Selfie is the past year’s word that would bring the greatest good to the greatest number if it were never used again.
The term for extending your phone to arm’s length and snapping your beautiful self is at the top of the 2014 Banished Word List, published each New Year’s Day by the folks at Lake Superior State University.
Following a trend I noted last year, the comments offered by those nominating the words aren’t sufficiently witty to put overused and annoying usages such as Twittersphere and Obamacare firmly in their proper place. But none of the nominees made me say, “No, I like that word.”
For instance, I was done with twerking right around the time I looked up what it meant. That was probably the day after Miley Cyrus introduced the concept to much of the nation.
Number 3 on the list is hashtag. I can recall a time when I didn’t know what a hashtag was. I knew what hash is. For a long time that was enough.
Two others, Mister Mom and T-Bone I don’t hear around, except T. Bone Burnett.
Then there are _____ on steroids,
___ageddon and
___pocalypse,
which are now given to every storm that isn’t getting its own name.
There are a couple more, but you get the picture. I kept putting off submitting my own nominations: hunker down and shelter in place, and never did. Even so, I’d be mighty happy if nobody used them the during the next snowpocalypse or stormageddon.
David Wrote This 