President Obama eventually embraced and used the term “Obamacare,” a word opponents of his signature health care law — formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — began employing during the legislative debate and after it passed in 2010.
But don’t tell that to Lake Superior State University, which included the word in its 2014 List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.
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The 39th list, released annually on New Year’s Eve, was originally concocted in 1975 by former LSSU public relations director Bill Rabe as an idea to banish overused words and phrases from the language. Nominations are taken from the public throughout the year.
The most-nominated word on the 2014 list was “selfie,” a picture someone takes of themselves and shares on social media. “Selfie” was actually Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year for 2013.
LSSU’s list also includes:
— Twerk/twerking
— Hashtag
— Twittersphere
— Mister Mom
— T-Bone (referring to an automobile collision, not a cut of beef)
— “____ on steroids”
SUFFIXES
— -ageddon and -pocalypse
POLITICS
— Intellectually/morally bankrupt
SPORTS
— Adversity
— Fan base
Top entries for last year include “fiscal cliff,” “kick the can down the road,” “double down,” “YOLO,” and “spoiler alert.”
