Unbanishment
So, everyone gets a pet peeve, but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to indulge everyone else’s peevishness. My own personal pet peeve is the publication and validation of language peeves, and an excellent example of the kind of thing that gets straight up my nose is the Lake Superior State University annual list of banished words. This year they want to banish a variety of words and phrases ranging from ordinary idiom to formal circumlocution, with a bit of Kids These Days Slang and businessese. The entire purpose of this exercise is to express superiority to and contempt for the circumjacent yahoos that pollute the language by using it.
So I am going to use my position as Words & Stuff blog associate to formally recall all words from banishment! All penalties associated with the LSSU banishment are now officially rescinded, and the use of whatever words and phrases you enjoy, if they communicate what you are trying to communicate to the people you want to communicate with, is now permanently and irrevocably permitted.
I figure I have as much authority as some PR guy for a WHCA college does, so there.
Thanks,
-Ed.
