Lake Superior State University rang in the new year by unveiling its annual Banished Words List over the weekend, with terms like “hack,” “rizz,” “slay” and “cringe-worthy” making the cut.
LSSU officials dropped this list on Sunday morning with the hope of encouraging residents on both sides of the St. Mary’s River to reconsider how they use these words in everyday communication.
This year’s full selection—which LSSU cultivated using 2,000 nominations from at least 20 different countries including Canada—consists of:
- hack
- impact
- at the end of the day
- rizz
- slay
- iconic
- cringe-worthy
- obsessed
- side hustle
- wait for it
Sunday’s news release came bundled with a justification for each term’s banishment, with most of these words, according to LSSU and its contributors, having lost their meaning this past year due to overuse or misuse.
“Hack,” for example, has been extend “beyond its initial technological context,” while the prevalence of “impact” is robbing other verbs like “affect” of its spotlight in the English language.
“At the end of the day” is similarly overused, with LSSU officials believing this phrase is “employed as a rhetorical device that attempts to encapsulate the complexities of a situation summarily, lacking nuance and depth.”
Even though Oxford University Press selected “rizz” as their 2023 Word of the Year, LSSU attests that this short form for “charisma” will not stand the test of time.
Meanwhile, “slay,” “iconic” and “obsessed” should also be on their way out, since these passionate words are increasingly being used to describe mundane everyday activities.
LSSU deems expressions like “cringe-worthy” and “wait for it” similarly passé, while use of the term “side hustle” downplays the reality of someone’s real economic situation.
While the Banished Word List is meant to be tongue-and-cheek, LSSU’s director of marketing Sheridan Worth said this annual tradition, now in its 48th year, represents an opportunity to look at how our use of the English language has evolved and where it might be headed in the future.
“At the end of the day, it serves as a platform for considering how we can progress into the new year with a more mindful approach to language,” Worth said, directly referencing #3 on this year’s list.
LSSU’s 2024 Banished Words List can be read in its entirety by visiting the university’s website.
School officials are already accepting submissions for words people want to banish in 2025.
