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'Yolo,' 'fiscal cliff' and 'boneless wings' on 2013 banned-words list

12/31/2012

"Yolo," we hardly knew ye. The of-the-moment acronym for "you only live once" is one of 12 overused, misused or useless phrases that language scholars at Michigan's Lake Superior State University would like to see banished from use in 2013. Also — spoiler alert! — "spoiler alert" is on the final list, as are "trending," "fiscal cliff," "bucket list," "superfood," "guru," "job creators/creation," "kick the can down the road," "passion/passionate," "double down" and "boneless wings." Of that last phrase, used to describe processed chicken chunks that are decidedly not a superfood, nominator John McNamara wistfully wondered, "Can we just call them chicken [pieces]?" Or will we continue to kick the can down the road in this linguistic outrage? [Source]

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