comes next to put the lie to what came before.

The only non-political and non-media-related phrase on this year’s list is ‘no problem’. This seems to be the new catchphrase for young soon-to-be couples on Hallmark romcoms. That means people on the street will be saying it soon, too. Maybe this is just an age thing, but ‘no problem’ sounds phony to me. A real man would say: “Happy to help.” And a woman would say: “Is there anything else I can do?” And they’d each be thinking: “I’d love to do that for someone as (fill in the blank) as you.”

That’s this year’s list. If you find it entertaining, be assured that I’m happy to do that for someone as (fill in the blank) as you.

Copyright 2019 Business Theatre Unlimited

Banned Words and Phrases for 2017

January is the publication month for annual lists of banned words and phrases. As with last year, I collected ones that were annoying me throughout 2016. If my 2017 list is like my previous compilations, several of my choices will appear on other popular round ups. Also predictable: most of my entries were inspired by the 2016 Presidential election. Since they’re election-driven, we’ll need to keep the ban in effect through at least 2018. I can’t bear to think farther into the future than that.

Let’s start with a phrase that’s not political, since there are plenty of those further down. I am so over hearing “I mean,” especially on television. “I mean” seems to have replaced the simpler “so” as the filler noise in an interview. Filler words are even more annoying than filler sounds like “er” and “um.” Fie on them all.

So much verbiage assaulted us during the election that I can’t remember what prompted me to include ‘Siren Call’ on this year’s list. Back in February, 2016, RealClearPolitics.com ran the headline: “Millennials Heed the Siren Call of Socialism.” It was referring to Bernie Sanders’ candidacy. But it might also have been a polite way to say that Donald Trump’s rhetoric was a dog whistle to White Supremacists. Whatever my motivation, ‘siren call’ is out, but you can keep ‘dog whistle’. For now.

Staying on Trump (do we have a choice?), say goodbye to ‘Pivot’. Our President-elect changed his positions so frequently and so quickly that he should have been put in a tutu and mounted on a music box. He defended this by saying, “It’s not change; it’s negotiation.” Fine. You can keep ‘change’ and ‘negotiation.’ But any reporter who talks about someone’s pivot will land on my growing list of no-longer-news-sources. Not even for ideas for my blog posts.

As a logical extension: Say so long to ‘By the Way,’ especially when it’s used as a pivot (appearing in its swan song here) in answering a question from the press. The Donald was a master at using that phrase to redirect attention away from the question at hand and to meander down some totally unrelated path. We shall keep the extremely useful non sequitur, by the way.

Another Trump favorite that often accompanied ‘by the way’ in a pronouncement was ‘Believe Me.’ Not unlike the expression: “With all due respect…” (when you know no respect will be shown), “believe me” is a red flag that we probably shouldn’t believe him. So, I’m banning it, but don’t be foolish enough to believe me if I say Mr. T will abide by this.

This next phrase is one that actually might get sucked into a dark hole now that I’ve banned it. I don’t think the President-elect will have much need for ‘People Are Saying’ once he’s inaugurated. He’ll be too focused on what he’s saying. So I’m banning his previous go-to expression in favor of a new one: ‘You don’t say?’

Here is yet another banned word provided thanks to Trump: ‘Rigged.’ Now that he’s won the election, he really has no further use for this. Unless it’s put in the negative, as in “The 2016 Presidential election definitely was not rigged by Putin.” Either way, it makes the hair stand up on my nape, so it’s de rigueur to avoid it.

Next is a phrase that more than one Republican tossed about during the primary like a live hand grenade: ‘Carpet Bomb.’ We can thank Ted Cruz for motivating me to ban it this year. It’s not that ‘carpet bomb’ is a bad phrase per se. It’s just that it was woefully misused. Kind of like ‘per se’…

Similarly, commentators on both sides of the political divide droned on about the ‘Ground Game,’ which was also proven to be misunderstood. Ground games that were assumed to be solid turned out not to be based on terra firma. And the one that seemed murkiest yielded concrete results. We’ve sent the pundits back to the drawing board on this. They’re sequestered with the pollsters until midterm elections.

My final entry is a trio of ‘-ibles’ and ‘-ables’. As in ‘Horrible’, ‘Terrible’ (and in a nod to equal censure) ‘Deplorable’. They were all overexposed during the campaign, so they no longer carry any weight. It’s lamentable, but at least I’m keeping ‘basket’ so I have something to hide my creative light under.

One word that is conspicuously missing from this list is ‘bigly.’ The fact that Trump is trying to convince everyone that he was really saying ‘big league’ is so preposterous (and entertaining) that I couldn’t bring myself to ban either biggie. I suppose we could at least give him a hand for trying. A bigly hand…

Banned Words and Phrases for 2016

January heralds the publication of annual lists of banned words and phrases. I began collecting candidates for this, my fifth compilation, early last year. Several of my selections usually show up on more widely circulated lists. Even though 2015 was like no other year, I’m sure there will be some consensus entries. Take for instance, my first one.

No matter what your political inclinations, you must be tired of hearing the word ‘Trumpism.’ I’m also tired of hearing the actual Trumpisms, but that’s a whole other issue. If The Donald is elected President in November, you can expect several Trumpisms to appear on my 2017 list. Until then, let’s just jettison the word itself.

We have The Donald to thank for my second banned term as well. Please spare me the verb ‘cherish,’ especially if you’re talking about women. This word has a noble history, but it’s become tarnished by the way it’s been used in the 2015 political season. If you’ve named one of your offspring ‘Cherish,’ feel free to continue to use it when referring to her. Unless her last name is Trump. Or your name is Donald. In which case, please refer to her as Cher.

Next is one I can’t believe I haven’t banned sooner: ‘whatever.’ I was so sure this would be a repeat that I read all my previous lists twice. Note that ‘whatever’ is off-limits only when the word stands alone as a dismissive comment on something someone else has said. If it’s part of an expression, you can continue to use it. Unless that phrase is “Whatever you say” or “Whatever you want.” Those would be a coward’s way of getting around my restriction and are likewise taboo.

A related phrase is: ‘It’s all good.’ I can’t recall what brought this to my attention, but as soon as I heard it, I knew it was joining my collection. Where ‘whatever’ implies you don’t give a fig about what was just said, ‘It’s all good’ tells us you have virtually no power of discrimination about the world around you. Whatever.

Here’s another that I’ve finally had enough of and had to check to be sure it wasn’t a repeat: ‘surreal.’ Just listen for a few minutes to some interviews with celebrities who are under age fifty and you’ll get why I’ve tossed this one. Like ‘cherish,’ ‘surreal’ has a noble history, especially in early 20^th century art, but it’s still ta-ta (not to be confused with dada). Though we can’t blame Trump for ruining this word, we can’t refer to his campaign as ‘surreal’ anymore. Not to worry. We still have ‘bizarre.’

My next entry has several meanings, and I’m banning all of them. I think of ‘hack’ first as a verb, as in the breaching of technology—credit cards stolen, identities compromised. Then I think of someone who is inept at his job (perhaps because he allowed a breach?) Apparently “hack” now has a common misuse as a noun, meaning a tip or short-cut for doing something more easily. Anyway you slice it, it’s a word we can live without.

We can thank Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin for getting ‘conscious uncoupling’ kicked out this year, though they uncoupled last year, at least consciously. The phrase made my 2016 list because psychotherapists and marriage counselors around the globe have decided this is a great concept to peddle in their practices. It also begs the question: what is unconscious uncoupling?

The rock star of Roman Catholicism, Pope Francis, provided the banned phrase: ‘simplistic reductionism.’ Microsoft Word helps us convert this to “simpleminded over-simplification.” While I applaud the idea of reducing the complexities of life, the Pope’s expression concerns me. To be fair, His Holiness was cautioning against holding to extremes of good and evil, but folks have a way of, well… over-simplifying. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: “Everything in moderation. Including reductionism.”

One of the Democratic debates put the next phrase on my list. A soldier’s mother tweeted: “My son is not a pair of  ‘boots on the ground’.” She pleaded for the candidates to stop saying that. Regardless of your politics, I hope you’ll agree to substitute “troops” in 2016. It would be better if there were no need to even consider employing troops, but that would drag us into the just-banned simplistic reductionism.

The Donald also inspired the final entry. I’m tired of hearing political pundits write that he ‘sucks the oxygen out of the room,’ but it’s certainly entertaining to watch him suck. I don’t know what we’ll do after the November election, but the lead up should provide plenty of colorful alternatives for my 2017 list. In the meantime, this completes my 2016 one.

Banned Words and Phrases for 2015

January is the time for satirists to publish their annual lists of banned words. It’s my fourth year providing this service, and my 2015 list also includes phrases. As in past years, some words on my list turned up in other collections, too.

In 2015, I’m saying sayonara to Bucket, as in Bucket List and Ice Bucket Challenge. I’ve often bemoaned the fact that I don’t have a bucket list, but I still haven’t taken the time to make one. This year will likely be no different, so I’d rather just avoid that phrase altogether. Lists are still OK (I’d die without them); just not bucket ones.

As for the Ice Bucket Challenge, fundraisers will need to come up with something new this year. I’m cutting off the Gatorade Bucket Challenge at the pass. Ditto for any bucket challenge, for that matter. If you want to force your friends and relatives to part with their hard earned cash, how about a Tar and Feathers Challenge?

The second B-word banned in 2015 is Booty. It pains me to split with this delightfully evocative noun. Unfortunately others have overused it to the point where I need to leave it behind me. And put it in everyone else’s rearview mirror, too. Don’t worry, though; you can still talk about butts. And bums. Just not booties. Bummer.

Now that midyear elections are over, I’m done hearing Deep Dive, as in: deep dive into voting results. You can thank Florida Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for this. In the marketing department at Colgate Palmolive we often said: “Figures don’t lie; liars figure.” Wasserman Schultz took it a step further by diving so deep into the data behind the 2014 election that she concluded the Democrats actually prevailed. Go figure.

Another political term we can do without in 2015 is Optics. Buzzword tells us this is “the way a situation looks to the general public.” But it’s really the way politicians want the public to see it. This is ironic, since the dictionary meaning of optics has to do with light and vision, while the political one has to do with obfuscation.

One of my pet peeves is the use of the word So to start a sentence. Virtually everyone does it. Since almost no one seems to understand the correct use of that word, I’ve decided to just ban it. So there. Similar to this is the gratuitous use of Sure as a prelim to the reply to a question, but I’m not counting that as one of my ten this year. Just sayin’.

There are two phrases I’d like to ban by eliminating the need to use them. The first is Abundance of Caution. This landed on my list because of some top news stories of 2014. The fear of homegrown terrorist attacks inspired by Isis led to many over-zealous reactions, including flight delays, bridge closings and social media sites scrubbed. Then there was the debacle surrounding Sony’s motion picture “The Interview.” These reactions pale in comparison to steps taken in response to the Ebola scare in the US.

Mayor Brad Sellers of Warrensville Heights, OH closed City Hall because the husband of a city employee was on a flight with a health worker who later tested positive for Ebola. Sellers put the city workers on leave while the building was thoroughly cleaned by an outside company. Remember Chicken Little?

Directly related to the previous ban is the one on Inadvertent Breach of Protocol. Ebola burned this so deeply into the news that I grind my teeth whenever I hear the phrase. I’d flinch at a deliberate breach, too, but you never hear that.

Also on my not again radar is EITs. If someone is compelled to tell us anything more about Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, have him replace that acronym with the word "torture" or with the name of the actual technique (water boarding, sleep deprivation, etc.) Better yet, just stop using those methods.

I’m also tired of Proportional. In mathematics, we understand that has to do with ratios. But when we’re talking retaliation to another entity’s actions, people rarely know what it means. In press conferences we take proportional to mean the speaker doesn’t know yet what the plans are, or he doesn’t want to share them. When someone says they’re going to respond “in kind,” we assume it will be a tit for tat. But proportional? Who can say? Because everything’s relative after all.

Finally, can we please deep six the word Vortex (as in Polar) this year? I don’t know what alternatives weathermen have, but they’ll need to come up with something. Every time I hear vortex, my head spins. I have enough issues with balance at my age without external provocation.

So be it for 2015.

Banned Words for 2014 from Retirement Sparks

January is the time for the annual lists of banned words and phrases. This marks the third year that I’ve been publishing my own compendium. I put my list together in mid-November, and it turns out my first three entries also top the annual list just released by Michigan’s Lake Superior State University. Their order is different, but we agree on the three words we’d most like to hear less (or none) of in 2014.

Number one on my list may surprise you. I don’t want to hear ‘hashtag’ anymore. I’m content to have people use hashtags. I don’t even mind seeing the # symbol. I’m just weary of hearing the word. We’ll need something to replace it when we speak, so I’ve created a substitute. Since the hashtag has historically been referred to as the number sign, let’s call it the NuSi. It should take a few years before that gets annoying enough to show up in my annual post.

 ‘Selfie’ is next. Oxford Dictionaries declared it the 2013 “Word of the Year” because of its meteoric rise in use, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it. I’d be happy if we not only stopped using it, but we also stopped taking them. I know: not gonna happen, but a girl can dream. And BTW, my list was created before the Pope and Obama posed for their infamous year-end selfies.

Close behind, and no surprise, are ‘twerk’ and ‘twerking.’ (These count as one entry, for those who are keeping track.) As with selfie, my hope is that people not only stop saying this, they also stop doing it. I have only a slightly better chance of that happening than I do seeing an end to the photo behavior. With twerking, some equally repulsive move could replace it in 2014. (Remember: ‘Gangnam Style’ was on last year’s list.)

Can we also do without ‘bromance’? It may be popular in some circles, but I never hear anyone singing: “A fine bromance, with no kisses; A fine bromance, my friend, this is.” That's likely due to the unstated understanding that a bromance would never involve kisses. Frankly, I’m not sure what it involves or doesn’t involve, other than being annoying. A guy can appreciate the qualities and appeal of another guy without needing to slap a label on what he thinks or feels. Oorah!

In the interest of equal time for the opposite sex, let’s also do away with ‘bestie,’ the latest patois for ‘best friend.’ It alternates with BFF (Best Friends Forever), but BFF doesn’t make that nails-on-the-blackboard sound that bestie does. Besides, bestie originated as slang from the Brits. Not an export they’re likely proud of. It’s probably barely ahead of Marmite and haggis.

Moving on to politically-based candidates (words and phrases, that is), ‘Tea Party’ (the label, not the political perspective) has no place in Congress. I’m fine with ‘conservative’ and ‘libertarian,’ but ‘Tea Party’ has become far too polarizing. Let the Mad Hatters fend for themselves as individuals who hold strong beliefs, or as members of more traditional coalitions. But fie on letting them find shelter using the Tea Party label. It’s become an anathema even to most Republicans.

As we say goodbye to Tea Party, let’s also say ta-ta to ‘brinksmanship.’ Use it, and I’ll tune out before the third syllable rolls off your tongue. I’m tossing it onto the lexicographic dust heap, along with ‘hostage.’ These words (and concepts) have no place in Congress. If we have to ban them to get our elected officials to stop engaging in this behavior and to have the Media stop celebrating it, so be it.

I’m also so over ‘fumble,’ as in ‘fumble the rollout’ or ‘fumble the ball.’ What happened with the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) was so beyond a fumble that we need to call it something else. How about a disaster?

Speaking of disasters, I’d really like to not hear ‘natural disaster’ anymore. Note to God: please don’t send us any in 2014, so we won’t need to use this phrase. That’s probably too much to expect. I have no suggestions for what else to call these when they happen, but I wanted to include this phrase on principle and in a spirit of optimism.

Okay, let’s not count ‘natural disaster’ among my ten. That means I need one more. Let’s give up the phrase ‘turn the page.’ That’s pretty much what a lot of politicians are hoping we’ll do in 2014, but let’s not memorialize it in words. As Nike says, let’s “just do it.”

Those are my ten candidates that should not be uttered in mixed company in 2014. By mixed company, I mean by anyone else when I’m in the room.