'Fiscal cliff' tops list of language abuses

• Political cliche joins 'bucket list' and 'trending' on Michigan university's annual list of words deserving banishment

• Alison Flood
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 January 2013 

'Fiscal cliff' topped Lake Superior State University's list of the year's most overused words and phrases. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Hours after America stepped back from the edge of the fiscal cliff, the phrase has been named as one of the worst cases of language abuse of the last year.

The annual list of "Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness" is compiled each year by Lake Superior State University in Michigan from nominations received from readers throughout the year. "Fiscal cliff" easily topped this year's lineup, with Barry Cochran from Oregon concerned that we've "lost sight of the metaphor and started to think it's a real place", and the aptly named Barbara Cliff from Pennsylvania pointing out that the phrase "tends to be used however the speaker wishes to use it, as in falling off the fiscal cliff, climbing the fiscal cliff, challenged by the fiscal cliff". "Just once," she said, "I would like to hear it referred to as a financial crisis."

Other words and phrases from 2012 coming under fire were "kick the can down the road" – "I would definitely like to kick some cans of the human variety every time I hear politicians use this phrase to describe a circumstance that hasn't gone their way," wrote Christine Tomassini from Michigan – and the over-used "double down".


The increasing use of "passion" and "passionate" to refer to enthusiasms meant the words also found their way into the list. "Seared tuna will taste like dust swept from a station platform – until it's cooked passionately. Apparently, it's insufficient to do it ably, with skill, commitment or finesse. Passionate, begone!" said Andrew Foyle from Bristol. "Please, let's hope you mean 'enthusiasm'," added Oregon's Michael Smith. "'Passion' connotes 'unbridled', unmediated by reason and sound judgment. Passion is the stuff of Ahab, Hitler and chauvinists of every stripe, and terrorists."


The Twitter acronym YOLO (you only live once) is also set for culling – "Who lives more than once?" enquired one bemused nominator – as are "bucket list", "superfood" and "trending".

The list has been running since 1975, when former Lake Superior State University public relations director Bill Rabe and his colleagues came up with the idea of choosing overused words they would banish from the English language. These days, nominations are sent in by readers, with a committee picking the final selection – and crossing their fingers that the world will take note of their choices, which last year included "baby bump", "man cave" and "amazing".