words/cliche's to do away with?

So I was thinking about words we really don't need in our already humongous English dictionary, and to go with those, the cliche's that are either overused or just don't have the meaning they once had.

I mean when people go to business meeting and have to bring with their 'business' dictionaries to decode what the happy, feel good speaker is saying. "win-win, and outside the box" that's where we need to draw a line.. (fuck there's another one.. 'draw the line')

You see they are such a part of our language it's hard not use them. Try it once.. But anyways here is my quick and short list of words/cliche's we could do away with:

  • "a perfect storm" which has been applied to virtually any notable coincidence..
  • "x is the new y" seriously? chocolate is not the new sex and 2010 is not the new 1970.
  • "organic", how many times have we seen this used to explain everything and anything? From water (no shit really?) to cat food...
  • "post 9/11" has really outlived it's meaning as well. Come on, drop this please.
  • "thrown under the bus" and this one is related to color commentators, come on guys use a dang thesaurus and get a new phrase. (referring to a player who takes the blame)
  • "best movie, best popcorn, etc" When you describe something as the best and then the next product on the shelf says the same thing, the meaning is nullified IMO.
  • "cutting edge or state of the art" How many times have we seen these?
  • "when we take a noun and make it into a verb" Like Christmas becomes Christmassing or something of the like.. come on, its a frickin' noun, leave it that way.
  • "drinking the kool-aid" Alright this one has recently made me mad on message boards. I am sick of someone saying (when they are brainwashed or something) that they are just drinking the 'kool-aid' or they are 'kool-aid drinkers'. I love kool-aid so shut up. haha.
  • Lastly, and I know all of you love this word... "moist" seriously, I have wanted this word out of our dictionary for so long.. yuck. There is not good time to use that word and if you think so please let me know?

I know there is alot more that I have forgotten on the short and brief list above, but you get the point. If there is other ones that must go above, please post them in the comments. :)

I think alot of meaning gets lost in our language due to these cliche sayings and once powerful and meaningful words. We need to think of new ones, because these ones have lost their power, kind of like superman without his strength. (not so cool now is he?)

So lets help lead a new wave of people in creating new hip sayings and getting rid of the old garbage, it's about time we take it out... right?

Ciao!

Posted in: , on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at at 2:47 AM  

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous On March 10, 2009 at 7:15 AM Wrote

    Erk, 'a perfect storm' is my pet peeve. It is so last week. You took the golden opportunity to moan about cliches, which I'm pretty over the moon about. Plus I like how you ended it with a call to action (!), so we can all turn over a new leaf.

    And now that we're all aware of how all cliches should be ripped to shreds, we can say forewarned is forearmed - for the next time some boring cliche comes knocking on the door. People who use cliches should just quit while they're ahead, that's what I think...

    ... And that's what I'm going to do right now. ;) Nice post Bamer. :)

     
  2. The Gust On March 10, 2009 at 11:45 PM Wrote

    Is a dead horse ever truly beaten? ;)

     
  3. Bamer On March 10, 2009 at 11:50 PM Wrote

    No, because someone else will come back and pick it up and punch it one more time..

    I mean chocolate is the new sex... :P

     

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