海角社区

We Kid You Not: GOAT Tops Inflection Point, Quiet Quitting, and Gaslighting As Greatest of All Time Words and Terms That 海角社区 Banishes for 2023

Dec 31, 2022

Stop resorting to imprecise, trite, and meaningless words and terms of seeming convenience! You鈥檙e taking the lazy way out and only confusing matters by over-relying on inexact, stale, and inane communication!

Language monitors across the country and around the world decried the decrepitude and futility of basic methods to impart information in their mock-serious entries for 海角社区鈥檚 annual tongue-in-cheek Banished Words List. LSSU announces the results of the yearly compendium on Dec. 31 to start the New Year on the right foot, er, tongue.

The vast majority of the 1,500-plus nominations of words and terms for banishment for misuse, overuse, and uselessness for 2023 reveled and wallowed in the erosion of fundamental expression.

Ranked No. 1 as the best of the worst: GOAT, acronym for Greatest of All Time. The many nominators didn鈥檛 have to be physicists or grammarians to determine the literal impossibility and technical vagueness of this wannabe superlative. Yet it鈥檚 bestowed on everyone from Olympic gold medalists to Jeopardy! champions, as one muckraker playfully deplored. Meanwhile, other naysayers remarked on social media posts that brandish a photo of, for instance, multiple cricket players or soccer stars with a caption about several GOATs in one frame.

鈥淲ords and terms matter. Or at least they should. Especially those that stem from the casual or causal. That鈥檚 what nominators near and far noticed, and our contest judges from the LSSU School of Arts and Letters agreed,鈥� said Peter Szatmary, executive director of marketing and communications at Lake State.

鈥淭hey veritably bleated their disapproval about the attempted nonpareil of GOAT because the supposed designation becomes an actual misnomer. The singularity of 鈥榞reatest of all time鈥� cannot happen, no way, no how. And instead of being selectively administered, it鈥檚 readily conferred. Remember Groucho Marx鈥檚 line about not wanting to join a club that would accept him as member?

鈥淭he nine additional words and terms banished for 2023鈥攆rom new no-nos 鈥榠nflection point鈥� at No. 2 and 鈥榞aslighting鈥� at No. 4 to repeat offenders 鈥榓mazing鈥� at No. 6 and 鈥業t is what it is鈥� at No. 10鈥攁lso fall somewhere on the spectrum between specious and tired. They鈥檙e empty as balderdash or diluted through oversaturation. Be careful鈥攂e more careful鈥攚ith buzzwords and jargon.鈥�

LSSU has compiled an annual Banished Words List since 1976, and later copyrighted the concept, to uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clich茅d, illogical, nonsensical鈥攁nd otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating.

Over the decades, Lake State has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which now totals more than 1,000 entries. Examples of the winners (or should that be losers?) to make the yearly compilation: 鈥渄etente,鈥� 鈥渟urely,鈥� 鈥渃lassic,鈥� 鈥渂romance,鈥� and 鈥淐OVID-19,鈥� plus 鈥渨rap my head around,鈥� 鈥渦ser friendly,鈥� 鈥渁t this point in time,鈥� 鈥渘ot so much,鈥� and 鈥渧iable alternative.鈥� The Banished Words List has become such a cultural phenomenon that comedian George Carlin submitted an entry that made the annals in 1994: 鈥渂addaboom, baddabing.鈥�

This year, nominations came from most major U.S. cities and many U.S. states, plus Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Portugal, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, India, China, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, American Samoa, Malaysia, the British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and throughout Canada.

Here are the list of the banished words and terms for 2023 and the reasons for their banishment:

1. GOAT
The acronym for Greatest of All Time gets the goat of petitioners and judges for overuse, misuse, and uselessness. 鈥淎pplied to everyone and everything from athletes to chicken wings,鈥� an objector declared. 鈥淗ow can anyone or anything be the GOAT, anyway?鈥� Records fall; time continues. Some sprinkle GOAT like table salt on 鈥渁nyone who鈥檚 really good.鈥� Another wordsmith: ironically, 鈥済oat鈥� once suggested something unsuccessful; now, GOAT is an indiscriminate flaunt.

2. Inflection point
Mathematical term that entered everyday parlance and lost its original meaning. This year鈥檚 version of 鈥減ivot,鈥� banished in 2021. 鈥淐hronic throat-clearing from historians, journalists, scientists, or politicians. Its ubiquity has driven me to an inflection point of throwing soft objects about whenever I hear it,鈥� a quipster recounted. 鈥淚nflection point has reached its saturation point and point of departure,鈥� proclaimed another. 鈥淧retentious way to say turning point.鈥� Overuse and misuse.

3. Quiet quitting
Trendy but inaccurate. Not an employee who inconspicuously resigns. Instead, an employee who completes the minimum requirements for a position. Some nominator reasons: 鈥渘ormal job performance,鈥� 鈥渇ancy way of saying 鈥榳ork to rule,鈥欌�� 鈥渘othing more than companies complaining about workers refusing to be exploited,鈥� 鈥渋t鈥檚 not a new phenomenon; it鈥檚 burnout, ennui, boredom, disengagement.鈥� On the precipice for next year鈥檚 Banished Words List as well for ongoing misuse and overuse.

4. Gaslighting
Nominators are not crazy by arguing that overuse disconnects the term from the real concern it has identified in the past: dangerous psychological manipulation that causes victims to distrust their thoughts, feelings, memories, or perception of reality. Others cited misuse: an incorrect catchall to refer generally to conflict or disagreement. It鈥檚 too obscure of a reference to begin with, avowed sundry critics, alluding to the 1938 play and 1940/44 movies.

5. Moving forward
Misuse, overuse, and uselessness. 鈥淲here else would we go?鈥� wondered a sage鈥攕ince we can鈥檛, in fact, travel backward in time. 鈥淢ay also refer to 鈥榞et my way,鈥� as in, 鈥楬ow can we move forward?鈥� Well, guess what? Sometimes you can鈥檛,鈥� another wit stated. Politicians and bosses often wield it for 鈥渟emantic legitimacy鈥� of self-interest, evasion, or disingenuousness. Its next of kin, 鈥済oing forward,鈥� banished in 2001, also received votes.

6. Amazing
鈥淣ot everything is amazing; and when you think about it, very little is,鈥� a dissenter explained. 鈥淭his glorious word should be reserved for that which is dazzling, moving, or awe-inspiring,鈥� to paraphrase another, 鈥渓ike the divine face of a newborn.鈥� Initially banished for misuse, overuse, and uselessness in 2012. Its cyclical return mandates further nixing of the 鈥済eneric,鈥� 鈥渂anal and hollow鈥� modifier鈥攁 鈥渨orn-out adjective from people short on vocabulary.鈥�

7. Does that make sense?
Submitters rejected the desire, perhaps demand, for clarification or affirmation as filler, insecurity, and passive aggression. 鈥淲hy say it, if you must ask? It just doesn鈥檛 make sense!鈥� tsk-tsked one. In this call for reassurance or act of false modesty, enquirers warp respondents into 鈥渃o-conspirators,鈥� deduced another. Needy, scheming, and/or cynical. Let me be clear, judges opined: Always make sense; don鈥檛 think aloud or play games! Misuse, overuse, and uselessness.

8. Irregardless
Sleuth confession: 鈥淚t makes my hair hurt.鈥� As well it should鈥攂ecause it鈥檚 not a word. At most, it鈥檚 a nonstandard word, per some dictionaries. 鈥淩egardless鈥� suffices. Opponents disqualified it as a double negative. One conveyed that the prefix 鈥渋r鈥� + 鈥渞egardless鈥� = redundancy. 鈥淭ake 鈥榬egardless鈥� and dress it up for emphasis, showcasing your command of nonexistent words,鈥� excoriated an exasperated correspondent, adding, 鈥淲hy isn鈥檛 this on your list?鈥� Misuse.

9. Absolutely
Banished in 1996, but deserves a repeat nope given its overuse. Usurped the simple 鈥測es,鈥� laments a contributor. Another condemned it as 鈥渢he current default to express agreement, endemically present on TV in one-on-one interviews.鈥� Frequently 鈥渟aid too loudly by annoying people who think they鈥檙e better than you,鈥� bemoaned an aggrieved observer. 鈥淪ounds like it comes with a guarantee when that may not be the case,鈥� cautioned a wary watchdog.

10. It is what it is
Banished in 2008 for overuse, misuse, and uselessness: 鈥減ointless,鈥� 鈥渃op-out,鈥� 鈥淥nly Yogi Berra should be allowed to utter such a circumlocution.鈥� Its resurgence prompted these insights: 鈥淲ell, duh.鈥� 鈥淣o kidding.鈥� 鈥淥f course it is what it is! What else would it be? It would be weird if it wasn鈥檛 what it wasn鈥檛.鈥� 鈥淭autology.鈥� 鈥淎dds no value.鈥� 鈥淰erbal crutch.鈥� 鈥淓xcuse not to deal with reality or accept responsibility.鈥� 鈥淒ismissive, borderline rude.鈥�

鈥淥ur linguists, editors, and philosophers, comics, gatekeepers, and pundits didn鈥檛 succumb to quiet quitting when laboring over rife miscommunication. Rather, they turned in discerning opinions about rampant verbal and written blunders with equal parts amusement, despair, and outrage. But our nominators insisted, and our Arts and Letters faculty judges concurred, that to decree the Banished Words List 2023 as the GOAT is tantamount to gaslighting. Does that make sense?鈥� said LSSU President Dr. Rodney S. Hanley. 鈥淚rregardless, moving forward, it is what it is: an absolutely amazing inflection point of purposeless and ineptitude that overtakes so many mouths and fingers.鈥�

For more about the Banished Words List and to nominate a word or term for banishment for 2024, go online to lssu.edu/banishedwords.