You Can't Say "Man Cave"!?!?!?!

What do "amazing," "man cave" and "trickeration" have in common? They should all be banned! So say the guardians of the English language, whose day jobs are at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. This group annually takes on the role of word police by collecting a list of words and phrases that we have used so much they have become annoying. So, here are 10 of the banned words and phrases on the 2012 list:

1. Amazing
Blatantly and incorrectly overused on television, especially on reality shows and by Martha Stewart and Anderson Cooper, this word is used for anything that is nice or heartwarming--but not necessarily amazing. What was once "awesome" is now "amazing."

2. Baby Bump:
Pregnancy has now been reduced to a celebrity accessory.

3. Shared Sacrifice
Usually used by a politician who wants other people to share in the sacrifice so he/she doesn't have to.

4. Occupy
'Occupy Wall Street' grew to become Occupy 'insert name of your city here' all over the country. It's been overused and abused.

5. Blowback
Often used by corporate types to mean "reaction," it also can be exchanged with "pushback" to mean resistance.

6. Man Cave
Not every man wants to hunker down in a room filled with a monster flat-screen TV, stuffed animal heads, a recliner the size of a 1941 Packard and Hooters memorabilia.

7. Pet Parent
Can a human being truly be a parent to a different species? Do pet "owners" not love their pets as much pet "parents" do?

8. Win the Future
A political phrase worn wherever you look--be it the left (President Barack Obama) or the right (Newt Gingrich).

9. Trickeration
This is a made-up word used by football analysts to describe a trick play. What's wrong with "trick" or "trickery"?

10. Ginormous
This is the combination of "gigantic" and "enormous. Either word is sufficient, but the combination just sounds ridiculous.

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