A new year marks the time to leave those overused, overplayed, overblown words of the previous year where they belong: in the dust. Or at least that’s the line of thinking word experts at Lake Superior State University had when they posted their 35th annual (take a deep breath) List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

This year’s 15 banned words include using ‘friend’ as a verb, ‘app’ (another reminder of an increasingly lazy populace that must abbreviate everything), and all words that start with ‘Obama’ (Obamanomics, Obamacare, Obamalicious– should they require an Obama-ban?).

Some people got really riled up while submitting words to shred. Edward R. Bolt from Grand Rapids, Mich. on ‘app’: “Must we b sbjct to yt another abrv? Why does the English language have to fit on a two-inch screen?” Kaylynn from Alberta, on ‘bromance’: “I am sick of combined words the media creates to make them sound catchier. Frenemies? Bromances? Blogorrhea? I’m going to scream!”

Mark from Milwaukee, Wisc. on the oft-repeated phrase ‘in these economic times…’: “In this economy, we can’t afford to be wasteful…In this economy, we all need some security…In this economy, frogs could start falling from the sky…In this economy, blah blah blah… Overused for everything from trying to market products as inexpensive to simply explaining any and all behavior during the recession.”
Without further adieu, the complete 2010 list:

1. Shovel-ready
2. Transparent/Transparency
3. Czar
4. Tweet
5. App
6. Sexting
7. Friend as a verb
8. Teachable Moment
9. In These Economic Times …
10. Stimulus
11. Toxic Assets
12. Too Big to Fail
13. Bromance
14. Chillaxin’
15. Obama as a prefix

But does the list hold any power over what comes out of people’s mouths? Forum invites you to be the judge. Let us know what words YOU think should be banned at forum@youthactionnetwork.org!