Bye-bye, bae: Annual list reveals words we should banish in 2015

The 40th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and Uselessness includes “bae,” most commonly used as a term of endearment, along with “curated,” “skill set,” “takeaway” and “polar vortex.” The list, released Wednesday, consists of a dozen terms compiled by northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University based on submissions received throughout 2014 from members of the public. It joins an archive of more than 800 entries created in 1976 by a former public relations director who started with phrases that annoyed him and his friends. There’s nothing binding about this tongue-in-cheek decree, even if the people behind the nominations would ban the words if they were the kings — or queens — of speech.

It is a pretentious way of saying ‘selected.’ It’s enormously overused.

Kristi Hoerauf of San Francisco, in support of her proposed banishment of “curate/curated”

Other words on the list include “hack,” “foodie,” “swag” and “cray-cray” as a stand-in for crazy. Also submitted for sanction are “enhanced interrogation,” “friend-raising” (a prelude or alternative to a fund-raising campaign) and the suffix “-nation,” used to make words such as “Packer Nation” or “Cubs Nation.” Some words take their sweet time making this Hall of Semantic Shame: “Swag,” for instance, is a perennial nominee that finally made the list this year. Jeff Drake of Saint Albans, West Virginia, said swag is “neither useful nor fancy,” whether describing droopy clothing or a “free gift” – a term that was banned in 1988.

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