College jives the talk of '07 with its list

A dubious list, to be sure, but undoubtedly informed by the Marquis's rant early last year.

By The Associated Press

DETROIT — Resist the urge to say you will "wordsmith" your list of New Year's resolutions rather than write one. And don't utter, "It is what it is" when you fail to meet your first goal.

Those are two of the 19 words or phrases that appear in Lake Superior State University's annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. The school, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, released its 33rd list Monday, selecting from about 2,000 nominations...

"It is what it is," which Jeffrey Skrenes of St. Paul, Minn., said "accomplishes the dual feat of adding nothing to the conversation while also being phonetically and thematically redundant."

The 2008 list of banned words or phrases:

• perfect storm

• Webinar

• waterboarding

• organic

• wordsmith/wordsmithing

• author/authored

• post- 9/11

• surge

• give back

• "blank" is the new "blank"

• Black Friday

• back in the day

• random

• sweet

• decimate

• emotional

• pop

• It is what it is

• under the bus