US university list bans ‘fake news’, ‘drill down’, ‘covfefe’ and ‘let me ask you this’
Northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University releases its 43rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness
Let me ask you this: would a story that unpacks a list of tiresome words and phrases be impactful or a nothingburger? Worse, could it just be fake news?
Northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University on Sunday released its 43rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.
The tongue-in-cheek, non-binding list of 14 words or phrases comes from thousands of suggestions to the Sault Ste. Marie school.
This year’s list includes “let me ask you this”, “unpack”, “impactful”, “nothingburger”, “dish”, “drill down”, “let that sink in”, and the top vote-getter, “fake news”.
The others are “pre-owned”, “onboarding/offboarding”, “hot water heater”, “gig economy” and the Trumpian Twitter typo “covfefe”.
While the list contains a little political flavour, Lake Superior State spokesman John Shibley said he had expected more given the highly divisive 2016 election and a year of deepening divisions in government and the US electorate.