Purging Your Vocabulary

Tired of some words and phrases? Me, too. And so is the author of this article from Top Ten Reviews: Purge Your Vocabulary: Five Words That Should Disappear From Your Lexicon.

The five words suggested by the article are:

Literally. The article notes that people use the word literally to emphasize a point or exaggerate strong feelings rather than to speak of actual - literal - events.

Synergy. From the article: "Literally*, synergy is a group of elements working together to create something greater than their sum. However, if you asked a panel of CEOs to define "synergy," nine out of ten wouldn't know how, and would eventually have to admit that they put it on their company's webpage because it sounds impressive." Don't use words you don't understand.

Viral. Unless it refers to an infection, don't use it. I've never understood why something "goes viral," anyhow.

Dynamic. Again quoting from the article: "When a company describes itself as "dynamic and exciting," this implies that the company is unstable, because dynamic means constant change. Describing yourself as dynamic on a résumé may look flashy, but it essentially only says that you know how to use a thesaurus.

Like. "Like has become the all-purpose filler word when we have nothing else to say. This epidemic is no longer limited to valley girls; it has spread to almost every verbal conversation in America and, like, it needs to stop, okay."

Yes, I can see a real need to purge these once useful words from your vocabulary. There are other words and phrases that need to go, too:

Fiscal Cliff. Is it a cliff? A slope? Just a big bluff, ha, ha? Economists can't agree**. It's the fiscal equivalent of the boogeyman under the bed, useful for politicians to scare you into poor decisions.

Filibuster. Yak, yak, yak. It's all Congress does, anyhow. Drop the word.

Compromise. Just drop it. It's not being used, anyhow.

What words do you think should be purged from our vocabularies? Leave a comment. Who knows? If it's dynamic enough, it might, like, go viral ... literally! And wouldn't that be synergistic?

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* Used here correctly!

** And this should surprise you exactly how?